People can never have enough of discounts. After all, who would want to miss out on a good bargain? And that’s what keeps them going, whether it is for retail, getting their hair colored or even at a restaurant. Yes, small discounts in restaurants are a big hit too and can drive more traffic your way!

No matter how independent you claim to be, in the end, it is all about your customers. And to get customers, you need to lay the bait. In business terms, it’s called a discount. Discounts are a great psychological tactic to attract customers.

For instance, while a dish of Rs. 90 may look normal, the same meal priced at Rs. 100 with 10% discount would come across as far more tempting, and therefore, you’ll get more orders for it.

If you are still not satisfied (which is evident, since we are just getting started), here are the best reasons that explain how giving small discounts in restaurants can benefit your business:

1. Get famous

Discounts play a vital role in promoting any business. Whay do you think Dominos is such a popular option for people? Is that because they serve the best pizzas? No…Dominos built its brand based on regular discounts.
When one customer benefits reasonably well from your discounts, he/she is bound to refer your restaurants to others. Free, organic marketing at your doorstep, at zero cost. How cool is that?

2. Make friends, not customers

A genuine provider-consumer relationship might look good in some economics book, but in a real world, brand loyalty is not achieved like that. Your customers will visit you, eat at your place, and move on with their lives without giving you second thoughts.

Providing small discounts in restaurants, on the other hand, gives customers an incentive to come back to you. For them, you will always be the one who “serves food like it was free”. The primary incentives help to create customer loyalty that would persist long after the incentives are gone.

3. Old stocks? Not a problem

Small discounts in restaurants contribute to solving one huge problem in the food business – old stocks. You need to have a variety of dishes on your menu, to give your customers enough choices. Naturally, you will also need to keep stock for each one of them.

But the fact is that some dishes are just not good enough to capture the interest of customers. For instance, you may need to include a pineapple pizza for the sake of those 5 customers who like it; but 50 others would as easily ignore it.

But what do you do with the extra stock that that is likely to go stale, and therefore, will not e fit for use? Well, it’s simple, sell those items at a discount, so people end up buying them anyway!

While it might reduce your margin of profit, it is still much better than having to throw away the stock in the garbage.

4. More sales, more joy

Surveys prove that customers tend to spend more when the product in question is on discount. Someone who planned to eat one course at a regular price might gobble down three if they are on discount.

You might wonder, “What about my profits?”. Well, the profits are still there. You might need to reduce the margin a little, but in purely commercial terms, it would be worth it.

Remember, selling one dish at a normal price is ordinary; selling 10 meals at discounted price is smart!

5. You just became a genie!

Curiosity is a sin that plagues every human. As a restaurant owner, you just have to exploit that.

Once it becomes known that your place offers the best discounts, customers will trickle down at your doorsteps, just to check what they might find on discount today. Some days might be better than others, but your customers don’t know that, so they would arrive regularly.

6. Automate everything

Discounts may also give you the opportunity to automate your business and go digital. A carefully planned business plan and simple software is enough for you to replace cash counters with computers.

Such software will help you a great deal in deciding the category and extent of discount, thus saving you from any possible human error. No error means no loss and a happy you.

7. Have a dedicated audience

Discounts also provide you with an excellent way to target a particular set of customers. For example, you want your place to be known as the ultimate hub for the elderly. What do you do? Well, you just offer discounts for every person above the age of 60.

With a simple stroke, giving small discounts in restaurants would ensure a dedicated customer base, which would also be fiercely loyal to you. Customer loyalty, like we said so many times before, is the most important thing in a business.

8. Easy goals, easier game

As a restaurant owner, you need to maintain annual or quarterly growth reports. But like everyone in the restaurant business knows, one bad week could reflect badly on the entire growth report that you were maintaining for months.

Small discounts in restaurants help you out in such sticky spots. If you want to have a sudden surge in sales, just start offering heavy discounts. Maybe you won’t make as much profit, but at least you would have that shiny report to show your progress.

Conclusion

Discounts are a great tool to boost your business, even though they need to be handled with care. When done right, small discounts in restaurants ensure a constant supply of smiling customers at your doorstep, who wouldn’t even mind waiting in the queue, as long as they can enjoy your discounted food. There is an enormous potential waiting for you to become rich. Don’t miss that out.