when the restaurant business is bad, we may think about whether we should reduce the price, do promotional activities for the store, or simply change the dishes.

These business methods that we often use often fail to achieve a satisfactory result, so what should we do?

Okubo Ichihiko is known as the first consultant in Japanese catering industry. He once joined the Japanese Green Kitchen Catering Group, and made great contributions to the multi-store "Shengbodian", a famous brand of fried pork chops in Shinjuku. He visited more than 11,111 stores, including famous restaurants in Japan, France and other countries, during which he accumulated rich experience and knowledge, and helped many restaurants that were poorly managed and facing bankruptcy to come back to life.

Facing the restaurant with sluggish business, Okubo Ichihiko told us that restaurant owners can find countermeasures from the following 11 ideas.

1. Don't think about making money, be willing to

When business is bad, it's easy to make money in a hurry, but Okubo Ichihiko said that the worse business is, the less anxious it is to make money. It is difficult for most catering people to do this. If you do this, you will win half the battle psychologically! He said that just thinking about pursuing economic interests will easily lose the essence of catering industry, which is the fundamental reason why many restaurants are in trouble.

when the business is bad, the most easy cycle to fall into is: thinking about replacing the good raw materials with inferior raw materials, thinking about how to sell the dishes with the smallest weight to the highest price, thinking about how to streamline staff and reduce services. This practice really "cuts costs", but it directly stifles the "open source" and directly pushes the restaurants that still have hope of survival to the death. On the contrary, if you want to reverse the restaurant with declining business, it is often the boss who has strong psychological endurance: the more he declines, the more he is willing to invest, the better the product, and the more he stresses quality. Even if he comes to a guest, let him promise to come again next time. This is the first article of the ultimate conclusion reached by Okubo Yiyan after inspecting 11,111 shops.

2. Eliminate the aura of "bad business"

The better the business, the more customers will trust you-this is a wordless endorsement. Bad business has an aura. Only by completely eliminating the aura of "bad business" can restaurants come back to life. What is the aura of "bad business"?

For example, it's very cold in winter, very hot in summer, the front door is unsanitary, the waiter is listless, the lights are dim, the dining chair is untidy, the desktop is dirty, the kitchen is messy, and the communication between the waiter and the customer is cold ... all these are enough to stop the customers from entering the store. In addition, the most important thing is that the contact points with customers (menus, posters, posters) are full of promotional advertisements and discount information. The sooner these "urgent ideas" are passed on to customers, the worse customers will feel.

3. Don't reduce the price. Only by "raising the price" can the business of the store be saved.

The first choice of catering bosses is to reduce the price! Okubo Ichihiko said: He has studied countless dead restaurants, all of which died in this article! On the contrary, almost all the shops that come back to life choose to either protect the price or raise the price! Many restaurants with poor business are bound by gross profit margin, which is completely step-by-step competition and falls into the whirlpool of low-price competition.

Because of the need to control gross profit, the quality of food can't be guaranteed, and the poor quality of food leads to worse business, which gradually enters a vicious circle. Only by raising prices can we get rid of low-level competition. At the same time of raising the price, we will introduce better quality products, so that customers will come to the door and get rid of the inherent impression and sit up and take notice. Nothing is more important than making customers feel the shock of the dishes.

4. Be clear about what I want to sell.

There are many small restaurants that are open on the roadside. They look shabby and old, and the price is extremely expensive, but they queue up every day. This is the goal that catering people should learn. Nowadays, more and more restaurants spend money on decoration, which leads people to feel as if they are paying the venue fee when paying for meals. Therefore, for non-chain individual restaurants, even if the funds are insufficient, they can turn their weaknesses into strengths and pursue "delicious, expensive and shabby".

The present chain restaurants are gradually losing the support of customers because of standardization, single taste and other reasons. Now is a great opportunity for individual restaurants to win!

5, customers are moved by "performance"

Customers have too many choices, and they can't completely conquer customers simply by relying on products. Only by doing well can they show their differences. The catering industry has entered the "theater era", which requires the "coordination and collocation" of all roles, and we must try our best to impress customers. Staff, interior decoration, and coordination of all work will create a restaurant atmosphere. A little bit of subtle intention can make people move.

Therefore, today's restaurants can't win by relying only on the "experts" in the front hall or the "masters" in the back kitchen. More importantly, there should be a "director" who can find out the lack or incompleteness of a certain part with critical eyes every day to make this play more exciting.

6. Consider bringing rich experience to customers

Many specifications and standards in the industry, such as standard recipes and operation manuals, are only minimum requirements, and are not formulated to bring joy and happiness to customers. Now, if you want business to get better, you must forget the industry standards and set your own standards for customer satisfaction.

Take yourself as the protagonist and convey personal values, beliefs and grand dreams to customers. These are the key words of "post-catering popularization era"!

7. The biggest competitor is ourselves

We are used to investigating our competitors, and when we find some good aspects of our competitors, we begin to imitate them. As a result, we become more and more similar, and take the "good things" of our competitors as our own. Instead of increasing the charm of our own restaurants, we kill the unique charm of our own restaurants. It is absolutely unacceptable for many restaurants to let chefs change dishes as soon as their business is not good. Insist on cooking your best dishes, upgrading your most famous dishes and the dishes that customers are most familiar with, which is fundamental.

New dishes certainly bring new customers, but customers come to you and want your original taste! Imitating each other's formal things is stupid! Whether you can be welcomed by customers is a battle between yourself and yourself, so that customers who come to the store always like you. This is also a battle between yourself and yourself. If you don't understand this, you can't really make customers like you, so it's better to pay attention to customers than to other people's stores.

8. You can't make ends meet by saving

According to the survey, successful restaurants take part in study tours more than twice as often as unsuccessful shopkeepers. Money is the same, and so is time. Shopkeepers of successful restaurants will not save too much. It can even be said that they seem to be actively "wasting" time. The time and money spent by restaurants can be divided into two parts: the work needs at that time and the impact on customers in the future.

the shopkeepers of all successful stores have one thing in common, that is, they do not hesitate to spend money and labor to accomplish anything that pleases customers, whether it is the work needs at that time or the impact on customers in the future.

9. Instead of sticking to the rules, it is better to restore the human touch.

Many regulations, manuals and disciplines of the company have appeared in order to grow continuously and ensure the standardization of services. These rules and regulations were once very important, but now we can't treat customers in a fixed format, because customers are, after all, living and personalized people, and their requirements for services are constantly changing.

now, let's abolish all kinds of regulations and start a people-oriented business mode! It is no longer an era in which products are easy to sell on the premise of market expansion, nor is it an era in which hundreds and thousands of chain stores are opened in the country while controlling according to the management system. Paying attention to the fate between people is the "king" of business. The human touch must be preserved.

11. Try your best to impress customers

When business is bad, it's no use for the boss to stay in the store all day. Okubo Ichihiko suggested: When business is bad, don't repeat the previous practice, but look for how to impress customers. Only by constantly providing customers with small surprises can restaurants regain their vitality.