As the nights get cooler and the lawn is covered in frost each morning ‘tis the season when some hospitality businesses experience a drop-off in customers. If yours is a business that slows down over winter, this could be a time to update your venue’s look or train some new staff. Or, better yet, use the time to focus on developing strategies to attract new customers and retain existing customers.

Here are H&L’s top three strategies for increasing your business … even in a slow period:

  1. Expand the experience

Create a personal relationship with your customers and engage with your customers before, during and after their visit.  All of your customers come attached to a device.  How are you making the most of that fact?  Start with a website and move on to maximising your social media profile.

Find ways to collect personalised information from your customers.  Your customers want to feel that you get them, they want you to show that you know them.  If you are in a high volume, quick service hospitality environment one way you can do this is to develop an app to offer rewards, have customers take short surveys and link to social media. Once you’ve collected the data then H&L’s powerful Zen marketing platform allows you to effortlessly target your marketing efforts to remind customers about how wonderful it is to visit your venue.

  1. Make it easy 

Another way you can show your customers you get them is to streamline food ordering and payment.  Customers are increasingly expecting contactless payment methods.  It’s more and more common for customers to wave their smart watch, magician-like, to pay for their meal.  Ask H&L how Tyro Tap & Pay can save your venue up to 8% on merchant service fees.

Customers want what they want … when they want it.  They don’t want to be stuck waiting in a line. H&L’s POS ordering allows seamless integration between a web portal and the POS so your customers can order from an app, from your website, a kiosk or from a tablet right at the table.  Research suggests that there is a significant increase in order spend for online ordering … so why isn’t your venue making it easy and increasing profits?

  1. Share and share alike 

Let your customers know that you share their values.  You can do this by both telling and showing them.  Tell customers what your venue is doing to be socially responsible, whether it is eco-friendly practices, hanging local artwork at your venue or donating to a charity.  Tell customers your story, create a narrative that captures their imagination.  Show customers that you understand how much healthy eating matters to them by including meat-free, dairy-free and gluten-free options.  Keep abreast of trends, it’s all about local, hand-crafted foods, probiotics and plant based foods right now.  Incorporate big trends into your menu and allow customers an element of choice in customising their order.

Attracting customers to your venue is easy with H&L’s suite of solutions.  Why wait?  Call us today.