Ways to Increase Footfall at a Café or Restaurant

Footfall is usually talked about as one problem. It is three.

1. People have to find you.
2. They need a reason to come in now, rather than someday.
3. They need a reason to come back.

A café with plenty of first visits and no return visits has a different problem from one that is loved by its regulars and invisible to everybody else. Work out which one is yours, then work on that.

Be findable when people are deciding

Most people choose where to eat on their phone, a few minutes before they want to eat, within walking distance. If you are not findable at that moment — with the right hours, a readable menu and a recent photograph — you do not exist to them.

• Check your opening hours everywhere they appear. One wrong listing that says you are closed costs more footfall than any campaign brings in.
• Put your full menu online, readable as text. A photograph of a paper menu cannot be searched. A menu with each dish listed can, so someone searching for a specific dish nearby can find you.
• Keep photographs recent. A picture of the room from five years ago tells people nothing about today.
• Get on the maps and apps people use to decide.

Give people a reason to come now

Someone who knows you exist still needs a reason to choose today.

• A quiet-hours deal. A lower price on selected items at a set time, aimed at the hours you are empty.
• A limited promotion. A set menu, a tasting, a fixed-price early evening — capped, dated and sold in advance.
• Something new. A seasonal dish or a new pastry gives regulars a reason to visit and gives you something to talk about.
• An event. A tasting, a supplier night or a quiz turns an empty Wednesday into a booked one.

The rule for all of these: aim them at the times you are quiet. An offer on a busy night is a discount for people already inside.

Work with the businesses around you

Independent places on the same street are not really competitors. Somebody who has lunch at one is often a coffee and a pastry away from another.

• Recommend each other. A café that points people to the good bakery next door gets pointed back.
• Run something together. A shared evening, a street food event, or a food trail that takes people from one venue to the next.
• Share a membership or offer across a few independent places, so a customer of one becomes a customer of all.

A street of good independent places draws more people than any one of them could alone.

Let your customers do the talking

People trust what other people ate more than anything a venue says about itself.

• Ask happy customers to rate you. Most people who enjoyed a meal will leave a rating if asked at the right moment.
• Reply to ratings, especially the critical ones. A thoughtful reply to a poor rating often does more for the next customer than the good ratings do.
• Make dishes worth photographing. A dish that looks good is a dish that ends up in somebody's post.

Bring regulars back more often

The cheapest footfall there is comes from people who already like you.

• A loyalty programme with a first reward people can actually reach. A reward nobody earns teaches customers the scheme is decoration.
• A message to people who have drifted — not a newsletter to everybody, a note to those who used to come weekly and have not been seen for a month.
• Order ahead for the busiest regulars, so the morning coffee rush does not turn people away at the door.

Make the front of the building work

Footfall is literally people on foot, and a surprising number of them walk past without realising you are open, or what you serve.

• Is it obvious you are open? Lights on, door visible, a sign that says so.
• Can someone tell what you serve in three seconds? A board outside with two or three dishes and prices does more than a clever slogan.
• Is there a reason to stop? A daily special, a coffee price, something that changes.
• Does the window show people inside? An empty-looking room puts people off even when it is not empty; seat the first customers where passers-by can see them.

None of this costs much, and it works on exactly the people who are already on your street.

Measure one change at a time

Footfall moves with weather, school holidays, payday and a dozen other things. If you change five things at once, you will never know which helped.

Change one thing, compare the same days against the previous weeks, and keep what works.

Where Mosey fits

Several of these are what Mosey is for, and most of them are free:

• Being findable: your profile, your menu as searchable dishes, ratings and local discovery are free.
• A reason to come now: Deal Hours are free; promotions and event tickets are commission-only, at 4.5% and 4% respectively.
• Working with neighbours: food trails and shared memberships across independent venues.
• Bringing people back: loyalty is free to run, at 1% of the spend it rewards, and win-back messages go to the customers who have drifted.

What it connects to

• Get discovered on Mosey
• Deal Hours: fill your quiet times
• Food trails: bring a street its own footfall
• Win back customers who stopped coming in
• What Mosey costs — every rate on one page