It isn’t often that the foodservice industry faces an operating environment as challenging as our current economy… and unfortunately, few predict things will improve anytime soon. In fact, a recent Technomic survey of more than 2,000 consumers indicated that 65 percent believe an economic recovery will take at least three years.

With consumer confidence so low, it’s no wonder restaurant-goers are counting every penny and carefully considering their dining out options. So how can a restaurant keep existing customers coming back, and lure new ones in the door?

Over the last 20 years, Wordsworth Communications has worked with dozens of restaurants, including quick serve, family dining and white tablecloth establishments. Here are a few valuable tricks we’ve learned for filling up the house:

1. Be Social: Social media applications like Facebook and Twitter are perfect vehicles for marketing restaurants, because they are free, opt-in services that encourage personal interaction with customers.
   
   It worked for CoffeeGroundz Café in Houston, which offered its customers the ability to place carry-out orders via Twitter direct messages and has helped its clientele double. Cincinnati’s own Skyline Chili has a Facebook page with more than 36,000 fans, all loyal brand ambassadors who love this Cincinnati favorite.
2. Don’t Be Afraid of Bloggers: According to a study released by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, women are turning to blogs for community interaction, entertainment and information an astounding 55 percent of the time. While it can seem scary to work with citizen journalists, many restaurants Wordsworth has worked with have reported favorable results. For instance, the Oceanaire Seafood Room hosted a private preview promotion for local bloggers, which resulted in glowing and widely-shared reviews.


3. Give Them Something for Nothing: Let’s face it: people love to get a deal. Discounting is a great way to reward current customers and encourage first-time visits. What’s more, discounting works across the spectrum of restaurant concepts. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, high-end chef and restaurateur David Burke – who owns upscale restaurants in Manhattan, Chicago and Las Vegas – discussed his approach to discounting as the high-end equivalent to a Dollar Menu. His restaurants now offer a three-course meal featuring items like lobster for $20.09, which he predicts will increase sales by $10 million this year.
4. Show and Tell: We’ve all seen a cooking demonstration on TV, right? Cooking demonstrations publicize special promotions and one-of-a-kind menu items to an audience of thousands, in one simple shot. The recipe shared during the cooking demonstration will always be posted to the TV station’s Web site, and usually links to the restaurant’s Web site as well. Clients such as Morton's The Steakhouse have reported that reservations have increased following in-studio appearances, indicating that viewers understand that while the could make a crème brulèe at home, they’d rather leave it to the professionals!
5. Step Up Community Involvement: When times are tough, consumers may become more generous with nonprofit organizations that meet the critical needs of the community. IHOP, which Wordsworth reintroduced in Cincinnati, saw evidence of this trend.
6. In past years, the restaurant offered a free short stack of pancakes in exchange for a donation to the Children’s Miracle Network in celebration of National Pancake Day. Each year, the restaurant steadily increased both the number of donations received and the number of pancakes served.
7. Partnering with a nonprofit organization, therefore, can be an effective tool for not only driving traffic, but also generating community trial and goodwill.

In an economy this difficult, no business may go untouched. Yet, it is possible to not only survive, but thrive while waiting for the economy to get back on track. Doing so will take a combination of creative emerging techniques and smart, proven tactics – like those that have worked best for Wordsworth foodservice clients for the past 20 years.