How miss KOREA BBQ Grew Weekday Sales by 65%
by Alec McGuffey June 30, 2022
As inflation, rising costs, and staffing shortages continue to challenge an industry in recovery, restaurants are scrambling to make up for the impact on their bottom line.
Should you try to improve a restaurant’s profits by compromising on menu size or ingredients, or do you focus on increasing the restaurant’s sales by casting a wide net with marketing?
At NYC’s miss KOREA BBQ, they used an entirely different strategy to increase their sales by $22,000 a month.
With a winning combination of dynamic incentives and targeted marketing, this restaurant began driving thousands per week in sales and attracting hundreds of brand new customers.
The Challenge of Slower Weekdays
A chic, multistory restaurant about a block from the Empire State Building, miss KOREA BBQ is popular for barbecue, bulgogi, and hot pots.
Even so, in the past, this restaurant has found itself subject to the off-peak slowdown that impacts most restaurants, relying on busy shifts on weekends to make up for quieter weekdays.
To incentivize more weekday bookings and increase the restaurant’s sales throughout the week, miss KOREA BBQ partnered with Seated for a two-pronged strategy:
- Offer reward-based incentives to guests who dined during off-peak times
- Launch a targeted local marketing campaign to high-value diners
Together, these tactics would attract new guests for specific times to strategically increase the restaurant’s occupancy, driving revenue and supporting the staff by bringing in more tips.
Increased Occupancy, Higher Sales
First, miss KOREA BBQ offered a higher reward for dining at their restaurant on Seated during off-peak dining, in order to incentivize guests to dine at the times when the restaurant wants more business.
Seated launched a marketing campaign promoting miss KOREA BBQ to high-value diners within a 5-mile radius of the restaurant’s location, targeting an audience of savvy, adventurous foodies.
The result was a steady stream of new customers for miss KOREA BBQ throughout the week, with a majority of guests dining Monday through Thursday, when rewards were highest. The increased restaurant occupancy improved revenue and profit margins…
Over the course of a month, this added up to a sharp increase in new customers and tips for staff, as well.
“By partnering with Seated, we were able to bring in over 400 new customers [in a month], a majority of whom came during slower times,” says miss KOREA BBQ general manager Julie.
“This has allowed us to keep revenue consistent, keeping staff happy and bringing in a large influx of new customers.”
The restaurant typically attracts dozens of reservations every week on Seated alone, and has used the platform not only to increase off-peak occupancy, but to build a dedicated audience of fans and repeat customers across the city.
How Much Can YOUR Profits Grow?
You’ve seen how much miss KOREA BBQ made by increasing the restaurant’s occupancy off-peak.
How much could you grow your profits by filling empty seats?
With Seated’s free occupancy calculator, you can estimate how much your restaurant’s profits could grow every year by bringing in more covers throughout the week.
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