With the emergence of food delivery apps, restaurants and bars everywhere have been experiencing a significant decrease in physical patronage. This is not a major concern for your locality’s more established businesses, but for many smaller businesses who are still looking to carve a niche for themselves, it can be tricky knowing how to attract a crowd.

Here are a few ways small business owners can reclaim control and effortlessly up their venue’s foot traffic.

1. Your POS system and you

When given a choice between ‘Cash Only’ and ‘Cashless’, the correct answer should always be neither. You want to make sure that your point of sale system (or POS) is able to take payments from absolutely all potential customers. Alongside this, any reliable POS will also be easily customisable to accommodate menu changes, price alterations, and order alterations.

Nowadays, there are a number of versatile POS systems out there for you to choose from, so it’s recommended that you take some time to become well-acquainted with all your options and choose the one that’s sure to grow with you. Your ideal POS should be cross-platform and highly intuitive in its design, to ensure that you and your staff can operate it smoothly upon installation and from virtually anywhere in your venue.

2. Signature drinks and dishes

The most important quality that will attract patrons to any venue is the guarantee of a unique experience. A surefire way of being able to provide this is by pouring passion and artistry into your drinks and dishes through the formation of signature menu items. For foodie cities like Melbourne, the development of a quality signature drink or dish can essentially ensure that your restaurant or bar gets some fantastic exposure through a myriad of local publications and expertly curated lists of ‘must-have dining experiences’.

Identifying your venue’s signature drinks and dishes will also greatly simplify the process of marketing your business, as all you’ll need to focus on is selling that singular experience and aligning that experience with your business’ name and style.

3. Unique (and Instagram-worthy) interiors

Speaking of selling singular experiences, signature drinks and dishes won’t turn your restaurant from an eatery to a fashionable joint single-handedly. Your menu works in accordance with your restaurant’s own interior style and decor, and a foolproof way of drawing a crowd is by crafting a beautiful space.

Whether you decide to strictly adhere to a specific theme or use your interior design knowledge to create a picture-perfect environment, so long as your space looks fresh and inviting, people are sure to take notice. Even if you own a ‘dark restaurant’, you still have a shopfront to work with, alongside bathrooms, cloakrooms, and other functional spaces that can be easily enhanced with some design flair. And when in doubt, all you really need to do is decorate a singular wall with some bold ‘gram-worthy’ patterns and textures to ensure that your venue becomes a genuine destination.

Takeaway

Finally, there’s no denying that food delivery apps are a valuable asset to all modern restaurants and bars, and so they should be utilised by all up-and-coming small businesses. Rest assured, we don’t mean to ignore the obvious pitfalls that food delivery apps offer small business owners, including but not limited to the increasing fees of these delivery services, as well as the fact that they’re also essentially robbing you from forming valuable relationships with your customers. But there are ways around these pitfalls too!

It’s all about keeping yourself in the loop so that you can adequately adapt to this ever-evolving industry!