10 Effective Ideas to Make a Restaurant Better

No matter how well your restaurant is doing, there is always room for improvement. With a few simple changes, you can attract more clients, improve customer satisfaction, outrank your competition, and much more.

In this article, you will find a variety of ideas to make a restaurant better you can easily implement. Start now and you will see results in no time!

10 Must-know Ideas to Make a Restaurant Better

We’ve included ideas to improve the menu, ordering process, client experience, employee satisfaction, and a lot more so you can better almost every part of your business.

1. Add allergen and nutritional information to your menu

Did you know that 30% of adults and 40% of children in the U.S. suffer from allergies? If you want to attract them to your restaurant, you need to signal all the allergens your menu items include, so potential clients can choose dishes that are safe for them.

You can do so easily with the menu creator from GloriaFood. In just a few intuitive clicks, you can add the most common allergens to your menu, and they will be displayed just after the description for increased visibility.

Read more: How to Improve Your Menu with Allergen Information & Keep Customers Safe

Moreover, if you want to convince people who track their calories to order from your restaurant, you can also add nutritional information to your dishes.

Read more: Why Restaurant Menus with Nutritional Information Will Attract More Customers

2. Make online ordering a breeze

One of the best ideas to make a restaurant better focuses on creating the best online ordering experience that encourages clients to keep coming back.

If you want to increase your online sales, you will need:

• An SEO-optimized website: so you can rank on the first page where people will easily find you when they look for your type of cuisine. Many clients prefer to forego third-party delivery apps and choose to order directly from the restaurant’s website;

• An online ordering system: that you can add in less than 10 minutes on your website and makes the ordering process speedy and convenient for each customer;

• A branded mobile app: if you want to go a step further and impress your clients, you can allow people to order from a native app that only displays your menu items;
• A direct link to your menu on social media: so clients who find your business while browsing Facebook and Instagram can order with a simple click.

Read more: How to Attract More Customers to Your Restaurant Using Social Media

3. Become a child-friendly restaurant

Many people who have children would like to go out more, but they have difficulty in finding a place where their kids will be welcome. Therefore, if you are looking for ideas to make a restaurant better, consider making your business child-friendly.

Check out these tips:

• Add a children’s section on the menu: with smaller portions and meals usually appreciated by children such as chicken nuggets and mac and cheese;
• Offer special seating: for kids that are too small to use the normal ones, such as booster chairs and high chairs;
• Provide entertainment: to keep the little ones busy if they get bored. For example, coloring books and crayons.

Read more: How to Attract Families to Your Restaurant: Kid-Friendly Restaurant Ideas

4. Attract clients with promotions

If you want to attract more new clients and increase the value of your average check, you must start adding irresistible promotions to your menu. Here are some examples that are guaranteed to work:

• Free delivery
• % discount on the whole check
• Free dessert on orders over a certain amount
• 2+1 free
• Combo meals

You can implement the above and more in just a few seconds with GloriaFood. Check out this instructional video:

Read more: How to Use Restaurant Promotion Templates Effectively to Boost Sales

5. Offer rewards for loyalty

Do you want to offer clients a better experience and encourage them to come back? Then you must show clients you appreciate their loyalty by offering them rewards. You can implement a simple loyalty program using the Promotions module from GloriaFood offering people discounts according to:

• The number of previous orders
• The amount of money spent previously

Read more: How to Increase Customer Loyalty in a Restaurant

6. Get involved with the local community

When you are looking for ideas to make a restaurant better, you must identify your target market. Your usual customers are going to be people who live close to your restaurant. Therefore, a great way to get them to pick you over your competition is to get involved in the community.

Check out these useful tips:

• Use locally sourced ingredients: and boast about it in the menu descriptions on social media. You can also organize events where you showcase the quality of your ingredients and allow people to get to know the producers;
• Partner with local wineries or beer artisans: feature their products in your restaurant to get access to a new audience;
• Donate to local charities: to show your customers you care about bettering the whole community;
• Organize events: to offer clients something else on top of your delicious food. For example live music, quizzes, karaoke, etc.

Read more: 15 Restaurant Event Ideas to Get Customers Through the Door

7. Invest in paid ads for restaurants

It is well-known that your social media posts don’t reach all your followers, even if you have many of them. Furthermore, if you are at the start and want to make an impression quickly, you must invest in paid ads for social media to get the word out about your restaurant.

Concentrate on:

• Google ads: target people in your area who are interested in your type of cuisine to ensure the money you invest will convert into future clients;
• Social media ads: tempt people with offers to persuade them to click on the link in the ad that leads directly to your menu.

Read more: 9 Local Store Marketing Ideas for Restaurants to Attract a Loyal Crowd

8. Start creating more video content for social media

You probably already know that one of the most efficient ideas to make a restaurant better is to take advantage of social media. But how you use social media matters, especially because the preferred type of content keeps changing.

Right now, people find videos more entertaining than simple image posts. Here are a couple of tips for your future viral restaurant videos:

• How it’s made: show how you prepare a dish from laying out the ingredients to plating;
• Unboxing: show a client opening their restaurant online order enthusiastically;
• Clean with me: film your team giving the kitchen a good clean at the end of the day to prove you prize cleanliness;
• Short recipes: teach your followers simple tricks in the kitchen that will make their food taste better;
• Staff presentations: show the personal side of your business by introducing your valuable team members.

9. Incentivize your employees with rewards

Your restaurant’s success is directly dependent on your employees. If they are productive, keep up with their tasks, and provide customers with a great experience, your business will have a great reputation and will continue to grow.

To motivate your staff to give it their wall, you need to reward their efforts. Here are a couple of ideas:

• Offer bonus for outstanding performance: for employees who covered shifts for their colleagues, are always up to give a helping hand, and get good reviews from customers;
• Organize contests with prizes: for example, a $100 gift card for the employee who gets the most tips in a week.
• Take them on a fun field trip or a working destination holiday.

Read more: How to Motivate Restaurant Employees and Increase Retention

10. Reply to all online reviews

An outstanding 92% of customers read restaurant reviews. Their choice of dining establishment will be heavily influenced by:

• The number of reviews: you need to persuade customers to leave positive reviews to gain authority. Consider offering a free dessert as an incentive;
• The overall rating: restaurants that have a rating below 4 stars won’t get as many visitors as the ones that are better reviewed. You must ensure your service and food are always on point to avoid bad reviews;
• The way the restaurant responds to reviews: mistakes happen, but the key is how you react to them. You should always reply to each review, be it good or bad, and try to solve the problem and get the client to visit your restaurant again so you change their opinion.

Read more: How to Respond to Negative Restaurant Reviews to Increase Brand Loyalty

Final words

If you want your business to remain open and successful long-term, you must always be on the lookout for ideas to make a restaurant better. Try the tips provided above and you will notice a significant improvement in client experience, revenue, and employee satisfaction.