Holiday season is the time when your restaurant can make the most profit as people are in the spirit of spend generously and enjoy their holidays to the fullest in order to make some remarkable memories. You might have wondered why some restaurants are more famous than the others during the holiday seasons? What they are doing to get people line up to dine at their restaurant?

People go out during holiday seasons to shop or to celebrate and most of the time they prefer to dine outside. It is important that restaurant owners create an ambience that suits different holidays to attract customers towards their restaurant.

Following are a few suggestions a restaurant can implement to attract customers in the holiday season and stand out among competitors.

Creating a festive environment!

Different religious and national holidays are spread out in a calendar. Each holiday is significant for either a majority of people or even a minority. If you want to make onlookers interested in your restaurant, you need to create an environment that catches their attention and makes it impossible for them to move on. Also consider using sound and music to set the mood.

For example, as it nears the end of the year, Christmas decorations are a given. But the key is to stay humble while decorating. If your restaurant’s decorations are too extravagant then it can deter potential customers if they don’t celebrate a particular holiday. It is important to remain subtle with your intentions.

Special Menu & Inventions

As a particular holiday or festival nears, dishes that are special for that holiday should be added in your restaurant’s menu. Customizing your menu based on an upcoming holiday is a common practice in restaurants and rightfully so. For instance, during Ramadan, dates, fruits and sweets are necessary additions in your menu as it facilitates those who are fasting.

You can also experiment and invent new dishes and add them in your menu as your restaurant’s specialty. There are many restaurants famous for their special dishes that customers cannot eat at any other restaurants. The element of uniqueness can increase a restaurant’s esteem in more ways than you can imagine. So, what are you waiting for? Give your chefs this responsibility now and see what they can come up with.

Make sure that you communicate these special menus online to generate interest and get your customers to make online reservations.

Deals, Promotions and Offers

People are keen on spending money during holiday seasons but not so much so that they will pass on promotional offers and discount deals. You might have noticed that with each holiday comes an abundance of holiday deals. During Ramadan and Christmas, the act of spending generously and community goodwill is at its peak. To take part in these acts of kindness as well as to maintain good relationship with your customers, discount deals and meal offers are significantly important.

Though it must seem that by offering deals, a restaurant’s profit will go down considerably but it’s not true as each deal you put out will earn you a customer’s trust. For any restaurant to make profit, its relationship with its customers should be based on trust and respect.

Hire More Trained Staff

Holiday season brings in customers from your restaurant’s immediate vicinity as well as from wherever your marketing reaches. If all the above promotional offers and marketing that you have adopted work well for you, your restaurant might get an influx of new customers that you might not be used to. You need to be ready to deal with them as many restaurants struggle to deliver a good customer service when they are short on staff during these situations. All your marketing and preparations for the holiday season would be of no avail if your restaurant’s customer service is poor.

Delayed orders and a poor response time can keep your customers from visiting your place again because the one thing that customers hate more than anything else, is waiting for their food to be served when they are absolutely famished.

This is essential to keep in mind especially during Ramadan or Lent and other occasions when people are fasting. Those who are fasting should be served as fast as possible. You should also serve complimentary dates, fruits and drinks to customers to break their fast if you think you won’t be able to serve their orders on time.

Supply and Stock

One of the many things that can give your restaurant a bad reputation is when a dish on your menu is not available because you ran out of ingredients. This impacts your restaurant’s reputation drastically if the special items on your menu that you’ve been advertising in relation to a particular holiday are unavailable.

Not only do you fail to serve your customers, but you will also be pegged for false advertisement which will give your restaurant a bad rapport. It is important that you satisfy your customers by any means possible because their bad reviews can tarnish your restaurant’s name and decrease your revenue.

Avoid False Advertisement

Many restaurants advertise dishes and facilities that they cannot offer. They do this to present the flashiest deal during holiday season and attract as many customers as possible. But these offers are of no use if in the end you fail to deliver what you promised. Customer will be deceived by your advertisement only once and after that they will form an opinion about your restaurant based on their first experience.

Many times, customers will find a deal reasonable and affordable, but they will later find out about the hidden charges and conditions and will lose trust in that restaurant. So, be mindful of what you advertise during holiday seasons and make sure you don’t frustrate your customers with hidden charges and conditions.

Seasonality and Holidays

During holiday seasons, but also seasonality in general a restaurant’s revenue is affected. Studying KPIs will tell you how a particular season is related to the amount of customers dining at your restaurant. Most restaurants will succumb to seasonality but if you know how it can threaten your restaurant’s revenue then you can be prepared for its pitfalls beforehand through some of the above mentioned tips and methods.