Want To Attract More Customers? Take A Good Look At Your Restaurant Furniture

This is a short post, but I’ll leave you something good to think about by the end of the article.

Let’s talk about restaurant furniture. Yes, your tables, chairs, magazine stands, bar stools, the pictures hanging on the walls, etc. Furniture. Thing is people have a habit of looking at something from a biased perspective. Want proof?

Step outside and take a long hard look at your restaurant from the front door. It looks good, right? Perfect. Everything is in place. But then again from whose perspective are you looking from? You are the restaurant owner. Saying your restaurant couldn’t be better is like your mother saying you have a beautiful voice and believing her.

Believe it or not, restaurant furniture is a marketing tool. I can’t remember how many times I’ve looked through a restaurant’s front window and then kept walking when the establishment’s style of furniture and layout didn’t appease my appetite.

First impressions count.

I thought we all believed in this statement. I guess some restaurant operators don’t.

Some establishments—Burger King, McDonald’s, etc.—could arrange their tables every which way and still get customers. These are world-famous franchises. They don’t need a good seating layout to make a sale. These establishments could sell burgers like hot pancakes even on Good Friday.

The trick is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Again step outside and look at your restaurant from the front. Does your restaurant furniture complement your desired theme? Are the tables too close together? Is it too dark inside? Or do you need curtains to filter some of the sunlight coming in from the windows?

If this is the first time you laid eyes on your restaurant, what would be your first impression?

In the end, always be open to change. When you step outside, if you see something you don’t like, change it. Before you tempt customers with your dishes, first you need to attract them to take a seat at one of your tables, and this is where restaurant furniture and layout, as a marketing tool, comes in.

Put in the effort to try and see things from your customer’s perspective from time to time. After all, they are the lifeblood of your business and who will spell the difference between failure and success of your restaurant.

Tell me what you think by leaving a comment after this post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 2:22 am and is filed under Offline Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.