Depending on which market you operate in, your restaurant may celebrate Restaurant Week anytime between Monday, January 18 and Friday, February 5, 2016. During this time, stand-alone stores and chains of all types will spend plenty of money to get guests to visit. Hopefully this helps to give a strong start to the year.
As most in the hospitality business know, restaurants live or die by their ability to convert first time visitors into repeat customers. And yet, despite the effort and expense they endure to fill seats, precious few locations will plan anything to encourage repeat business. As a result, many of these potential new customers will return to old habits and visit their usual stable of restaurants once the Restaurant Week promotions are over. What a shame!
This is a perfect application for social Wi-Fi. Modern social Wi-Fi helps restaurants attract, engage, and retain customers, increasing sales and profitability. Guests provide basic contact info or log in with social media in return for free Wi-Fi. This gives restaurateurs an immediate opportunity to increase engagement by requesting a review on sites such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, or by .
In addition, the store can send targeted messages and promotions to these opted-in guests. This lets them reach out automatically after a pre-determined period of time and invite them back, either with or without an offer attached. What better way to begin to encourage a new dining habit?
Done right, Restaurant Week can be a tantalizing appetizer that bodes well for things to come. The key for long-term success, however, is what you offer guests for their next course.