Want A Profitable Restaurant? Here are some Persuasion Secrets that work!
Persuasion Secrets That You Need To Learn for Your Restaurant
One of my all time favourite marketing books is Influence by Robert Cialdini.
It shows clearly how to use words and actions to influence others to do what you want them to do. If you follow the six principles outlined in the book you will increase the likelihood of your restaurant becoming more popular to new customers as well as to your current customer base.
I recently found this video on Youtube that walks you through the six principles of Influence and Persuasion from the book. I highly recommend that you watch it and think about how our strategies work in concert with what Cialdini is saying...
The six principles Cialdini found that "persuade or influence" are:
- Reciprocity
- Scarcity
- Authority
- Consistency
- Liking
- Consensus
In the video below you'll see how Principle 1 - Reciprocity increases the tips of a wait person by 23% just by them making a small gesture of generosity. Think about it too in terms of the vouchers, offers and birthday gifts you give to your clients!
On Principle Two - Scarcity - think about how we use time and limited seating to increase sales. For those of you at the recent seminar you will remember me talking about the Instant Money Machine Strategy that one of our clients used... I showed how, when we did a follow up email on the last day of their offer, their sales shot up by 60 sales that day.
On Principle Three - Authority - Your USP (What you are known for) lends itself to this. For example, if you are the place that people talk about because you do the best Grass Fed Wagyu Burgers or you have the most "fun wait people" or whatever works for your restaurant, then you can utilise Authority as a way of persuading people to dine with you.
Principle Four - Consistency - think of all the ways we engage people on behalf of your restaurant. How we get them to share offers that you are running, invite friends to events you are holding and talk about the way you treat them on their birthday etc. Once they are speaking highly of you it is hard to stop. Rewarding people for great reviews by thanking them, or noticing them when they re-visit, also reinforces this principle. Conversely, once someone has bad-mouthed you, they are likely to stick to their opinion and share it, so it is in your interest to do what you can to stop that rot too.
Principle Five - Liking - this is where your front of house team can play a large role: Being interested in the customer, helping them to have the "ideal" dining experience, complimenting them on their choices and remembering their favourite things. These are all common touches in our industry, but all too often, they are forgotten. Remember too - if you are promoting things to people who already identify with your USP (say wine lovers) then you are reinforcing that you "get them" and "like" what they like... you'll see from the video, these people are much more likely to "do business" with you.
Principle Six - Consensus - People look to other people's opinions to inform their own. This is why (as much as we hate them) restaurant review sites are so powerful. If you put in place reputation management strategies to keep your review scores high, you publish and post positive comments from your clients and announce ANY kind of external reward or commendation - then you are informing your customer base of the positive experiences of others.
This will give them reassurance that they are making the right choice by choosing to dine with you. As you can see we use all of these strategies in our work for our clients. If you want the power of persuasion and influence working for you but don't know how to do so - or - don't have the time to do so, then contact us and we'll explain how we can help you immediately.
Want to know more about marketing your restaurant? Book in for a quick, no-obligation chat with Howard by clicking the button below.
