If your restaurant is located in or near any large urban centre, chances are there are a few large hotels in the general area. If this is true, then you must have already done what we consider to be the most valuable thing you can do to promote the success of your restaurant - you've approached, befriended, and leveraged the hotel concierge community.
You say your haven't? Well, you're missing out on some great opportunities. As you know, a concierge performs a very wide range of duties, and one of the most important is to assist their guests in planning for a special evening. When people are staying in unfamiliar surroundings, even in this age of the internet, they still prefer to have a human being make recommendations when it comes to making dinner plans: and that's where the concierge comes in.
Basically, you should become very good friends with all the concierges in your area. Here’s how.
Invite Them Over
It's not difficult to find out who your local concierge's are. Visit each hotel at various times during the day and offer a general invitation for them to come to your restaurant for a free dinner. This isn’t a bribe – this is research for them. By personally dining in your restaurant they'll get an exact sense of the menu, the atmosphere, and the prices, and this will help them offer recommendations to their hotel guests.
Be Clear About What Your Restaurant Offers
Don't try to impress the concierge by pretending your restaurant is something that it's not: if your establishment is a fast, relaxed, casual place, then don't try to be too fancy just for the concierge, hoping that he'll give you more referrals. Of course it could work, but your guests will be very unhappy when they discover your restaurant is not what they were told it was. Click here to find more about restaurant website hosting.
Be Generous with Referral Fees
It's normal to pay concierges a referral fee for successful referrals. This is pretty standard; after all, they can choose to send these people anywhere, and they’re making you a lot of money by sending them your way. Find out what’s standard in your area and match it, at a minimum.
Take Care of Their Guests
Of course you're taking great care of all your guests and ensuring everyone has a great time, however when you know that a group of people have been specifically sent to your restaurant by the concierge of a local hotel, go that extra mile and ensure that they agree that the concierge made the right decision. This means confirming and fulfilling any special instructions, naming the concierge, and more than anything else making sure that any specific arrangements made with you are carried out in full. In other words, make sure the patrons know the concierge was instrumental in making their evening a special one. It will pay off for them, and they will appreciate it – so it will pay off for you.
This is a business of relationships – between people and food, restaurants and patrons, and concierges and local businesses. Taking great care of these relationships is the key to success.
Image courtesy shangri-la.com
You say your haven't? Well, you're missing out on some great opportunities. As you know, a concierge performs a very wide range of duties, and one of the most important is to assist their guests in planning for a special evening. When people are staying in unfamiliar surroundings, even in this age of the internet, they still prefer to have a human being make recommendations when it comes to making dinner plans: and that's where the concierge comes in.
Basically, you should become very good friends with all the concierges in your area. Here’s how.
Invite Them Over
It's not difficult to find out who your local concierge's are. Visit each hotel at various times during the day and offer a general invitation for them to come to your restaurant for a free dinner. This isn’t a bribe – this is research for them. By personally dining in your restaurant they'll get an exact sense of the menu, the atmosphere, and the prices, and this will help them offer recommendations to their hotel guests.
Be Clear About What Your Restaurant Offers
Don't try to impress the concierge by pretending your restaurant is something that it's not: if your establishment is a fast, relaxed, casual place, then don't try to be too fancy just for the concierge, hoping that he'll give you more referrals. Of course it could work, but your guests will be very unhappy when they discover your restaurant is not what they were told it was. Click here to find more about restaurant website hosting.
Be Generous with Referral Fees
It's normal to pay concierges a referral fee for successful referrals. This is pretty standard; after all, they can choose to send these people anywhere, and they’re making you a lot of money by sending them your way. Find out what’s standard in your area and match it, at a minimum.
Take Care of Their Guests
Of course you're taking great care of all your guests and ensuring everyone has a great time, however when you know that a group of people have been specifically sent to your restaurant by the concierge of a local hotel, go that extra mile and ensure that they agree that the concierge made the right decision. This means confirming and fulfilling any special instructions, naming the concierge, and more than anything else making sure that any specific arrangements made with you are carried out in full. In other words, make sure the patrons know the concierge was instrumental in making their evening a special one. It will pay off for them, and they will appreciate it – so it will pay off for you.
This is a business of relationships – between people and food, restaurants and patrons, and concierges and local businesses. Taking great care of these relationships is the key to success.
Image courtesy shangri-la.com