Before your restaurant's grand opening, you will want to be sure you have a proper grand opening plan in place for that day. Being prepared ahead of time allows you to focus, create unique launch party ideas, and enjoy the big day when it arrives.
Here are a few areas to focus on when you begin planning your grand opening:
- Pick a day for your event: When choosing a day, be aware of upcoming events in the area to avoid competing for customers. Create a timeline of the soft opening events leading up to your grand opening day.
- Select a time frame: How long will you host a grand opening? Decide if you want a breakfast, lunch, or dinner crowd and for how many hours you’re prepared to stay open.
- Recruit volunteers or hire employees: Give yourself enough time to find and train employees for the grand opening. Or, gather volunteers willing to help out.
- Select entertainment: Decide if you want to offer entertainment for the grand opening event, and book talent early. This could include bands, DJs, comedians, clowns for the children, or a local celebrity or sports mascot.
- Set a budget: Create a budget early in the planning process to avoid overspending on an extravagant affair. Most restaurants will allocate 20% of the first year’s marketing budget towards the event. Be sure to set funds aside for:
- Soft Opening and Grand Opening Invitations
- Grand Opening Advertisement
- Grand Opening Party Supplies and Decorations
- Grand Opening Giveaways and Prizes
Host a Soft Opening
Before your official restaurant opening, host a “soft opening” for a limited number of guests to test the staff, the flow, and the atmosphere of your establishment. This gives you and your staff a chance to iron out any kinks before you open your doors to the public. You may even want to host various soft opening events, tailored to a specific group of people, such as:
- Friends and Family: This is a free event for trusted people who understand that they are participating in a test run and have agreed not to share details publicly.
- Vendors: This is a way to thank those who helped you get your restaurant running and give them a chance to see the final product of their work.
- Local Business Owners: People who work in the neighborhood around your restaurant can become your best customers if given a chance to become familiar with and feel connected to your business.
- Influencers: Host an event for your local influencers, including politicians, police chiefs, journalists, and bloggers to help the word-of-mouth spread about your location just before the grand opening.
Use these events as an opportunity to get helpful feedback from friendly faces before opening to the public. Sending Google surveys or collecting feedback forms after each event is a great way to get a variety of perspectives.
Allow enough time between the soft opening events and the grand opening to potentially rework your menu, service style, or atmosphere. Waiting too long, however, could cause community excitement to die down and potential customers to forget or lose interest.
Offer Grand Opening Promotions:
It’s important to offer your grand opening attendees something that they’ll want badly enough to come to your event. On your grand opening menu, be sure to offer a taste of your signature dishes that best summarizes your restaurant’s offerings, while staying on-brand in order to give guests a clear understanding of what they can expect when you open.
When deciding how to encourage patrons to come to your grand opening and keep them coming back to your restaurant, ask yourself the following questions:
- What grand opening specials will you offer to customers? You might offer free samples of your specialty dishes or
- What will you do to encourage repeat business from patrons attending your grand opening? Considering offering loyalty cards, buy-one-get-one deals, and coupons for free products on the next visit
- How will you ensure you’re encouraging your target market to come to your restaurant? Try boosting your internet presence and community advertisement.
- use social media.
- Hand out flyers.
- Place grand opening signs around your Restaurant.
- Create a Google my business listing.
- Contact local media outlets.
