How I increased the business turnover from £1000 per week to just over £2500 in 6 months.

I have frequented my local takeaway for a few years. They serve excellent food and the service is always great.
Recently I struck up a conversation with the owner who bemoaned the fact that sales were down and he was getting increasingly worried.

I mentioned to him I am a Marketing consultant and said I would help him out (Afterall, I didn’t want my favourite takeaway to go out of business- where would I go for my Chicken Karahi!lol)

What did I do? I increased their turnover from £1000 per week to just over £2500 in 6 months.

The only bit of marketing I had them do was a postcard size advert in the local newspaper.

They did not advertise because they had not got good results from it.

Along with this I looeked at their website and noticed that like most resturants website it was a very clean, attractive website with no way of communicating with the customers!

I explained that the biggest mistake most businessess make is that they never captured the names and emails of their customers – for the regulars they know nothing more than their names.

What this meant was that they could never do anything with their customers because they did not know exactly who they were serving and how many customers they had. They also never calculated the marginal net worth of each customer.

The first thing I implemented was an email marketing system no their website capturing the names of their customers and recording it into a database system.

Along with this I also had them get the emails of the customers who were attending the restaurant.

Even when they had takeaway orders on the phone I had them ask for the name, email address and phone numbers – so we could notify them of special offers

After getting the names it was so simple to increase the business.

Firstly I sent out a thank you email to each of the customers on my list. Next I sent a short email with the weekly specials and the menu every week for the 5 months that followed it.

The results speak for it self – they doubled their business.

The most important lessons you can learn is that:
You have to question things and ask, “Is there a better way?”
You must measure and record everything – for example how many customers you have and who are they?
You must have an email marketing system

Be willing to try things – even if you fail.
Make sure you are in regular contact with you customer – otherwise they may forget you!