- If you’ve over-subscribed to costly services for your restaurant, this might be time to scale back and figure out which ones are working best for you.
- If your pizzeria’s menu hasn’t been updated in a few years, now could also be the time for a thoughtful revamp.
Related: Yelp ranks this employee-owned pizza shop as No. 1 in the U.S.
By Megan Prevost
With spring right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about how you can clear out the old and bring in the new at your pizzeria. Take a look at your operations, marketing and more, and figure out what’s working for your business and what isn’t. If you’re stuck on how to get a move on spring-cleaning your pizza place, check out these five tips!
1. Evaluate Your Subscriptions
These days, subscription services have taken over the restaurant industry. There are so many awesome platforms out there that can help streamline business operations and ownership. But it’s also easy to get lost in the sauce and end up with too many subscription services that you don’t use. Here are a few examples of subscription services your pizzeria might use:
- POS systems
- Shift management systems
- Scheduling systems
- Menu creation websites or software
- Financial services, such as budgeting software or pay-out software
- Social media tools
These individualized services can be incredibly beneficial for your business, but racking up tons of monthly costs isn’t always worth it. This spring, take a look at your monthly or yearly subscription costs and decide what programs work for your business and which ones don’t. You might even realize you still subscribe to services that you don’t use!
Instead of choosing a variety of different programs, try choosing one or two. Think about what’s essential to your pizzeria, such as menu creation and POS systems. Even better, find one or two platforms that do multiple things to cut your costs!
2. Redesign Your Menus
If your menus haven’t been updated in a few years, it’s definitely time for a revamp. Bringing in fresh designs and new elements can help brighten up your pizza place and help entice new customers. Add a few new menu items and strengthen your brand image.
If you update your dine-in menus, it’s essential to make sure your other marketing materials match to promote consistency and brand recognition. Here are a few different materials you should update alongside your main dine-in menu:
- Digital menu boards
- Takeout menus
- Punch cards or business cards
- Flyers, posters and sandwich boards
- Social media posts
By promoting a clear and consistent image across all of your marketing materials, including your menus, your brand will be easy to recognize anywhere. Plus, your fresh new designs might attract new customers who weren’t interested before or old customers willing to give your place another try.
3. Revamp Your Marketing Strategy
Running a pizzeria is a lot of work, and it’s easy to let marketing fall to the wayside. This spring, take a look at your marketing strategy and decide what’s working for your business and what isn’t. Take a look at your analytics and decide where you can strengthen your strategy. If your social media numbers are lacking, put more effort into posting by creating new, fresh images or offering discounts or specials to those who follow you. If your restaurant isn’t attracting customers through foot traffic, work on your exterior signage or make your storefront more appealing.
4. Create a Content Calendar for Social Media
If your social media accounts are struggling—for example, you don’t have a lot of followers or your engagement is low—it might be because you’re not dedicating enough time to these platforms. By posting consistently on your social media platforms, you’ll see much more success. Instagram and Facebook both have very specific algorithms that reward frequent posting. The more often you post, the more likely your followers are to see your posts. On top of that, especially well-crafted posts might show up on the explore pages, reaching a new audience.
To ensure that you’re posting consistently, create a content calendar for your social media accounts. List out the social media accounts that you’re using and schedule out what you’re going to post each week. By planning your content in advance, you’ll be able to post quality content much more consistently.
5. Get Back to the Basics
The world is so hectic right now. With the ongoing pandemic and technology taking over the restaurant scene, sometimes it’s important to take a step back and look at what’s really important: good food and great customer service.
Keep an eye on your online reviews to see how your customers feel about your restaurant. Are you getting bad reviews for the taste of your food, slow service or the way your customers treat guests? Respond to these reviews with actionable solutions, letting customers know that you’re working to fix the problem.
Take that information and actually use it to improve your restaurant. Improve your recipes and work with employees to boost their customer service skills. Your customers will greatly appreciate it.
If something isn’t working for your restaurant, now is the time to clean house. By using these five tips, you can easily upgrade your restaurant to function more efficiently. You’ll save costs, see an increase in engagement, and make your customers happier. It’s a win-win! So, what are you waiting for? Take the time to look over your business and see what you can upgrade or cut. It’s worth the effort.
Megan Prevost is a marketing content writer for MustHaveMenus. When’s she’s not writing about restaurant marketing, she’s hanging out with her three cats and binging the latest television shows. Her work has appeared in App Institute, Bar Business, CLH News, FanSided, FSR, Miss Details, Modern Restaurant Management, PMQ Pizza Magazine, QSR, RestoBiz, RestoHub, Site Social SEO, Small Business Currents, and The Daily Fandom.
