My aunt and uncle have a Fish & Chip restaurant but no customers...what can be done?

im from a town by Pittsburgh....and the restraunt that I see it done at is a BBQ place. They get a highschool girl to dress up in a pig costume and dance around and play guitar. People are always honking at her and stuff and everyone at the intersection is focused on her and the sign with the special next to her. Definitely out of the box......

Also have you thought of lumpy mail....?

 

That's false advertisement in my books. When I go to a restaurant to eat a pigs insides...ohh wait

I don't have any advice from experience but I know a guy that owns a small restaurant. He has a loyal customer base of about twenty people (small town) that has lasted that wait for almost 30 years now. However, he rents movies too, most are VHS from up to '99 but a few years ago he picked up some DVD's! He rents SNES and N64 games, $2.50/game for pool, video poker, and he has an autographed Sting (wrestler) poster. I used to hang out there quite a bit.

Uhh, what about catering to businesses and such like accomodating business meetings or whatever? Instead of just focusing on walk in customers...

Actually, there's a seafood restaurant that is right on the main street downtown here that has been there forever. It gets random walk ins but most the people that go there now are people that moved to the city not long ago. I also noticed they marked their prices up right after having loads of deals. Like for a few months there was breaded clam platters for $3.99 (mmm!) then it went up to $12.99 all of a sudden...they increased everything, seriously.

 

Here in my two cents:

1. Implement an 'odd-pricing' strategy if you are not already doing so. That is, instead of $10 fish and chips, post the price t $9.99. This is an extremely common strategy and very effective one at that.

2. Loyalty Cards - Design + print some loyalty cards. e.g 'Buy 10 meals and get the 11th free!'

3. Small billboards, place them outside the plaza with a meal deal on them, let people know you are there.

4. Flyer handouts

5. Display, if you are able to invest in a fresh new display and not a dusty old chalk board to display your prices, pictures of meals etc, I believe that would make a big difference.

6. Press release in local paper - get the staff involved in some community activities with a local hospital, charity event etc. Release a press release to the local paper and watch the customers role in.

7. Form a business alliance with a local supermarket.

8. Update your look. People underestimate the value in a well designed logo, website etc. If you update your identity to a fresh new look people may perceive you differently. This can be achieved for under $300 after printing etc.

9. implement some customer-oriented marketing strategies such as personal selling. That is, try your hardest to have your staff remember peoples names, remember their order, be friendly etc. This will not necessarily generate new business, but it will help retain current customers.

10. Give the place a fresh coat of paint - if your place at the moment is looking a little shabby, give it a bit of a makeover. People like to eat/do business within a nice looking place. Personally id rather do business with a contemporary, modern looking establishment with average food then the shithole across the road with great food (not calling your place a shithole).

Well there are my ten points. I wish you the best of luck. I actually worked on a case study similar to this during my marketing diploma last year. One of the students parents owned a fish and chips shop, we used it with a case study and brainstormed ideas to help improve the business overall.

 

Sort of like this but scrap the $9.99 because it is over used. Most companies drop it down, then $9.98 is not appealing, so $9.97 is the best way to go. Maybe make it $9.77 instead even! I've heard a few times that numbers ending in 7 trigger people to buy more often than other numbers. Whether there is evidence to back that up or not, who knows.

 

Agreed. I used $9.99 as an example. As SunHunter said, $9.97 may be more appealing, you can dive into the psychological side of thigns as deep as you want. Though to be honest, I wouldn't recommend doing this for a small company like yours. Large corporations spend millions of dollars getting reports done up like this for a single strategy and in the end it does make them money but.. maybe give it a quick google, see what you can find.

 

Actually find your USP - (Unique Selling Proposition)

What separates your Uncles fish and chips from the competitors?

Do you offer delivery??

Try a new pitch. IE - Our fish and chips are great for the environment.

Date night = Lower the lights for couples, add candles and romantic music.

Offer coupons in exchange for email address or cellphone number. Send emails or sms offers.

Advertise locally!!! Send a kid around to each house with a flyer with 10% discount coupon.

Approach other businesses, ask if they have meetings and would they like a great meal for their employees. Offer a discount to them as well.

Drop off a couple free meals at the local police department fire station or businesses with a lot of employees.

Hand out flyers in front of the high school and offer the kids better deals than the competitors!

 

Someone above mentioned loyalty cards which I think is a great idea as well.

How far are you from the high school? If you think they can be a good source of business, make up some fliers or something that are attractive to them. If price is an issue for them, make a certain day of the week $5 fish and chips for students at XXXX high school day. Give them a discount if they go to that school or something like that.

I noticed that you were in Brampton, you should get some people on Chowhound (a food review site which is very active for the GTA area) to review your place. Just be careful on there as they do not allow shilling! Same thing with a place like RedFlagDeals food section which is very active as well. I think there is always potential online for more business!

 

I did a quick search yesterday for reviews on the restaurant since you listed the name of it already in this thread. Most of the reviews were older on the site I looked at (2007) but they were all good. You should be looking at all the reviews possible and making changes based on that. A filled out survey right after a meal might not be the best way as they may not way to be overly honest but from the comfort of their home they are probably more willing to be straight up and say it sucks if they think that.

From the reviews, here is what I gathered:

1) Your unique selling proposition is "A bit of Britain in Brampton" ...many people said this so...GO WITH IT!!! It may be a small niche but take advantage of it.

2) The food is high quality, you offer a variety of ways for fish to be prepared, someone even went out of their way to say they love the decor, great! Also, there is a great menu selection.

3) The only really bad review on the site I looked at was from a shill or just an idiot who said Gotts sucked and to go to Heritage. Someone else even said that Gotts is way better than Heritage in their review.

4) There were a few points of constructive criticism and they were:

- Food is overpriced, one reviewer said he was a regular but had to stop going frequently because of this.
- Large gravy is too small for its price

Also, someone even mentioned that the place can get pretty busy at times. Of course, this was in 2007 so I am guessing you guys were having moderate success then and things have continued to slow down. So maybe you should figure out what happened duringthis time that could have caused people to stop going there.

Ask yourself a few questions...did we increase the prices and get greedy? ...did something really bad happen that has tainted the neighborhood in the last year or two? ...did a new restaurant open in a more convenient area to beat us? ...is Heritage getting all of our old customers, and if so how? ...what are the competition doing to be ahead of us? ...do we have the same staff we had before, the same cooks? ...and loads of other questions.

Of course, ignore this whole post if they were fake reviews done by someone directly associated to your restaurant.

 

Oldy, but a goody!

Have a bunch of friends and family members, even hire some folks, to stand in line. People will wonder; "Hey, what's going on over there?!" and want to take part.

Do this at the same time that you have a "Grand Opening" or "Special Economic Slump Deal!", with a discount.

 

Distribute flyers is a good idea, offer some discount on selected items to use for promotion.

 

many terrific suggestions.