Restaurant Report - Running Your Business - Hear Me Out: Talking & Listening to Your Current Guests

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Running Your Business:
Hear Me Out: Talking & Listening to Your Current Guests May Be The Best Way To Get More Of Them Through the Door
By Rick Hendrie

According to conventional wisdom, the best way to get new customers is to go out and advertise to the consumers that you do not currently have. Guess what? It costs 3 to 5 times more to attract a new guest than it does to encourage a current customer to

1. Come more often
2. Spend more money
3. Or, increase their party size

Serenade your current guests and they will attract 'Birds of a Feather', who will flock to you. Does advertising have a place? Of course, in the same way that charcoal starter fluid does in getting briquettes to burn. But the most powerful, long-term form of marketing is to focus on current customers.

The full version of this article is now available on Restaurant Report's membership site RunningRestaurants.com.

Click here to go to the article page.