3 Ways To Ready Your Restaurant For The Holiday Season

If you’re a restaurant owner, you’re probably salivating at the thought of all of those extra customers that will be coming through your doors during the upcoming holiday season. Pun intended, of course! Restaurants generally have the luxury of having customers walk through their doors all year long. However, they also experience certain high points of the year the way retailers do.

The holiday season is a time that is celebrated all across Canada. Many businesses throw holiday parties and need to book reservations at restaurants in order to entertainment their many guests. Of course, there’s a long list of reasons as to why “holiday eating” is so popular. And, as a result, restaurant owners need to make sure that they’re ready for the impending rush. So how will you ensure your restaurant is ready for this year’s holiday season?

Here are three ways to do so:

1. Send samples and menus to neighbouring businesses. As mentioned, Christmas parties are often held at restaurants. If you’re looking to cash in on the tradition, it would be wise to inform business owners in your area that you’re prepared to host their upcoming holiday celebrations. Your best bet is to get in touch with them early by sending out samples and menus so that they’re inclined to make your restaurant their party destination of choice.

“Most area businesses will have a holiday party or team lunches for their employees, whether it’s catered in or in-person,” Cheryl Parsons of RewardsNetwork.com reminds us, “Send samples and catering menus to nearby offices or places of business, inviting them to try your restaurant for their holiday parties, lunches and dinners. You can also have a ‘by invitation only’ reception for local businesses to try your catering and check out your restaurant.”

2. Offer to cater office parties. Who says all office parties take place in restaurants? Many businesses choose to celebrate the holidays with their staff members within the very offices they work in. Perhaps, your restaurant can still take advantage of this fact by offering catering services. This will make things very convenient for business owners in your area who plan hosting parties on site.

This suggestion comes highly recommended by Elizabeth Kraus on Kabbage.com. “Even if your restaurant does not normally offer catering services, offering catering during the holiday season might mean additional revenues,” she suggests, “You can also cater to groups during the holidays and promote special menus prepared specifically for corporate groups that book holiday gatherings at your restaurant.”

3. Make it easy for large parties to make individual payments. How often have large parties come into your restaurant and requested separate bills? It likely happens more often than not. And during the holiday season, it’s bound to happen a lot. Make life easy on your patrons and don’t make them go through the annoying task of mathematically dividing their large bills on their own. Offer separate bills and allow each customer to pay with his or her credit or debit card.

Having a Pay At Table solution is something that pleases restaurant visitors nationwide. It makes life so much more convenient when customers are able to simply use their credit and debit cards to pay for their meals right at the tables where they’ve completed their meals. At Canadian POS Corporation, we offer the Ingenico iWL220B wireless terminal, which is perfect for any environment where you need to bring the point of payment to your customers.

For more information, call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.