Small business owners with a brick-and-mortar location are constantly looking for ways to drive more customers into their stores and restaurants. In today’s increasingly competitive market, where consumers have many choices, it’s essential to come up with ways to get people to walk through your door.
The number of people in your store or restaurant at any point in time is an indicator of whether your marketing efforts are working. As foot traffic increases, so do your opportunities for increasing sales. What tried and true methods increase foot traffic?
Best Strategies to Drive Foot Traffic to Your Business
There’s no shortage of things you can do to boost foot traffic in your brick-and-mortar business.
Your Business Should Have a Memorable Theme
A theme is more than just a specific type of product or cuisine. The style of your store or restaurant also tells the customer who you are. Not only should the theme influence the lines you carry, the menu, and décor, but it should also impact what type of equipment, seating, and checkout you have, your signage, your advertising, uniforms, and more.
Pay Attention to the Business’s Curb Appeal
When you look at your business, what do you see? Is there trash and debris all over the sidewalk? Are the windows dirty? Are the shrubs and beds trimmed and freshly mulched? Ensure customers can easily access your store or restaurant and that the front entrance is clean and well-landscaped.
Establish a Welcoming Atmosphere
Spruce up the interior of your store or restaurant with inviting and aesthetically pleasing decorations. Highlight sales items or menu specials to catch a shopper or diner’s eye. Ensure employees are trained to greet customers as soon as they walk in the door and tell people about the daily sales or specials. Employees should also thank customers for shopping or dining with you as they leave.
Make comfortable seating available for shoppers or diners while waiting for others in their party or for their table to be ready. When customers feel welcome and comfortable in your business, they will stay longer and visit more frequently.
Provide Customer Service Training for All Employees
Your business’ employees are your ambassadors to the public, so you want to ensure that they make a good impression on customers. International Customer Service expert, Nancy Friedman, provides these facts about customer service:
- You have 20 seconds to make a good impression on a customer before you close the sale.
- 8 of 10 customers who receive poor customer service will never return to your business and will tell 3 or 4 of their friends about their experience.
- Employees should ALWAYS be busy preparing for the next customer to walk into your business.
Partner With a Credit Card Processing Company
Customers want the ability to use credit cards, mobile payments, and other payment methods at checkout more than ever before. A brick-and-mortar business needs to accept all the payment methods customers use to compete with online companies and competitors.
Providing contactless payment options to customers also increases foot traffic to brick-and-mortar businesses. Mobile payments offer a better customer experience to store customers because they are fast and convenient, eliminating long lines to check out. Mobile payments get your restaurant customers seated faster and helps eliminate walkouts.
Social Media
Before you open your business, make sure you’ve created social media accounts. You should be consistently posting content on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Get people interested and invite them to your physical location with the following ideas:
- Show behind-the-scenes photos of restaurant chefs preparing popular dishes.
- Share videos of new store product lines. Studies show 56% of customers who follow brands on social media do so because they want to browse through the company’s products.
- Tweet a unique restaurant or store promotion going on.
- Post a coupon or discount on Facebook that customers can only redeem in your restaurant or store.
Claim your Google Business listing.
According to the search giant, 88% of people who run a local search on their smartphone visit a related store within a week. That way, anytime a local customer searches for a local store or restaurant, your store will appear in the results. Start encouraging your customers to leave reviews. Many consumers are using Google to find local stores in their area. So, if your business isn’t visible on the site, you’re missing out on foot traffic opportunities.
Offer Discounts and Support Causes
Everyone loves a discount, so offering a promotional discount is a great way to encourage customers to visit your store or restaurant. Share your promotional discount through email and social media, and let customers know they can redeem the discount in-store or in-restaurant.
Support a local cause by offering to donate a specific percentage of each sale to the local children’s shelter, food pantry, or community clinic. Sponsor a high school baseball or football team and offer a portion of the food price on one specific night of the week to support the team. When people see you as a part of their community, they are more likely to visit your business.
Talk to a Credit Card Processing Partner
Finical is a leading credit card processing company in North America offering all the must-have features plus additional benefits. Finical is compatible with all payment methods, including major credit cards, gift cards, mobile pay, contactless, and more. When you choose Finical as your mobile credit card processing partner, we provide:
- A free credit card terminal so you can accept payments anywhere.
- Fast Payment Funding to your business account.
- Secure, encrypted processing of all types of payments.
- 24/7 Customer Service.
- No Long-term contract.
- Transparent fees and pricing.
For a free consultation, Get in touch and learn more about how Finical can boost your business.
