Successful Starts: Top Ways to Celebrate Your Restaurant’s First Day

Successful businesses don’t casually open their doors, hoping to gain traction by being passive in their marketing and PR. A successful launch requires buzz. It requires explosive marketing. You need to make noise in your community. But what do you do?

Start Serving Customers before You Even Open

A good way to practice before your business “goes live” is to do a “soft opening.” A soft opening is when you invite a dozen or so members of your local community to your restaurant. You run your staff through their paces, and practice taking orders, cooking the menu, and serving customers. You’ll be surprised by how much you can learn from this kind of thing. You’ll get a really good idea of workflow bottlenecks, staff capabilities, and how efficient the back of the house really is.

Invite the Media

The local media can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Invite them before you open the doors to make a good first impression. Consider setting up a special lunch or dinner service for a reporter. Alternatively, invite the media for an interview on your grand opening. Make sure you make a good first impression.

Plan a PR Campaign

A good PR campaign can replace thousands of dollars in mediocre marketing. For example, on your grand opening, consider holding a “free lunch” or “free dinner” service. Or, consider picking up dessert supplies from a place like FrozenDessertSupplies.com and offering free dessert for all patrons. Don’t charge a thing. Give away all of the food. How can you possibly do this?

Contact the local media and tell them you’re giving away free food to hungry people. Then, set up one or two menus you’ll be giving away that day or night. You don’t have to be overly generous with the portions, but don’t skimp on them either. Don’t serve your entire menu free. Just offer one or two lunch or dinner plates at no cost.

One of the things that will happen is that you’ll end up with tons of good, free, publicity, and honest reviews about the quality of your food. If you do a stellar job on service, you can bet your bottom dollar that everyone in that restaurant will be back for more, and they’ll bring their friends.

Plan Entertainment

Stage opening night like a party – it basically is (or should be) anyway. Hire a band to play music. Just make sure the band fits with the style and theme of your restaurant. If you’re a fine dining establishment, consider hiring a pianist to play some soft music. If you’re a rowdy place, hire a rock band. If you’re more of a nightclub, hire a jazz band.

Make Sure Your Customer Service and Food Is Perfect

This cannot be overstated enough. Service and food has to be perfect. If you get even one dish returned, it’s going to reflect badly on your restaurant. Is it tough to have a perfect service? Absolutely? But, running a restaurant isn’t easy. Making a good first impression is even harder. If you can pull it off, though, you’ll earn the respect of the community – that’s important.

Thank Customers For Coming

Don’t forget to thank customers for coming. Even if you’re doing the whole free dinner service thing, thank them anyway for their time. They were gracious enough to come out and try your food. A thank you goes a long way toward building rapport and trust and that will earn you future business.