Frequency in Reverse

If your average customer frequency of visit is every 2 weeks (26 visits per year), and you change that to every 10 days (36 visits), your sales increase by 41%.

If frequency of visit is every 3 weeks (17 visits per year) and you convince customers to visit 2 more times per year, your sales increase by about 12%. (Think about that: can you get a customer to visit 2 more times in the remaining 348 days of the year?)

Thus is the power of frequency of visit. Right now, however, you're probably experiencing frequency in reverse - people are eating out less often.

Your goal is twofold:
1. Give existing customers more reasons to love you. Lunch and dinner; carry-out; catering; different menu items; fundraisers for their schools/churches/Little League (which are also struggling for cash).

2. Gain share of wallet from other restaurants who are cutting back on their service. When we're strapped for cash, we tend to hold service providers more accountable - we're choosier with our hard earned money. Since 1 in 10 Americans say that they are willing to never go back to a restaurant with poor service, there is opportunity in all of the people looking for new places to eat.

Of course, hidden in there is the key: outstanding customer service will help you to keep that 10% of customers who might leave, and enable you to gain and keep new customers.