Best Practices on how to Increase your Restaurants Lunch Crowd

Updated September 11th 2013

Every restaurant owner wishes to have a sizable crowd of customers during the lunch hour. Even though weekend and dinner business may be fine, most restaurant owners face numerous challenges when it comes to keeping their restaurants full during the lunch hours. This is very common during the work week; basically Monday to Friday. Here are a few ideas on how to attract more customers during this period:

• First you need to ensure that your prices are affordable. Most customers during this period are corporate workers and they wouldn’t want to pay high prices for their lunch.  High prices would discourage them and some may even opt to rush home for lunch. To avoid this you can choose to serve smaller portion sizes at a lower cost or alternatively offer a lunch special every day that comes at a reduced price.
• Introduce new lunch items on the Menu- Besides the local lunch time fixed dishes you can add a creative twist to the menu by introducing new menu items. This helps prevent customers from getting bored by the usual foods. Ensure that your menu changes seasonally and feature fresh ingredients all through the year. Take advantage of health foods and nutritionally rich dishes where you can promote their value in terms of vitamins, minerals and reasonable calories.
• Ensure that you offer speedy service- Most customers during the work week have limited time for lunch and as such they would gladly appreciate quick services. However don’t compromise on the quality of your food just to offer fast services. Increase the number of your staff and always ensure that they are ready well before the lunch period. Ensure that all the food is prepared early enough and no customer will miss his/her favorite dish.
• Offer discounts to large groups- Most employees of a given company tend to visit one restaurant during the lunch hour. This makes it easier for them to conduct informal lunch hour meetings. This behavior is good for business and to encourage it you can decide to offer discounts on such groups.
• Offer takeout options and delivery to local businesses- Take outs are very popular during the lunch period and as such you need to make it easy for customers to place and pick-up their orders. Most employers are also likely to order in lunch when they are very busy or if they have to attend meetings. By offering delivery services you are sure to attract more business as well as customer loyalty. Make sure that the order is delivered on time.
• Use online and social media marketing- Your need to have a very convenient website with an online takeout ordering system that customers can access from their offices. Besides this ensure that you have active social media accounts where you post lunch time offers and specials to the local community.
• Develop a good relationship with your customers- as a restaurant owner try to relate with and interact directly with your loyal customers. Provide a means through which customers can give feedback on the services and food they receive. Try to solve any misunderstanding amicably and personally invite customers back again.
• Market your menu to local businesses- you can pass around free food samples, lunch menus, and coupons to local businesses. For instance you can call their office managers and request to fax your menu to their employees. This helps keep your restaurant in mind whenever the lunch hour arrives.

 

Ensure that you capture the local customer base if you wish to have more profitable lunch hours. Implement effective marketing strategies that will make your restaurant the place to be during the lunch hour. Only a complete combination of the above will lead to positive results, so avoid reaching successful results through bits and pieces.

Written by Daniel Grossmann