How To Save & Grow Your Local Restaurant Business

Let’s get right to it: your restaurant business has been affected by coronavirus lockdowns and you need to continue staying in business (and possibly growing!)!

This post is a work in progress! We are adding more resources and insight as we learn and research more! Last updated: January 5th, 2024.

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You’ve come to the right place, below we’ll go over some actionable changes you’ll need to make to your business TODAY that will keep your business growing!

First, and most importantly, you NEED to be digital - all this means is you need to have a website. If your restaurant does not already have a website that should be on today’s to-do list. Start by choosing a platform (Shopify is super easy to use to start selling online asap, Squarespace is great for restaurants, etc.) to build your restaurant website on OR reach out to us and we can have your website created and designed in 24 hours! (Urgency is the name of the game here!)

If you already have a website there are a couple of tools you need to make sure you have, as these are essential in growing and scaling your digital restaurant:

• Upload your menu online and make it accessible! (We’ve seen some horrendous online menus! Make it look pleasing and easy to read! See an example here)

• Charge & accept payments online! (No Touching!)

• Allow customers to choose pickup or delivery options!

• Let customers order on desktop, tablets or their phones!

• You PAY 0% COMMISSION

• You can reach a much larger customer audience now! (More Orders!)

In fact, statistics released from Uber themselves found that :

“Uber Eats’ U.S. sales surged by around 10% last week from the week before, a nearly unprecedented uptick for this time of the year,...” -The Information

You need to take advantage, more people today are ordering food online than ever before during lockdowns! Your competition has been cut and only those restaurants that have gone digital are raking in the profits!

Second, you need to know how your logistics will change when you go digital. Get a little creative! Re-Hire your waiters or servers as delivery drivers instead to keep them from being laid off! This way you can reach a much wider range of consumers and keep your staff as well!

Keep your in-house staff supplied with sanitary equipment (masks, gloves, etc.). Digital orders received will be easily viewable to your restaurant staff who’ll then be able to follow up with the customer. Your online restaurant should be able to capture the customer’s:

• First and Last Name

• Full Address Including Unit and Suite numbers.

• Phone Number

• Pickup or Delivery Preference

• Entire Order + any notes left

The sites we build for our restaurant clients have all of these pieces of information transferred over to the restaurant staff as soon as the order is made and payment for the order is accepted online as well. If you need help creating the site reach out to us! (24 hour turnarounds!)

Okay now you’ve gone digital with a website, you’ve rearranged your staff to start fulfilling orders, you’ve given them direction. Now to start getting orders in!

Firstly, let’s understand the reason that UBER and CAVIAR and GRUBHUB charge such astonishingly HIGH commissions and barely ever pay out tips. It’s because they drive clients to your restaurant, you’re 30% commission pays for their advertising to drive consumers to their app, and in turn to your restaurant.

But how do we get past that now that we can accept orders online? There are a couple of hacks:

Start a listing on UBER as well! But just for a week, and with each order, send out your website’s .com address, with a personal card asking customers to order from your website to support your business. Our Philly poll shows that 89% of customers were okay switching from apps to the website instead, where you pay 0% commission, and many of these customers are returning as well!

Use SOCIAL MEDIA! Everyone is home, and will be home for quite some time! Get in front of screens by creating social media accounts for your business! Engage existing communities to try out your food and refer new customers as well!

Take pictures of your food. Of your staff (with permission). Do local Snapchat and Instagram stories. Do a HERO story. Do a FRONT LINE WORKER Story. Do gift cards! Do Giveaways! Show how you support the community! Our free social media marketing techniques have driven daily traffic to online menus and consistent daily sales to local restaurants! 

You need to get social! If you already have an IG or FB page, it’s time to engage your audience, it’s time to make posts, and link clients to your website. It’s time to take those appetizing, delicious, scrumptious pictures of your dishes and post them online for people to salivate over! (And don’t forget to include a link back to your website each time!)

This is a time to get creative! Businesses thinking in the 19th century will get torn apart, and it is up to you to secure your business and continue growth. Covid-19 should not be taken as a trigger to close your business, but to get creative and find new ways of staying open and continuing to grow! These challenges make us stronger!

Our team can help with your business! We’re more than happy to offer free help and advice to local Philly businesses that are going through difficult changes! Reach out and we’ll help!

“Help will always be given at Hogwarts, Harry, to those who ask for it.” Albus Dumbeldore

;) Magical things happen when we collaborate .)