A communication plan essentially lays out how your restaurant is expected to achieve certain marketing and communication targets with well-planned steps. Many top restaurant consulting firms would recommend setting up a communication plan in the early stages of setting up your restaurant. However, it’s never too late to come up with a plan and implement it, in order to improve the functioning of your restaurant.

Here are six simple steps to build your restaurant’s communication plan, listed below:

1) Create an overview of your restaurant: This part can be considered as your restaurant’s communication building block. From your restaurant’s mission statement and vision to the unique value proposition that your brand offers; everything has to be defined here. Detailing these will help you communicate effectively with your customers.

2) Analyze your audience: This is one of the most important features of your restaurant’s communication plan. Start with identifying your target audience and then learn about their preferences, including the mode of communication, their background, priorities, etc. Understanding how your audience reacts to communication, can help you plan out how you can address and eventually respond to them. Be it through a promotional campaign or when they are dining in your restaurant.

3) Define your communication objectives: These are specific and accountable outcomes that your communication should achieve. For example, if you want to position your brand as a child-friendly, vegan and family oriented restaurant, your objective would be to inform your audience about these offerings through different mediums, educating them and thus enabling them to pick your restaurant when they dine out next.

4)Select the right communication channels: After you have decided the communication message you want to put out, the next step would be to select the right channel to promote it. Whether you are using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or using physical flyers and offline mediums, make sure that they are suitable as per your content and for your audience.

5) Set responsibilities and timelines: An unorganized and untimely communication initiative can backfire easily. To avoid any miscommunication or delays, ensure that your personnel are aware of their responsibilities and related timelines. This process is even more crucial for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where the customers are used to, and expect, quick responses from restaurants.

6)Measure the outcome: For every communication objective that you set, there needs to be a process in place to measure it. If, for example, you want to understand how your restaurant’s service is perceived amongst customers, a survey/ suggestion form can be the right tool. Similarly, if you want to gauge the popularity of your restaurant’s social media presence, it can be measured by the engagement from fans on your page and posts.

A robust communication plan must meet several criteria to be effective in the long-run. If you’re keen to create and execute such an effective communication plan, reach out to restaurant consulting companies to set the ball in motion and help you through the process.

Ribbon Consulting specializes in assisting restaurant owners with all aspects of restaurant management, including developing effective communication plans, daily operations management, marketing and public relations, business development, and much more.