So now you know that your most important assets are your clients, but who are your clients anyway? Do you really know anything about them?
These are probably the most important business questions that you can ask yourself. If you know who your clients are, you’ll be able to run a successful restaurant; if you don’t your business will eventually fail because you don't know the people who are coming to your restaurant.
You need to define your clients as precise and accurately as you can. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What’s the average age of your clients?
- What about their education?
- Income level?
- Philosophy or believes?
- Background?
- How much are your clients willing to pay for a good meal?
- What do they want or need from a restaurant that nobody else is giving them?
Only when you can answer these questions, you would be able to target your marketing to fit the needs of your clients. Again, remember the Zero Base Thinking? You can also apply it here. Ask yourself:
- What do my clients would like that I am not providing them with now?
- Why some of your clients go to different restaurants? Is it because they enjoy different food? Different ambience? Perhaps better service?
- If you had to close your restaurant and reopen it again with a facelift (new name, new menu, new décor) what would you change?
- If you could hand pick your clients, what kind of clients would you choose?
- Are they different from the ones that you have now?
- If they are what’s different and why you don’t try to target this kind of clients?
- What would be different about your clients in one year, in three years, in five years?
All these questions will help you, at the end; to ask yourself the most important question:
"What changes do I need to make to my restaurant to attract the kind of clients that you really, really want?"
If you can answer this question, you are in your way to a higher profitability and higher customer satisfaction.
Happy meals, Jose L Riesco
©Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.Twitter.com/jlriesco