Hibachi Steakhouse: Cooking Up Return Customers, Teppanyaki Style

I just had dinner at Hibachi Steakhouse  in Brooklyn. It is a Teppanyaki style restaurant. The service was fair but the food was excellent. On the way out I stopped at the cashier and asked for a business card. They handed me the card to the right, $20.00 off for my next visit.

Considering I just paid $104.00 for dinner for three, the $20.00 off is a good value. Although there is a disclaimer "Bill minimum required" without explanation. I called the restaurant and they said the minimum is $100.00.

This to me is a good promotion.

The restaurant was pretty empty. It was just my party and one other couple.

Nobody Asked Me!

I think they are under utilizing this promotion.
Here are a few ideas:

1. They should have had the waiter give me the discount card with the change from the bill.
2.  They could have had the manager come over and chat us up and give us more then one card encouraging us to share the coupons with our friends.

Sometimes management looks at the value of a coupon like this and they think that they are handing out $20.00 bills. In reality they should look at the coupon as part of a customer acquisition  campaign. If the price of bringing in a new customer or bringing back a first time customer is a 20% discount, it looks cheap to me.

Thanks // Steven N Levy

Follow Up: 12/23/2010

The restaurant ended up closing.