Helping a restaurant owner get more customers?

I would introduce them to mobile marketing, to build up their customer database and have instant contact with those customers at the "click of a button"

If you weren't sure SMS marketing is what you'll need to research in reference to what dave said above. I know there was an awesome ebook I read a while back, it was really awesome for giving ideas. It was like sms gold something. If you're really interested in it, pm me i'll dig my hd for its name.

If I got 40 customers a day, I would start with leveraging current customers as much as possible. I would offer them discounts for each person they bring to my place. Not only the current customers would like to bring more people to me but also the new customers would like to bring more new customers. I would also create discounted group menus and distribute flyers of that to attract more people.

Discounts for people who come with new customers is a great idea. Maybe some people just don't know what this restaurant has to offer and spreading some nice flyers will be a good idea?

Could you offer more information about the clients business? Location, what kind of restaurant, what they are doing now for marketing, etc.

He needs to start sending out postcards with coupons on a consistent basis.

Here is how I would approach this.

1. Let's start with getting current customers in the doors more often. Is these are once a week customers even turning half of them into twice a week customers would raise the daily customers to 60. So let's get him started with the following.

A. Text VIP Club: This way we can send off offer a few times a week to keep the restaurant on their minds. And since these people love deals this should allow for a great sign up percentage and a good bounce back rate.

B. Email: Same idea but via email. Use this for the best offers as coupons and track which bring people back in the most.

C. Let's get social with Facebook and use offers there as well.

This is a 3 tiered attack to hopefully catch every current customer in at least one of our 3 lists.

2. We need to get more people in the Doors. Once they are here we need to pull them into the above 3 lists if we can. Ideas on how to do that are the following.

A. EDDM: The Bob Ross method. Search the forum for more info on this but blanketing close neighborhoods with post cards full of coupons is a great way to do it. Remember to have one coupon as a "digital" coupon that gets sent when they sign up for the Text VIP Club. Remember we want them on our lists.

B. Newspapers: Put coupons in the paper, once again make one digital.

C. Door Knob Hangers: Print a load of these out with coupons on them and pay some college kids to hang them in neighborhoods for you.

3. Why are they only getting 40 customers a day? This may be the most important issue. If the restaurant sucks nothing you do will bring them long term business. In a city about 10 miles from my home there is a very low priced restaurant I have ate at a few times but the food is worse than what I could make at home. If the food or service is subpar there is little you can do to change that unless you consult on restaurant turnarounds. But even then most of the owners will just revert back to old habits. You need to eat here a few times to experience it. If it sucks and you need a client you can follow the above ideas to get business but in the long run it will not change. Personally if it sucked that bad I wouldn't put much effort into it.

EDIT: All the above works with business clients you just need to target offices locally with coupon drops vs. normal door hangers. In some ways this is easier. You can even ask a regular to take some back to his office and you can comp the meal as thanks.

Start with the basics:

Don't forget local publications. Most of them have a food section. Invite the writer to come for a complimentary meal! Of course, only do this if the place is good. LOL

Also, local event and news websites typically get a TON of traffic. Make sure the restaurant is listed in all of them.

Make sure the Google Local listing is correct with photos and keywords. People looking for Indian food are using Google Maps on their phones to find one.

Design nice flyers with two or three coupons and the menu on the back, take them around to every office in 5 miles at least once per month. These flyers remind people and end up in the "office menu book" - anyone who has worked an office environment knows the book I am talking about!

I am working for a restaurant that is focused on increasing lunch crowd. (semi-rural, small town under 30K people, 3 miles off highway, 8 competitors in area, fast casual)
I regularly check:
quality of service
a) how long to get seated with menu, get drinks, and hear specials.
b) how long to get order taken
c) how long for food to arrive
d) how long to get the check
Can all of this be done within an hour while still serving a great meal? If it is a lunch crowd from businesses, you will want to have great service and meal completed in a 45 min. max turnaround time.
By the way, the avg. ticket in this place is $9.50 - not expensive by any means, and they still make a lot of profit.

2. Quality of food:
If it sucks, there is nothing you can do. If its good then follow the advice of the posters above. Getting the menu in people's hands works!

Example:
Our local pizza joint had a Dominos move in on the same block. The owner pre-empts the expected dip in sales by having really nice printed menus mailed to entire area, based on home values (professional workers and small business owners, and higher). Why? Market segmentation...

Because dominos will have their crowd (people who want cheap food fast via delivery) . Our local guys menu focused on 1) lunch specials and 2) beer and wine.
He does not have delivery.

By redesigning his menu and emphasizing his specialties, he helped customers know that his pizzas are
1. much larger than dominos
2. better value - his 16" with toppings is less than dominos of the same size
3. that he uses locally bought fresh ingredients, prepared and cooked there
4. and that he has offerings that dominos doesn't.

So the dominos moved in, turns in excellent sales numbers (number one in the chain in the western region) and the local pizza guy experienced no decline in business and actually increased his business in the weeks that followed.

The mailing was done through the post office every door direct for about 799 and his graphics girl did an excellent job designing the brochure, which ran him 400.

The moral: do what the above posters recommend, but add in attention on the service quality, the table turnover times, and the market segmentation.

Hope that helps!

#1 best way to get him more customers is to get him ranked #1 in Google for some key search terms.

The 40 a day, are they regulars throughout the weeks (they must be doing something right re food/ service/price etc ) or is it consistently more new faces ( at least their marketing works to some extent but the service must suck) .

Where do the 40 a day come from, why are they eating there instead of the competition (all the reasons) , are the evening families also the lunchtime work crowd or different bodies,
How much does the business have to invest upfront and then reinvest over time and how much time will they allow you to bring them the required results (or better)

You say they used Groupon, what results did they have from that, is that where the 40 a day are now from , what did they do with the Groupon crowd, do they have any of their contact details, if not.......arghhh .