Coin Flip Friday!

I once had a restaurant client in a small town that was struggling pretty badly on Friday evenings. This client was a family style restaurant that had done very well for many years until the casuals had started to move in. You know the ones, Chili's, Ruby Tuesday, Applebees etc... the common theme or should I say "blame game" was that fact they all had a bar and were fresher and shinier than my clients somewhat tired old restaurant.

We were holding our own throughout the week as we had been smoking it with very strong LSM programs for years....in fact, we practically owned the town and we were always on stage at the franchise workshop for the President's Club. When we started seeing our friday nights dwindle, we decided to make a move and do it swiftly to protect our share.

We did not want to throw a lot of money at this "one evening" per week and did not have a lot of cash to spend...believe it or not..who does?

It is really quite simple, how do we protect our current share and establish enough buzz to attract more? We are not believers of couponing. In fact, we believe once you start couponing and devaluing your menu, you are preparing for your own death.

We landed on "'Coin Flip Friday"

Here's how it worked: Starting at 4:00 pm on Friday, every table in the restaurant would get a visit from the manager as normal. Only, this time, the GM would ask the group at the table if they wanted to flip a coin for their dessert! the deal was if the customer won the coin flip, they would get a free dessert of their choosing. If the GM won the coin flip, the customer would agree to pay for their dessert. Everyone wins! we don't resort to discounting and the guests have a shot at a free desert. Needless to say, we would at least be able to get our fabulous deserts to more people which is always a good thing.

We were curious to see how they would respond.

We were astonished at the results! The regulars LOVED it and they apparently told everyone in the entire town about this quirky new thing they were doing on Friday nights. Needless to say, the store not only increased their dessert sales on Friday nights, they increased their traffic counts, check averages and overall sales. In fact, after only 6 weeks, there was a waiting line every Friday night from that point on.

You don't have to outspend your competition or discount your food....you simply have to out think em!

Please take a moment and check out our website at http:www.freshideasmarketinggroup.com and let us know if there is anything we may be able to help you and your restaurant become the hang out of choice in your community.