I moved my restaurant to Alpharetta almost exactly one year ago and I am ahead of the growing curve because of my reputation in this business, my customer base that I brought with me, and my BRAND recognition.

When people see my logo, just like Starbucks, they know that they are going to get the highest quality breakfast on the market, and they are willing to pay high dollar for it. Because of my experience in this business I would never devalue my product by cutting the price or adding a bunch of stuff to the menu. I know that those things would kill my business. People try to tell me all the time to add a bunch of lunch items to my menu to attract more of the lunch crowd. NO WAY! I serve made from scratch pancakes and that is what my brand says to people. The more people that realize what my brand is, the more people I will have eating made from scratch pancakes at lunch time.

One more thing. My franchisor has never been big on rewarding regular customers because they feel that we are serving such a unique product that our customers don’t need to be rewarded, they will be repeat customers anyway. I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT ON THIS SUBJECT! You are right, and they are wrong. I am in the process of putting together a huge customer rewards program. I realize, thanks in part to your expert marketing advice, that this is very important, especially in my business, because such a high percentage of my sales is from repeat business. Yes, grow your business, but keeping the customers you have is the easy part.

From another perspective, It really disturbs me when I go into my bank and see a promotion for new customers and I am not eligible because I have been a loyal client for 14 years.