Virtual Events: Engage your restaurant customers & boost sales

Virtual events are gaining popularity in the wake of the pandemic to create that missing spark among restaurant customers. Right from cocktail demos to poetry readings, the digital channels are occupied by restaurants to woo their customers to something special.

As we are going through a pandemic, the need to stay relevant and on the customer list is ever important for restaurant owners. In order to do so, it has become inevitable for restaurant and bar owners to explore the new avenues of communication presented by the online world.

According to Paul Grieco, a famous wine bar owner in New York, Reinvention is the need of the hour. He was smart to act and immediately cashed in on the online world after closing his wine bar to start an interview series named "From The Bunker". His interviews feature renowned personalities from the hospitality industry like Jose Andres, Bobby Stuckey. He uses technology to connect with his fellow professionals and to give valuable insights to his customers. He shares interesting facts about wine using social media and is glad with his presence in the world of technology so that he can keep his business relevant in the minds of people.

According to Erik Segelbaum, a good way to Boost Restaurant Sales through engaging customers online is by providing them an option to relive the experience of your restaurant, especially if they are a regular at your place. Give them the opportunity to cook their own meal by giving them the recipe and shopping list and then the chef and beverage director can come online and guide customers on how to make their favourite dish and relive the restaurant experience. A Very engaging way indeed to stir the interest of your regular customers!

Online wine classes are also an interesting way to keep customers posted according to Zach Geballe, wine educator for Tom Douglas Restaurants and owner of Disgorged wine.

Geballe feels that you should first realize what the purpose of your engagement is. Is it for entertainment, education or promotion? You will have to come up with a different approach for each. For instance Geballe was aiming at folks who were in quarantine and had time to explore their passions.

Maurice Di Marino, beverage manager for Cohn Restaurant group in San Diego, came up with another creative stint which involved the revelation of the backdrops of different spirits and wines. Using Zoom classes Maurice and his staff taste and discuss the history of various spirits to enlighten their customer base and later the customers can place orders of their favourite spirits and wine by simply filling in a Google form thus helping the bar to generate revenue through the online sessions.

Conclusion

These events should be conducted with equal amounts of seriousness as running a restaurant itself. Giving your panelists an idea on what they should cover during the session to garner good attention from the audience without wasting their precious time is very important. Just explain the way you want the session to work out and have a detailed discussion with your panelists on the same to target the right audience and for maximum engagement. There are many more interesting tips and ideas to boost restaurant sales.

Finally don't be obsessed over the results as the line between success and failure in virtual events is a very thin one. Just stay true to your motive and think of newer ideas to engage your audience to generate more revenue!

Source: NRN.com

Kiruthika

Kiruthika is a Content writer and blogger at Qono Technologies. Other than her interest in writing, she can be seen listening to songs, reading or traveling.