Supporting non-profits can be a great way to build your business. Your support brings about community goodwill and shows that you care about your area and customers. And your support will draw more traffic into your store. There are also personal benefits – giving will make you and your staff feel good.

On the Restaurant Business magazine’s blog there’s a quote from Alyssa Prince, community relations director for the National Restaurant Association:

“Restaurants need to think of charitable involvement as a partnership rather than a sponsorship,” says Prince. “Hardly anyone just writes checks anymore. Successful partnerships can benefit both the charity and the restaurant.”

This quote comes from a thoughtful article that gives more ideas and ways to get started partnering with a charity.

Thursday is Get to Know Your Customers Day, which got us to thinking: Why one day a year? If the theory holds that customers like to know the owners/operators, like to feel as though they’re part of the family, shouldn’t this be a year-round occurrence? Wouldn’t it help to increase frequency of visit?

“But I have tons of regulars and we talk all the time. I’m on a first name basis with a lot of them.”

Before you make the above statement, stop and think about how many you actually know. You have somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 unique customers. How many are you friendly with? What percentage of your customers do you really know? Be honest now: you only really know the outgoing customers, don’t you?

Here are some tips to getting to know your customers better:

• Walk the tables and talk to them. “How was everything?” doesn’t count as a conversation. It’s a start, but only a start. Where were they before they came in (awards banquet, soccer practice, dentist, park, work – where do they work)? Time of day will tell you a lot, but start the conversation.
• Note: the first bullet will give you ideas as to where you should be doing your local store marketing. Get more customers who are just like your existing customers.
• Use social media (Facebook, Twitter) to give behind-the-scenes updates on the store and your staff (“new ice machine” or “Manager Bill is going to be a daddy!”).
• Ever have someone ask you to purchase an ad in a program for a school event? Ever buy tickets to that event and attend, or give them to employees for a job well done? You’d be surprised at how appreciative all of those influencers are of your support.
• Surprise guests with a little lagniappe (a “little something extra”). A koozie, coupon, or dessert at the table gets them thinking about their next visit before their current one is even finished. That’s where word of mouth comes from.
• Think of the amazing experiences (not just mediocre, or adequate) you’ve had at other restaurants, hotels, dry cleaners, or other retail places. What made it amazing? How can you replicate that feeling?

Marketing-wise, these tactics will build frequency, and create word of mouth which will bring in new customers. They’ll also open doors for catering, marketing events, and other influencers. Plus, it makes your job more fun. Beats cleaning toilets, eh?

Industry sales have looked pretty good the last few months, but don’t forget: they looked good in April, May, and June of 2009, too.

But it’s no time for a breather. It’s time to gather new customers from restaurants that didn’t make it, get into the rotation of others, and position yourself as a solution for other buying decisions to existing customers.

The Disenfranchised
Keep on eye on local competition (especially similar concepts) that are struggling. The signs are there: fewer staff during busy times, dining room not bussed so often, charging for condiments, etc. Heck, check them out on Yelp or other review sites.

If their customers are complaining, they’re open to alternatives.

Get on the Short List
Use your unique selling proposition to get into customers’ restaurant rotation. We usually go to the same 2, 3, or 4 places for lunch (often based solely on convenience). Dinner is more situational: we go here for take-out, here when friends are in town, this place for a quiet night out, and always there for special locations.

Get into the rotation by increasing party size or being aggressive within a half mile radius (especially for lunch – folks won’t pass a lot of places to get to you when they’re hungry). Once you have them, WOW them.

The Ignorant
I don’t mean stupid, just that not all of your customers know all that you do. They chose you because you satisfied a need and, as long as you’re good, they’ll keep you in their rotation.

But lunch customers can be dinner customers. Dine-in need to try carry-out. Business lunchers socialize at night.

So while some operators are resting now that customers appear to be back, the channels are clear for you to start advertising, wooing influencers, and gaining market share.

Do it now and you’ll be in a better position if the economy turns again. Even better if it really is back.

We talked about how important it to restaurant marketing to keep your employees engaged. Here are 8 ways to keep staff (and customers) around.

• Charity/volunteering – Volunteering makes everyone feel good. Adopt a local charity and offer employees comp time or other benefits for helping out. (From the field: one day per month the employees choose a cause and donate the entire day’s tips to that cause. A sign by the tip jar says something like: “Our staff will donate all of today’s tips to the Reynolds Library renovation.” They’ve also helped local fire fighters injured in the line of duty, high school kids with sickness, and charities that mean something to an individual employee.)
• Rewards, public recognition – Besides the basic benefits of the job, what else can you offer your star employees? Gift cards are a good choice. Try to recognize at least one person either weekly or monthly. Let customers know your employee is a superstar.
• Family atmosphere – Keep your environment light and friendly. Yes, you’re here to do a job, but you should have fun while doing it. The best teams are close-knit and help each other.
• Get outside the restaurant – If possible, take your employees off company property to get to know each other better. This might be going to the park for a game of soccer or basketball, or grabbing a few drinks at the neighborhood pub after work.
• Give opportunities to learn other tasks – Show your employees that you want them to succeed. Train them on different stations in your restaurant. Reward them every time they complete a session. Make sure they receive the right and right amount of training, even from the very beginning.
• Promote from within – Show your staff that there are opportunities for advancement by recruiting them for new positions. They’ll see that they could have an opportunity like that and will want to stick around.
• Respect & fairness – This should be a no-brainer, but treat your employees fairly. There should be no “manager’s pet.” Even if your employees are young, treat them like adults and they will act as such.
• Spend time to hire the right employees – This includes managers. We’re all had bad managers before and conflict with management is one of the top reasons for employee turnover. One idea is to require applicant testing for customer service and teamwork.

Each of these points come down to one thing: show your staff that you genuinely care about them and they will stay engaged. Good employees can be your greatest asset. For more tips, check out this article from the National Restaurant Association.

Does your restaurant have high turnover? From an operations side, it may be because your employees aren’t engaged enough in your business. Everyone knows how expensive turnover can be, so keeping your staff is critical. But in most cases your pay scale, benefits and training are already fixed.

From a local store marketing angle, employees who are given responsibility and take ownership of their jobs:

• Engage with customers and provide WOW service
• Are better at doing their job
• Create a warm & friendly atmosphere
• Contribute to higher customer frequency

In the next post I’ll give you 8 ways to keep your staff smiling and keep your customers coming back.