As customers, kids are probably the most demanding lot. However, since they can impact their parent’s ordering decisions significantly, you cannot ignore them. Children are perhaps the most lucrative and promising demographic for a restaurant. As a restaurant owner, serving families with young kids might appear as a tempting prospect. However, merely designing a separate menu for kids seldom makes kids-friendly restaurant. From your restaurant’s design to its menu, creating a kid-friendly atmosphere in your restaurant requires you to consider several factors.
Let’s discuss how you can create a kids-friendly restaurant and how to market your restaurant to attract families.
Since every parent is understandably concerned about their kid’s allergies, make sure that items on your menu take care of the most common food allergies like nuts, lactose, soy, etc. More importantly, you must train your kitchen staff in preparing the food for your young guests.
To attract families on the other-wise slow evening, you can offer discounts or incentives on weeknights. Albeit a purely marketing strategy, deals during non-peak hours can help in recovering the operating costs quickly.
As parents become increasingly conscious about junk foods for their kids, you can come up with items that are healthy yet appealing for kids.
When you wish to accommodate kids in your restaurant, you have to make necessary changes in the restaurant seating arrangement and restaurant design as well. You have to buy children high chairs or booster seats in multiple quantities with sufficient cushions to make them sit comfortably because regular or styles restaurant chairs makes kids uncomfortable. Quite often, children bring their soft-toys, backpacks, etc. In such cases, you can offer them larger tables to accommodate their furry-friends as well.
Some of your staff may have limited experience dealing with children. Educating and training your workforce can go a long way in creating a comforting atmosphere for kids. Here are a few handy tips for handling kids in your restaurant:
Children have short attention spans. While parents get busy conversing and enjoying their meals or drinks, kids might get bored and annoy their parent which hampers their dining experience. You can counter it by providing entertainment options so that you, kids, parents, everybody is happy. Here are a few kid-friendly supplies you might want to consider:
Activity mats and drawing boards with crayons are the most popular and inexpensive option to keep kids busy at the table. If you are branding your restaurant as a high-tech one, you might even consider portable tablets or tabletop gaming consoles.
Although an expensive investment, building a designated play area in restaurants has become quite popular with kids. Play areas keep your customer’s young kids busy and occupied while they enjoy and bond over meals. However, merely opening a play area is one thing, and maintaining it is a different ball game altogether. For example, you have to keep additional staff to clean and maintain the play area. More importantly, you must be aware of the liability and responsibility in case of any accidents.
If yours is a restaurant with plenty of teens and elder kids in the neighborhood, you can set up a separate arcade room in your restaurant. Apart from attracting young crowds, the coin-operated arcade games also act as a source of additional income for your restaurant.
With a designated play area in your restaurant, you can prevent them from getting restless, irritated, and disturbing other guests. However, when designing the play area for kids, their safety should be paramount. Here are a few points to consider in your kids-friendly restaurant layout:
i) Firstly, Avoid slippery floors, and use clear signage to alert the parents.
ii) Ensure that the play area is visible to the parents so that they can monitor their kids.
iii) Ensure to create a fenced and contained play area.
iv) Hire additional staff to maintain the safety and hygienic conditions of the play area.
v) Offer padded sheets and covers on the sharp edges of walls, restaurant tables & chairs, etc.
vi) Use protective covers to secure sockets, cables, and other electrical fittings.
After you have successfully created an inviting & accommodating space for youngsters, you must market it to families also. Providing complimentary meals from the kid’s menu is an effective way to attract families on a budget. Since food items on the kid’s menu are usually less expensive, they might be cost-effective than offering flat discounts or coupons. However, you must ensure that you focus kids under 12 years of age for this offer so that you don’t end up losing profits. Additionally, you can offer discounted prices for weekdays or loyalty programs to attract customers.
From the colorful & healthy menu to restaurant design, from the attentive staff to a dedicated play area, from carefully selected restaurant furniture to marketing offers, making kid-friendly restaurant and attracting families requires you to consider several crucial parameters. However, creating a safe and accommodating space for entertaining kids builds loyalty by enhancing the dining experience and opens up a new source of revenue. The handy tips mentioned above will make dining at your restaurant a memorable experience rather than a stressful situation. Hopefully, the tips mentioned in this article will help you in capitalizing on new demographic for a profitable restaurant business.
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