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How Can Casual Dining / Fast-Food Franchises Boost Sales with Almost No Additional Cost?

Guest post by: Mary Tomzack

Article Overview: Despite all of the economic levers and factors that many experts might cite, the reality is that fast-food franchises that lack new and fresh ideas will continue to lose out to those that continue to innovate and offer consumers a fresh, exciting experience.

How Can Casual Dining / Fast-Food Franchises Boost Sales with Almost No Additional Cost?

Despite all of the economic levers and factors that many experts might cite, the reality is that fast-food franchises that lack new and fresh ideas will continue to lose out to those that continue to innovate and offer consumers a fresh, exciting experience.

Food, after all, in many parts of the country is regarded as entertainment. Consumers want a pleasurable experience when they go "out" which creates some excitement after the routine of their day-to-day activities and doesn't put a big dent in the budget. Those franchises that provide this entertainment at a reasonable cost will ultimately defeat even those other players with a stronger, better-established brand.

Granted, it's not easy to keep customers coming back after they visit a favorite restaurant 20-50 times a year. The challenge is to constantly innovate-a costly proposition-or continue to reach potential new customers all the time to revive the established client base.

So what are some ideas that casual dining / fast-food franchises can employ to keep customers interested? The following thoughts, two traditional and two technology-enabled, should give you a good roadmap of business jump-starting ideas to pursue:

1) Consider developing a unique, highly localized promotion. For example, if the local high school football or basketball team is a popular attraction, you might consider providing discounts (or even free giveaways) when the home team wins or if the total score in a game is over a certain threshold. This establishes your franchise as a local favorite and creates a weekly (or even more often) "tradition" that fans should meet at your restaurant to celebrate (or commiserate) following the game.

2) Establish a "loyal customer" program of some kind. Typical programs involve a frequent customer card (9 meals and the 10th is for free) or referral program (bring 2 friends and your meal is half off) that make customers feel good returning to your establishment (dragging their friends with them) or, even better, referring new customers to come try you out.

3) Explore the growing possibilities of location-based services. Two services in particular, FourSquare and GoWalla, have popularized the concept of allowing iPhone and Android and other smartphone users to "check-in" to whatever location they are in in order to let friends and others know that they frequent a certain restaurant, bar, or other venue. Even the leading social network, Facebook, has gotten into the act of letting users "check in" (and check their friends in). Meanwhile, leading brands have begun taking advantage of this customer check-in data by offering users who "check in" frequently to their venue special discounts, recognition, and other rewards - the modern equivalent of the "loyal customer" program discussed above!

4) Make sure that you are listed on all of the local search and review services. Consumers are turning to the internet more and more frequently before deciding where to go out to eat, both for direction and for other people's comments and reviews. At a minimum, you should be certain that a local search on Google Maps, Yelp!, CitySearch, and Yahoo's Yellow Pages brings up your correct name, phone number, hours of operations, and any other pertinent details. Advanced services, such as SeamlessWeb and MenuPages, are also tools you might consider exploring after you have mastered the basics of Google Maps, Yelp!, and Yahoo.

Review the ideas above. Then pick just one to implement in the next 2 weeks (if it takes you any longer than you are really over-thinking it). Measure your results over the following 4-6 weeks and you should find that you have revitalized your existing client base and driven new customers to your fast food / casual dining franchise with a minimum investment of time and resources.

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Article Tags: casual dining franchise, fast food franchise, fast food marketing, franchise advertising, franchise facebook, franchise foursquare, franchise gowalla, franchise marketing, franchise social media, quick service franchise



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