Getting Control of Your Restaurant's Profits   by Brenda Carlos

What do you do when a new restaurant chain opens down the street and you start noticing your sales are dipping? You can sit idly by and watch as your customers patronize the competition-or you can fight back. And that's exactly what Bruce Goode, co-owner of Adventure's Restaurant and Pub in Rice Lake, Wisc., decided to do. Today Goode, a 25-year restaurant veteran, says he has "never felt so in control of his sales before."

What has given Goode a fresh outlook is his new approach to marketing. Adventure's Restaurant and Pub opened in 1999. A popular destination for those within a sixty mile radius, Adventure's offers delicious American Cuisine with a north woods lodge, knotty pine feel. A dramatic fireplace is located in the middle of the restaurant. Customers come to order steaks, elk, sandwiches, burgers and the ever popular wild rice meat loaf.

Until recently, Goode focused his restaurant marketing on newspaper ads, and radio spots. Last year he started building a database of customers in order to focus much of his marketing energy on existing customers. Within a short period of time his database grew to over 3,000 names and Goode quickly realized that it was out of control. He started looking for some vehicle other than his POS system to manage the data. One day he happened upon a on a reader board discussion on one of his favorite restaurant sites: www.restaurantowners.com. He read a conversation between several restaurant owners about a new marketing tool that could manage data and increase marketing profits. They mentioned the amazing technical and marketing support offered by the manufacturer. Immediately Goode called the Restaurant Marketing Group, the representatives of ProfitMAX "Sales Acceleration" software and things haven't been quite the same ever since.

"The biggest benefit of working with the folks from the Restaurant Marketing Group was that they helped me to get organized. Within a matter of a very short time, I was in control of the data and was able to use it to increase our sales. We quickly sent out birthday cards with free offers to those having birthdays and also a VIP thank you note with an offer for a free appetizer to our frequent customers. The VIP thank you campaign brought in a 27 percent return rate, which is very high compared to traditional mailers.

"In December we handed out red and green envelopes to each customer. The envelopes said: 'No Peeking until January 2006.' Customers were instructed to bring in their envelopes and open them in front of a server sometime during January, which is traditionally our slowest month of the year. The envelopes contained random coupons which were good for free appetizers, free meals and free desserts. This campaign totally blew us away. We got a 36 percent return rate and we had more sales in January than any other month of the year-that's up against the summer months when the tourist trade is up. We absolutely couldn't believe the response!" says Goode.

Goode has a lot of fun future restaurant marketing campaigns up his sleeve including holiday-based and teacher appreciation promotions planned for later this spring. To attract new customers, Goode is purchasing birthday lists of residents in his region. In the future he anticipates doing less discounting, opting to use drawings with prize giveaways. Each time customers dine in his restaurant they can enter drawings for prizes like big screen televisions and trips. Because he isn't spending money on traditional advertising methods such as newspaper ads and radio spots, Goode has the money to spend on these incentives.

"Before, my marketing plan was like shooting into the dark. Now, I feel like I have a laser beam and can land it specifically where I want it to go. I am not at the mercy of the weather or the whims of the public. I can direct customers to come in and dine with us. It's only March and our sales are up 17 percent this year. I owe it all to the marketing power that our database has given us," says Goode.

About the Author

Brenda Carlos has been publisher & managing editor for Hospitality News & the International Education Guide. She has authored articles focusing on all aspects of foodservice. She is the co-author of "Event Management for Tourism, Cultural, Business & Sporting Events," (Prentice Hall). She is a regular contributor to the National Culinary Review and Sizzle magazines. Ms. Carlos is an enthusiastic speaker. She is a graduate of Brigham Young Univ.