One of the most frequently asked questions that restaurant operators have is, "How do I build my customer database?" We will show you step-by-step procedures and will work for you to gain as many names as you can, as soon as you can.

It is through the customer database that all restaurant marketing begins. Let me explain. Let's say that you have gathered contact information on 480 customers. That means that you would have an average of 40 birthdays a month (480 divided by 12 equals 40.) These names could be gathered in the first week if you are aggressive, involve your employees, and have a good incentive for your customers to share their personal data.

The National Restaurant Association states that 55% of the people in America will eat out on their birthdays and the average party size is 4-7 people. We have restaurants that indicate that 80% of their customers will redeem their birthday promotions. But to keep our figures conservative, we will use 55% of 40 people which equals 22 birthdays for our first birthday mailing. People like to splurge on their birthdays but conservatively let's take an average guest check of $15.00 times 22 birthdays ($330.00) times a party size of 4 equals $1,320.00 of new birthday sales the very first mailing. During the next month you could easily double or triple the number of birthdays in your database (960) or (1,320) birthdays. Now, you do the math. Isn't it exciting to see how fast Neighborhood Marketing works as a profit generator?

We have restaurants that have 48,000 names in their database. Over time you can maximize the size of your database. [48,000 divided by 12 equals 4,000 birthdays divided by 55% equals 2,200 birthdays times $15.00 average guest expenditure equals $33,000 times the average party size of 4 equals $132,000 of birthday business each month. And this is only One Marketing Promotion in the marketing plan.