7 Easy Hacks For Happy Customers

 1 - First impressions

Customers will be evaluating the cleanliness and quality of your food before they enter your front door.

• Signage should be clean, clear and informative.
• The front of the shop should be clear of any rubbish and trip hazards, and windows should be cleaned regularly.
• The lighting in your shop should be bright and clean. If you have fluorescent lights change them every 5 or so years as old bulbs get dull and use more power.

2 – On entering the front door

• Staff should acknowledge the customers as they walk in the door. A gesture, wave or “Hello” is good.
• If they are regular customers, welcoming them by their first name will always impress. A happy customer will visit more often and spend more.

3 – Cleanliness

• Make sure your cabinets are clean, all lights are working, and they are running at the correct temperature.
• Remember to clean the cabinets at the end of the day while still hot with blue glass cleaner and paper towels. It is simple, fast and easy to do.
• Don’t forget to clean under the cabinets on a regular basis and keep all signage fresh and clean.

4 – Consistently great food and sizing

Try to keep your portion size as large as possible. Large chicken drums and thighs sell far better and are way more inviting, plus you will get a better price as customers shop with their eyes and tend to forget about the price if they can see the value. This goes for everything in your cabinet such as large cakes, apple squares, toasted sandwiches, etc.

I always stop at a lunch bar heading south, their portions sizes are huge, and it all tastes great plus I usually buy too much, but I could not tell you how much I spent!

5 – Fresh hot chips

Hot chips are one of the first things attracting your customers. Most will sneak a chip before they have walked out of your door. Those chips need to be crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. There is a lot of profit in chips and they will last well in your cabinet if they are cooked properly – some of our better shops are selling 200 kgs plus per day, that’s about $6000 worth of turnover and cost about $750

6 – Friendly personalised service

All your customers are in a hurry, no one even wants to wait for 5 minutes to get served or for food to be cooked.

• Make sure your cabinets are full and your staff are happy, positive and pleasant. Staff should always greet customers with “Hello, yes, sir/madam, how can I help you?”, then close with “Goodbye, have a great day”, etc.

7 – Pricing

If you have good quality, fresh food and in large portion size, you can sell for a lot more than your opposition.

I go into a lot of shops that are selling small portions who keep telling me that the customers will not pay any more. They will not pay any more for small portions, but they will pay more for large portions.

Take advantage of the low cost of wings and nibbles, everyone loves a deal. The new hot & spicy coating is ideal for special one-off deals for “limited time” or “deal of the day” type of specials.