Busy Saturdays, quieter Wednesdays. When you're running a restaurant, you know that some days will be busier than others. You can’t expect to get the same level of diners at 3 pm on a Tuesday afternoon as you would at 7 pm on a Saturday night. That's why it makes sense to plan for those quiet times to boost them to your advantage and drive more sales. Here are five ideas that can help you get more customers at quiet times:

Create Mid-Week Offers Customers Can't Resist

Look at your customer flow and create some great standard mid-week offers customers can't say no to. This could be a ‘happy hour’ that gives you 20% off all food and drinks Monday – Thursday 5 pm-7 pm for people after work. It could be an afternoon ‘early-bird’ special. Introduce these offers for your quiet time and promote them to local businesses, staff and students. Make sure the details are promoted on your social media channels and elsewhere online. This will encourage more ‘spur of the moment’ foot traffic to come during these times and help you get more customers.

Be the Hub of The Community

Make your establishment a great place for local groups or business to meet. Create some meeting packages that include food and drinks for groups that come at lunchtime or daytime and encourage local businesses to hold their meetings there. They can then focus on the meeting, knowing it will be quiet whilst knowing that they don’t have to worry about eating and drinking and that it's all covered.

Plan Family Events

It may be that rather than just attracting people to hold their events in your space you can put on your own events. During the summer holidays, there are plenty of parents looking to do something with their children, so maybe you can hold a sports day, or games day at your restaurant with a food and drink deal for those that take part (and their parents.) All this will depend on the area you're in and the facilities you have available.

How About A Quiz Night?

A local quiz night held at the same time and place every week is a great way to encourage people to come to your business. A lot of local groups like to attend and take part in a quiz and it is an easy thing to put on. You need a good and funny host, that can keep the crowd entertained. A variety of different questions that will appeal to a variety of different people. Then offer some fantastic prizes such as free food or drinks, or anything else you can. This is a great way to become a local hub for your community.

Charity Events

How about engaging with some local charities to create fundraising events for them and custom for you. Thinks like the MacMillan Coffee morning can be a great way to boost sales as well as help a good cause. This can all be promoted online and help generate goodwill for your business.