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Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days ideas

R

ResortPizza

New member
Hey Folks,
Been in business for about 4 months now, and my little pizzeria/ rotisserie is doing well. I operate in Whistler, BC Canada, a ski resort that depends on tourism. I have lots of experience operating in the food and beverage sector here in my market and Febuary is showing a significant decline in sales all around. Over the past 2 weeks we are down about 22 percent from Jan/Dec and Monday and Tuesdays are the worst.

To help build those days up I want to create some more product awareness. The first 2 months we opened we did a wing promo: free half order of wings when you order any pizza. Our wings rock, lightly breaded to enhance crispiness, baked then deep fried, our best sellers are our signature Apple BBQ. Anyhow, our wing sales are excellent now, everybody is hooked on them, so we kept the promo and do it on Wednesdays only just for the local popularity of the promotion. Our Caesar Salad, Rib appy, oven baked garlic bread are the 3 items I want to promote, they are all amazing products with homemade sauces etc. the rib appy is over priced simply because there are people out there who want to just try the ribs but don’t want all the sides that come with it.

So, I’m thinking of something like this:

That’s Right, our pan pizza made us famous in 3 short months, ask anyone about our ranchero wings, amazing!
Our tender back ribs… outstanding, you have to try them! Our Caesar, man-o-man – homemade double garlic croutons and that dressing, unreal…

PANOLI’S MONDAY TUESDAY ADD-ON MADNESS
Make any order of 18.00 and over and add-on any of the following deals:

Half order or our Ranchero Wings 1.95
2pcs of our Perfect Garlic Bread 1.95
Side Caesar Salad 1.95
BBQ Rib Appy 3.95

Mondays and Tuesdays only, limit 2 add-ons per customer/order – Limited Time only.

This isn’t the final wording of the promotion, just my scrapbook ideas, I’m a designer and I’ll do up a fancy promotion poster/ flyer, newspaper ad for this venture.

I would love to hear the boards thoughts on this and bodegahwy’s thoughts. Many thanks and more so than ever, take-out & Delivery is the future!
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

I think you are depending alot on the customers to read the coupons. Give em all the wording and most are simply going to pass by the coupon.

We started making home made soup this winter…years past we had tried and just never took off but this year we were determinded to have a great soup and sell it. So we made table tents and then for a while we gave out SMALL samples (a little monkey dish) to every customer at lunch. It was a huge pain in the neck but we were able to make it up ahead of time and throw it away to our customers instead of throwing it in the trash. We knew the product was great, we just had to get them to try it.

After about a week our two it worked…we couldn’t keep enough on hand. Customers would come into our place saying we heard you had some great soup. Word travelled fast. Our competitor sold a similar soup but his was store bought and from what I have heard is disgusting.

Of all things…soup. I don’t even like soup and this stuff is to die for. So if you are that confident in your stuff let em sample it. May take a few weeks but if it is that good they will come back for it.

By the way…our soup is a bit over priced…we don’t run special pricing on it but people are willing to pay because it is great.

Kris
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

Just another idea too…we use monday and tuesday for community involvment. Many local charities want cash donations, we don’t give straight cash donations but we do tell them if they want to do a fundraiser on Monday or Tuesday we will donate 10% of our net sales between 4-9 pm on those days. I have a generic flyer I give THEM to make copies. There are no specials available during the fundraiser, they pay regular menu price. We definately increase our sales on those days and 10% is really not that much considering there are no coupons.

Kris
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

I just hate to discount.
Last year we had game night on monday, got all the old board games out of the attic. I think the adults had more fun than the kids. If you don’t have dine in maybe you have a friend that is some kind of "party demonstrator and you can work up a package deal for mon & tues. Or not… :oops:
<<<<<<I operate in Whistler, BC Canada, a ski resort that depends on tourism>>>>> (omg I am soooo small town, sorry)
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i
48.png
Kris:
I think you are depending alot on the customers to read the coupons. Give em all the wording and most are simply going to pass by the coupon.
Click to expand...
I was thinking this exact same thing. Every time a do a coupon that requires even the slightest bit of attention or thought the return rate is awful.

Most of my coupons are now in this format:

Item 1
Item 2
Item 3

All for a set price of $XX.XX

Make one of those items the “add-on” that you want to promote.
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

Good Point, it is a little wordy. They won’t be coupons, more like an anouncement they will be in the paper, in-store, etc… kind of like how Dominos promotes their toonie tuesday etc…
48.png
Piper:
48.png
Kris:
I think you are depending alot on the customers to read the coupons. Give em all the wording and most are simply going to pass by the coupon.
Click to expand...
I was thinking this exact same thing. Every time a do a coupon that requires even the slightest bit of attention or thought the return rate is awful.

Most of my coupons are now in this format:

Item 1
Item 2
Item 3

All for a set price of $XX.XX

Make one of those items the “add-on” that you want to promote.
Click to expand...
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

Do you ever just pick up the phone and call your customers to say hi and ask them how their last order was?..You can also offer a “phone only” package deal…
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i
48.png
royster13:
Do you ever just pick up the phone and call your customers to say hi and ask them how their last order was?..You can also offer a “phone only” package deal…
Click to expand...
I’ve seen a few people recommend this.

It depends on the type of business. If I was buying magnets from you, I wouldn’t find it weird for you to call and ask how they are and if there’s anything else you can do. That’s a business to business transaction. You’re calling me at work and it’s related to my job.

Do I want my local Chinese restaurant calling me at home, most likely in the evening, to see how my order was? Absolutely not. That’s my time with my family and my time to relax. I order, they deliver, I eat the food. That’s where the transaction ends for me.

I often call corporate clients after a big order and see how it was, but again that’s in the context of a business relationship. Unless I had a question about an order that we are currently producing, I would never call a customer at home.
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

Piper, good differentiation between B2B and B2C relationships. The home has a much higher expectation of privacy… and it varies between people. Door hangers upset some people down here while others leave their front door so they can see people coming up. It is strange. I think a mailed Thank You note is always appreciated and unexpected.
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

I agree, in this small resort community I wouldn’t call the local customers in thier private time for the the reasons already stated. The corporate clients however (Hotel lunches, business functions etc,) I call the contact person 2-3 hours after the order has been delivered or picked up, to get feedback on service and food quality and I usually offer a special BtoB special for their next corportate order.
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

I can not see how a phone call from a pizzeria your clients did business with could be considered an “invasion of privacy”…And I would not propose to call at night…A better time would be the afternoon when you are more likely to get voice mail and can leave a brief message…

And I suspect a lot of folks have to be cautious with expenses for a while…Advertising costs a lot of money and phone calls have a minimal cost…
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

Maybe for some markets this could be effective but in my resort town where everyone knows each other and no one excutes telephone marketing i think i will anger more people than its worth, i bet 20 percent of the poeple would call me on it and know me by name and tell me to give them a break and they love our product.
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

I task my managers with doing a few customer call backs on a regular basis - preferably daily but its one of the first things they put on the back back burner when it sstarts to bet mildly busy.

We try to call back every late customer when we get slammed - how was your order, we are sorry it was later than we usually delivery - it allows us to head of anyone who had a problem but didn’t complain.

In all my years getting food from chinese etc no one has ever rung me to see how my food was even when it was really late.

When I have rng customers they have guenuinely been pleased and feedback I get from people I know who use us is along the lines of - hey one of your managers called last night to check everything was ok with my order, thats really good.

You’ll fnd out if your drivers are messing and if you do it you’ll find out how good your staff are!

give it a try - what have you got to loose?
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

Resort Pizza,

I’m assuming your half order of wings consist of 4-6. That means your pricing is anywhere between 33 cents - 49 cents each. Instead of limiting your customer to half orders, why not try an all you can eat wing special where wings are 50 cents each? With that promo, people might order 20 at a time.

Also, on the same night, maybe a deal on beer if you sell it? $1 Longnecks always kept my Mondays pretty active, especially during football season.

Good Luck,
  • J_r0kk
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

Great ideas, but we are take-out and delivery only. When i get a dining room, I’ll consider something like that. Our half order is 5 wings BTW.
 
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Re: Monday-Tuesdays, building the slow days into busy days i

I also call customers back on a sporadic basis. Never had one who had a problem with it. I must have made 1,000 plus calls. In fact, I have had customers wives/husbands stop me on the street and comment on what a pleasant suprise to have a small business so obviously concerned about there customers satisfaction.
On second thought, you’re right, don’t call anybody back. If we all start to do it I will not stand out lol…
 
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