Looking for ideas to boost business on days that are typically slow?  Check out what this restaurant is doing to keep their business up.

Making the Best of Snow Days

No matter what type of restaurant you have, chances are that more than half of your customers have searched for your restaurant online. In this digital age, your online presents effects your business in a huge way. The question is what can you do to make sure the people who are finding your business online are actually walking through your door? Here are 4 ways you can convert online traffic to offline customers.

1) Include “A Call To Action” On Your Website

Customers may be looking for your website to find out information. But simply offering information doesn’t prompt them to act on it. A call to action is simply something that causes a consumer to act. You may have a downloadable coupon or “Like us on Facebook to receive special offers”. If you offer takeout, it could be something as simple as an “Order Now” button with your phone number. You need to have something that causes a customer to act on the information that they have received.

2) Make Sure Online Business Listings Are Claimed and Complete

Some potential customers may be looking for your restaurant while most are just looking for any restaurant. Many sites such as Google Places, Yelp, and Citysearch offer free online business listings. Most sites such as these offer the option to “claim” your business. They will verify that you are the owner or employee of the restaurant and then allow you to make changes to that business listing. Making sure your online business listings are claimed by you and have complete information is an important part of drawing in customers. Add photos and descriptions to your listings that will appeal to potential customers.

3) Test Online Offers

While you may not have a huge list of customer contacts, Groupon, Living Social, and Foursquare will. Test out different offers on these sites. They can be a great way to get new customers through the door. However, make sure you monitor these offers carefully. While they can create a lot of customer traffic, they can also be very costly.

4) Encourage Your Existing Customers To Leave Feedback

A huge part of what people look at when evaluating a restaurant is customer reviews. Unfortunately, many times people that have had a negative experience are the ones that leave reviews online. So how can you get your customers to share their positive experiences? You can start by printing something on the bottom of your receipt along the lines of “Please Review Us Online!” but that alone will not do it. Here is where you need to get your staff involved. If a customer is going to take the time to set up an account and review your restaurant online they need to know you really care. Have your staff point this out to a loyal customer. Explain how much it helps your business and advertising cost and that it will only take a few minutes of their time. Make the invitation personal.

Remember that when it comes to engaging your customers online or offline your imagination is the limit. Be creative. You know your business better than anyone else. So ask yourself; what ways would be most effective to convert your online traffic into loyal customers?

With so much competition in the pizza industry, how does a small pizza business come out on top?  Check out this article for some great marketing ideas!

Marketing Ideas for Pizza

How high tech is your restaurant?  According to the NRA, nearly half of consumers said they would use electronic ordering systems, tablet computer menus, at-the-table payment, or smartphone apps to view menus or make reservations if the service was offered.  Read the full story here.

Restaurants Should Put Technology on the Menu

Have you ever wondered how important your online business reputation really is?  According smallbiztrends.com, almost half of consumers are more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews online.  Since people naturally trend toward leaving negative feedback, how can you engage your customers to leave positive feedback? Check out this article for some great ideas.

Your Secret Weapon in the Battle of Online Reputation

Business Software Solutions gets several requests a week from our customers for features that they would like to see in our software. Sometimes these requests are for additional functionality and some are simply features our customers would like to see to make their job a little bit easier. While many large POS companies would not give these requests a second thought or charge thousands of dollars to make the change, BSS listens.

We continually improve our product.

Recently, BSS was approached by a large frozen yogurt chain that was interested in using our software. While our TouchPOS product was designed to sell items by weight in this type of environment, this customer had a specific need. They wanted to weigh multiple items at a time and subtract tare weight for the number of containers they were selling. BSS saw this as a valuable feature to add to our software. Within a week our engineers were able to customize our software to meet this demand.

We see our customers as a resource.

While it is not possible for us to add every feature request to the software, we recognize that our customers are a great resource. Our Business Plus Accounting software is a high quality software package because of the feedback of our customers. Over time, implementing features based on customer feedback has been critical to the growth and acceptance of our software.

We listen to customers needs.

Since Business Software Solutions was started in 1989 we have been committed to meeting the demands of our customers. While our focus has shifted from customized business software to providing high quality POS systems, our commitment to meeting these demands remains the same. Our technicians have the ability to post any customer request to our inner-office website that is reviewed by our engineers on a regular basis. The more customers that request certain functionality, the more valuable it is to add to our software. We are also committed to adding features that are absolutely necessary for our customers. If a customer has a feature that they absolutely must have, we can give that customer a quote while they’re on the phone and typically finish the engineering within 2 weeks.

So the big question is, how well does your POS company listen?

The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index hit a 6 year high in December.  The Restaurant Performance Index is a monthly index that is used to predict the outlook and measure the health  of the US Restaurant Industry.  With this sharp upswing, the NRA is predicting record sales for 2012 in their just released 2012 Restaurant Industry Forecast.  Check out these great articles to learn more.

Restaurant Outlook at Highest Level in Nearly Six Years

Restaurants to outpace national job growth, reach record sales in 2012

In this economy starting a restaurant can be a pretty tall mountain to climb.  Here is a great success story from The Gyro Company in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Check out this article to see how their great ideas came together and put them in a position for success.

The Gyro Co. Founder Talks Start-Up's Success

Recently McDonalds started a Twitter campaign that backfired. McDonalds started a campaign with the hashtag #McDStories designed as promotional campaign. Twitter users quickly picked up on this and turned it into an opportunity to bash the restaurant’s food and service. Check out the full story here.

Op-Ed: McDonald's Twitter campaign backfires as users turn the tables

The BPA software is very flexible when it comes to setting up coupons. The system comes with a predefined coupon product. By simply adding a menu button using this product, you can discount the order by whatever dollar amount you prefer. You can also create your own predefined coupons that deduct a specific amount. If you have a coupon for $10 you can simply set up a new product with the price as -$10. But what if you are using Groupons, City Deals, or Restaurant.com coupons and you want to track them separately? These simple steps will guide you through the process:

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