How to Attract Families to Your Restaurant in 2022
Hi, I’m Jack Bastide. I was talking to one of my restaurant consulting clients the other day about a Point of Sale (POS) system for their restaurant and the question that came up was how to attract families to your restaurant. I didn’t have a really good immediate answer so I did a little research and here’s what I found out.
The best way to attract families to your restaurant is to establish a family-friendly environment that appeals to children while making the parents happy as well. And then you want to get the word out to the public by marketing it like crazy. Focus on the kids and the parents will come!
Creating a Family Friendly Environment
Have a Kids Menu
Make sure to have a list of items for children that are not only nutritious but are also smaller and less expensive than the normal adult meals. There are many children’s menu ideas for restaurants.
For example ….
Make It Healthy and Fun
Offer the Option of Smaller Portions of Existing Items
Use Cute Menu Descriptions That Will Appeal to Kids.
Offer Fast Service at Your Restaurant
No customer likes slow service in a restaurant and this is particularly true for youngsters. When you see a group coming into the restaurant make sure to serve them as quickly as possible, even if you have to add an extra server for that table.
Have Clean Restrooms in Your Restaurant
Don’t make your bathrooms look like they’re in a biker bar. Make sure they are clean, well stocked and welcoming to both parents AND small kids.
Families Need a Kid-Friendly Staff
Many of your staff may be youthful and not have social experience with kids of their own. It is important to train your staff, and especially servers, to treat young guests with respect. If you keep the kids smiling the parents will also be happy and come back more often.
Offer High Chairs and Booster Seats
You can show that your Restaurant is suitable for all members of the family by having plenty of high chairs and booster seats available for hungry youthful diners. And make sure your staff knows how to set them up quickly. If your servers have a look of panic when a large family arrives the parents will pick up on that immediately.
Provide Changing Tables
Make sure to have changing tables in both the male and female bathrooms. In this day and age, it’s not unusual for both parents to share the changing duties. If the need arises and there is no easy way to do a diaper change the parents will remember that.
Have Free WIFI In Your Restaurant
Every month thousands of people search Google for the term: restaurants with Wi-Fi. What does that tell you? It tells me that if you don’t have it you are going to lose customers to your competitors that do.
There are certain services that will allow you to capture email addresses when people are using your free WiFi. Another benefit is that people may go on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites and share pictures of your restaurant while they’re there which is a great free promotion for you.
Provide Activity Placemats
A great idea to keep kids occupied at your restaurant is with activity placemats and crayons. Instead of complaining while they’re waiting for their food the kids can be having fun quietly drawing on the placemats. You can also just have some butcher paper for freestyle drawing. Before you hand out the crayons you might want to ask the parents if it’s okay. Activity placemats is one of the many fun things restaurants do.
Performers and Entertainers
Successful restaurants offer more than just great food. They offer a great experience. One way to do that is to have some type of entertainment available.
I’ve been to Mexican restaurants where they have a mariachi band going around entertaining the guests. It’s a memorable experience for people of all ages. I’ve also seen balloon animal artists, magicians, and face painters. Any of these will create a memory that children will remember for a long time and make them want to come back to your restaurant again. Some performers will actually work exclusively for tips.
Character Events Are Great Entertainment
One of the most popular features of staying in a Walt Disney Resort is the character breakfasts. What’s better than having Mickey, Minnie, Donald, or Pluto interacting with your children while you’re eating?
So what type of character events could you choose for your restaurant? What if you had one of your staff dress up as a clown? Or a princess? Or a superhero? Any one of these would make a great choice.
You’re only limited by your own imagination.
How To Attract Families To Your Restaurant With a Childrens Play Area
If you have the room, setting up a separate children’s play area complete with padded floors, playground furniture, and arcade machines might be a good idea. In the past, many chain restaurants such as McDonald’s and Chuck-E-Cheese have done this with quite some success. That being said, in today’s day and age kids may be more interested in their iPhones than being social so it may not be the greatest use of your square footage.
Arcade Machines
I’ve seen restaurants where they actually set aside some room for arcade games. It’s a great idea. Not only will this keep the kids entertained it can also be an extra source of revenue for you. There are companies that will actually place the machines in your location for free in order to share in the profits.
Childproof your Restaurant
Choose shatter-resistant plates and glasses. Cover any open electrical outlets with outlet protectors or safety caps. Any electrical outlets near water, such as in the bathroom, should be updated with ground-fault circuit interrupters or GCF’s. Don’t leave any supplies or chemicals where children can reach them. Keep the floors spotless and dry at all times.
Kids Eat Free
This is a great choice. What’s your slowest day of the week …. Tuesdays? Try offering a program where kids eat free on Tuesdays. For each adult meal purchased you can offer one free kids meal. If they come in with more kids than parents you can offer a reduced price meal for the extra kids.
Getting The Word Out
If you want to attract families to your restaurant you have to let the parents know that kids are welcome. When you follow the steps above you will establish a family-friendly restaurant environment. Now you need to get the word out to the public. Let the rest of this article be your guide.
Local Sports Team Promotions
Why not sponsor a local sports team?
Display Signs or Banners at the venue
Pay for Team Uniforms (with your name on the back)
Advertise in The Team Newsletter
Have Contests or Giveaways at the Game!
You can also have a special offer for anybody that comes in wearing their team uniforms after the game. Teams and their families tend to all go to one place after playing and it might as well be your place.
Attract Families With Facebook Ads
Online social media ads online are a great option. Why not use Facebook ads to attract families to your restaurant? You can use geo-targeting for the location and target ad delivery to households near your restaurant. You can gain attention by offering free delivery in your ad. Keep in mind that the online Facebook ad manager is updated quite frequently so you might want to hire a professional.
Partner with Other Establishments
Here’s an idea. Every area has establishments that carry commercial products and services that cater to kids. You can approach some of them and work out a deal to promote each other.
For example, you can hand out flyers and coupons for their place and they can do the same for you. You can easily track the results by having a specific code on the coupon or flier itself.
Some businesses that you can approach include summer camps, arcades, miniature golf places, kid-friendly hotels. pediatricians, child care centers and many more.
Direct Mail
You can buy lists of families in your area and send them a postcard about your family-friendly restaurant. One option to keep the cost down is partnering up with other local businesses near you to share the cost of printing and postage. A good medium to Target the whole area around your business is to use Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) by the USPS.
Local Radio Ads
Buying radio time can be a very cost-effective idea to attract families to your restaurant. Depending on the size of the radio station, the time of day, and the quantity you are ordering you can literally get an ad for as little as 5 or 10 bucks. Many stations have unused time that they will sell for very cheap. These are known as remnant ads.
Expensive production and editing will not necessarily increase results. I’ve run radio ads myself that I recorded on my laptop using a free program called Audacity. When recording a radio ad make sure to have an attention-getting compelling offer and an easy-to-remember telephone number or website.
When buying radio ads, remember that more ads will increase response. People need to hear your ads multiple times before they remember it.
Local Cable TV Ads
Local Cable TV ads are generally more expensive than local radio ads but can sometimes be obtained for an affordable price by ordering remnant ads. One major difference: Cable TV ads are significantly more complicated and expensive to produce than radio ads. Make sure your ads are kid friendly.
Conclusion
It’s one thing to attract families to your restaurant. You can easily do that using smart and cost effective marketing. It’s an entirely different matter to make sure they are satisfied when they get there. Remember the customer is always right and in this case the customer is the child. Make your restaurant popular with young customers and have a system to keep them satisfied and your restaurant will prosper. Let this article be your guide.
Jack Bastide is a Restaurant Consultant with a focus on Restaurant Point of Sale technology. Make sure to check out the world famous Restaurant Super Star Restaurant Resources page for a comprehensive offering of hand picked commercial resources and tools to help your restaurant.
