Just as quality of food and service is important to a restaurant’s success, so is the restaurant’s representation of those foods and services. Ambiance and attitude may be elemental in the design of a restaurant, but at the end of the day, patrons are there to eat. A restaurant menu is the most obvious tool in exposing the customer to the culinary experience they want. Just as important as lighting and table settings, however, are the few pictures of menu items placed on restaurant tables and in the menu itself. These select photos give the diner an expectation that sets the tone for the entire meal.

Playing To Your Strengths

Have a great halibut? Make killer mac and cheese? Show it off! There is nothing greater for a restaurant than a new loyal customer. To get a new loyal customer, you have to give a great first impression. The best way to do that is to play to your restaurant’s strengths. Put pictures of your restaurant’s most well-known and well-loved menu items on display on menu covers and signs on tables. When a new or indecisive customer can’t decide between many appealing menu items, looking at a picture often helps the customer choose.

Be Consistent!

There is nothing more disconcerting than getting a meal that looks different from its picture. I have a spectacularly picky friend who once sent her chocolate chip pancakes back to an IHOP because they didn’t look like the pancakes on the sign (for the record, it’s the authors opinion that it’s pretty absurd to send chocolate chip pancakes back because “in the picture they have sprinkles”. And no, my friend isn’t an eight-year-old. This happened while we were in college). A lesson can be learned from my high maintenance friend: it can be upsetting to get a meal that looks different from the picture. However, the conflict surrounding her missing sprinkles is very easily avoided. As we all know, getting a meal that is EXACTLY what you wanted is wonderfully satisfying. A customer that sees what they want in a picture is the easiest customer to please. They won’t get their meal and be disappointed, because they knew what they were in for when they ordered it. The customer is pleased, and the restaurant doesn’t have to worry about meals being sent back because it’s not what the customer expected.

Creating Customers for Life

Customers may or may not choose their meal based on your menu pictures or restaurant signs. They will take the pictures of your food into consideration, whether it’s conscious or not. Be smart! Take pictures that make your food look delicious. There are companies who specialize in photographing only food. It’s their job to make your food look supernaturally good! Take advantage of their expertise. Your patrons may not order the food in the picture, but they will appreciate seeing that what you offer is high quality. Even having a small number of photos placed on tables and in menus can do wonders for a restaurant. Displayed prominently and tastefully, mouth-watering photos of your restaurant’s offerings can enhance the dining experience, and when you create a positive dining experience, as long as your customers’ orders looks like they do in the photos, they will enjoy coming back for more.

Five years ago, I decided to take a big risk and follow my life-long dream of opening a restaurant. I wanted it to specialize in the home cooked, southern comfort food my momma always made for me as a child. After a large investment of time, energy, and money, Mamma’s Kitchen finally opened six months later. I could not believe it, but it was an immediate and unexpected success! We were barely able to keep up with the influx of new customers and the hordes of first-timers who were fast becoming regulars. Although I was overjoyed with the success of the restaurant and the wonderful feedback I was receiving from patrons, a few months after opening the place I wanted to try something new.

I thought it would be fun to change up the menu every week by offering weekly specials. Here is where I ran into an unexpected challenge. When I first began offering weekly specials, I simply wrote the specials on a chalkboard that hung on the wall. The problem was nobody bothered to look up at the board and most customers were unable to see it from where they were seated. It was a complete failure! Next, I tried including paper inserts inside the regular menu we pass out to each customer upon seating. I assumed this was the method used by most restaurants so I thought it was worth a try. Little did I know how ineffective it would be! Since the specials were printed on paper, they were often torn, spilled upon, ripped, crumpled up, or simply thrown away by accident. This means we were passing out a new insert for almost every patron that came in the door! Not only was I wasting paper, I was wasting money. The weekly printing costs became exorbitant and I couldn’t keep it up. There had to be a better way to handle it.

After spending weeks of exploring different marketing options, I decided to look online to see if anything jumped out at me, and right away I found great tabletop sign holders. They were inexpensive, easy to use, and overall, seemed like the perfect solution. Now that I have started using them to display my menu specials, I am noticing the benefits they bring to my restaurant every day. First, using sign holders to feature my menu specials make it much easier to replace the special each week – all I have to do is change the paper inserts. The cost is minimal and I am able to try out am new designs and layouts all the time. I’ve noticed the sign holders look great with bright colors and lots of pictures – and people are actually reading them and trying new options on our menu! I have had the same gentleman come in for lunch every Wednesday for six-months and order a vegetable potpie every time. Now he orders a new special whenever he comes in, and he is here three or more times a week.

Regular customers look forward to sitting down and reading what is new for them to try, and I have had several people comment on how the new sign-holders do a nice job of displaying our specials. One regular patron said, “Great idea! I would have never tried your roast beef sandwich if it wasn’t for that mouth-watering picture.”

What is more, these sign holders have six sides to them, allowing me to fit everything I need to without a problem – so I can include several different “specials.” It really works out for my customers and me – they enjoy more options, and I enjoy more sales. Occasionally I notice a customer will pull out the paper, and write a message about how great the food is. I love it! It makes me happy to see these little notes and it makes other customers confident in what to order. Overall, I am so grateful for having discovered this way to promote the delicious weekly specials at Mamma’s Kitchen.

Without these sign-holders, I don’t think I would be experiencing the recent boost in business!