How To Restore Your Quick Service Retail Business?
You survived the shelter-in-place orders. You’ve re-opened to restore your quick service retail business. Yet your small business is not back where it was.
Then you look at your cafe, coffee shop, restaurant or brewery and it looks busy – every table and bar stools, spaced at a safe distance are occupied almost every hour from open to closing time. But come time to run your daily transaction reports, you have this nagging feeling that the sales you’re doing is not enough.
Before you get too concerned, take a step back. First, you’re not alone. Almost every coffee shop, cafe, brewery, restaurant business owner feels this way.
Second, remind yourself that it is good business sense to improve your revenue by taking into account your limited capacity, average visit and the average customer transaction per visit.
You wonder about how to restore your quick service retail business by increasing the average transaction per visit and encouraging repeat customers with special perks.
How To Offer Guest Amenities For Purchase
After reviewing your general sales trends, take a closer view. Look at your busiest times and slowest times and ask these questions to determine potential opportunities you have not explored.
Find Opportunities For Revenue
- What is the average purchase per guest each visit?
- What is the average time per visit?
- How often do you see repeat purchase during each customervisit?
- How much resources does each guest spend while occupying a table, seat, using your guest WiFi, your restroom (that will need to maintained and sanitized after each use) and your sanitation station upon entering and leaving?
- Do all your busiest hours fall on the same time of the day?
- Are there certain days when you are less busy while showing higher purchase per visit?
- Besides COVID-19, are there other external triggers to consider? Like construction on your street, bad weather, holiday or spring break (if you are in a University town) that may influence the flow of foot traffic?
- Are you using smart marketing that will allow you to engage your customer after each visit?
Popularity VS Profitability
A busy coffee shop, cafe, restaurant or brewery will likely fail if it mismanages it’s profit margins and costs. A business owner should have a handle on what the fixed and variable costs are in order to grow the business from break-even to profitability and growth.
- Know your fixed and variable costs to get to your average ROI per customer purchase. The Perfect Daily Grind has a great outline of what costs each business owner should know.
- Establish a daily foot traffic, conversion goal and repeat purchase goal.
- Enforce your policy on guest amenities including guest WiFi.
Pinpoint Your Already Loyal Customers
Do you know who your most loyal customer are? How often do they visit your business and what is their average spend each visit? Turn this customer segment into your brand ambassadors.
- Make it easy and simple for customers to give you permission to send offers to their inbox.
- Ask customers if they’d like to hear from you about infrequent messages on special events and offers.
- Let your customers know they are appreciated. A simple and warm message after their first visit is a good start.
- Deepen your relationship with genuine gestures. In our new normal social distancing life, comfort and safety will go a long way.
In this uncertain market climate, everyone is looking for ways to restore and grow their business footprint. Investing in an all-in-one customer marketing and data solution that helps you better understand your customers is top of mind more than ever. Request for more info.
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