What do we mean by increasing anticipation in your restaurant business?
We’re talking about the feeling you create amongst prospective diners. You want them to have a sense of longing, a desperation of such before they dine. They’re itching to get their bums down on your seats, so they can finally tuck into your food.
It is a crucial element of every restaurant business that often gets neglected. In this post, we’ll explain how to build a sense of anticipation in your restaurant. Before that, we’ll discuss why you should do it…
Why build anticipation in your restaurant?
The whole concept is designed around two things:
- Encouraging diners to spend more money
- Encouraging more people to flock to your restaurant
When there’s a sense of anticipation in your restaurant, diners are on edge – but in a good way. The wait is killing them and they’ve been looking forward to eating here for ages. They’re finally here, but the anticipation keeps on building until they finally get to order. After all this time, they’re more inclined to spend more money and buy more items on the menu because of the anticipation. It’s got them more excited than they otherwise would be, so they want to make the most out of their experience.
If you build anticipation early on, this drives more people to your restaurant. They’re eager to see what you offer because they’ve been drawn in by your marketing. Plus, diners that have already eaten with you are more likely to recommend your restaurant as you lived up to their expectations.
How to build anticipation in a restaurant
It starts online – on social media, to be precise. Posting on Instagram or TickTock with videos or images of your food is a brilliant way to build anticipation. You make people salivate at the sight of your delicious food, encouraging them to come down or make a booking. The more people see your food, the more they anticipate eating it. You’ll have queues of hungry diners all eager to try that signature dish you always post online.
Then, the real anticipation starts to build when they reach your restaurant. Always make people wait to be seated – it’s a genius idea. For one, it makes them spend a little extra as they can get some drinks at the bar. Secondly, you want them to wait for a few minutes in your restaurant seeing and smelling everything around them. Use scent marketing for restaurants to further drive this home. As people wait – or even as they walk past your unit – they smell delicious things. It makes them salivate in anticipation as everything smells so good they can’t wait to try it. When you call them over to say their table is ready, they’ll sprint there and open the menu instantly.
Building a sense of anticipation is the secret to gaining customers and making them spend more money. It begins with an online campaign designed to make people want your food. Then, you turn things up when they’re at your restaurant, making all of your diners eager to sit down and eat.