It's hard to replicate that grand opening feel – the bustle of a packed restaurant, patrons oohing and ahhing about unique dishes, a constant buzz of vibrant Instagram photos and lively tweets.

One of the biggest challenges restaurant owners face is maintaining buzz after a successful debut. You poured a considerable amount of effort and energy into the restaurant's grand opening and harnessing that same momentum is hard to do.

Whether you're ready to establish a second location, or your restaurant just needs a refresh, here's how you can maintain that initial hype in the months to follow. Consider these tips to perpetuate that buzz-worthy success —

Keep It Fresh

Customers appreciate consistency. However, consistent doesn't mean same ol', same ol'. Adventurous palettes also welcome change. Customers will return when the quality of the food and service they receive are consistent. This is the key to customer retention and overall restaurant success. Achieve this by maintaining high standards and only providing top-notch ingredients and phenomenal service every day.

Allow enough time to train your front- and back-of-house teams to execute services. And provide them with the resources they need. Cooks and dishwashers need upgraded utensils and equipment. Waiters and hostesses need a reliable point-of-sale system like QuickBooks POS powered by Revel Systems. It delivers a clean interface, which makes training easy and streamlined.

Develop your menu by implementing rotating seasonal dishes. This will encourage customers to try new things and entice them to return on a regular basis.

Visit your local farmers market with your executive chef and source seasonal ingredients to highlight. Keep these dishes on the menu long enough for customers to return and be able to enjoy them a few times. Then create variations or spin-offs incorporating what is currently in season.

If your restaurant features a full bar, explore creating a seasonal craft cocktail menu. Think outside the typical lemon-lime-olive route and incorporate unexpected, savory produce from farmers market. Think pea tendrils or aromatic herbs like basil and rosemary.

Host Exclusive Events

In-house events are a great way to create excitement among current and potential customers. Offer a prix fixe menu on a regular basis – perhaps once a week or once a month. These prix fixe menus feel exclusive and give customers a new experience to look forward to. Try a prix fixe weeknight supper menu or an exclusive monthly prix fixe dinner event centered around a holiday.

Offer supplemental wine or beer pairings with the prix fixe menus. This will further enhance the experience by allowing customers to try new beverages alongside exciting, flavorful dishes.

Host a pop-up event. Pop-up dining events are a way to get out into the community, but still maintain the look and feel of your restaurant. They take some planning, but guests are willing to pay more for a unique and premiere dining experience.

Leverage your chef or other kitchen talent by featuring a special menu for a night or weekend. Invite a guest chef to do a collaboration with the kitchen for a one-night exclusive event. This can also work in your favor by attracting some of the guest chef's customers and converting them into your own customers.

Participate in Local Events

Craft the conversations you want to take place by participating in local food events. Become an active participant in the food community. This will help you gain exposure as a restaurateur but also for the restaurant.

Participate in community events, including food festivals, trade shows and charity events. Feature small bites of menu favorites to highlight what your restaurant offers. Get to know your culinary community through their reactions to your food.

Food events are also a great way to mingle with fellow chefs and restaurateurs. Collaborate with these folks and build rapport. The food community is tight-knit and oftentimes very supportive of one another's success.

Engage on Social Media

Continue to communicate with the culinary community on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Foodies are very active on social media channels and many have an extensive reach within the community. Increase your restaurant's exposure by inviting bloggers and food critics to dine on a regular basis to try new menu items. Bloggers and food critics are influential members of the community and media, and can greatly impact your restaurant's success.

Though critics and bloggers are crucial to your success, communicate with regular patrons on social media as well. Create a hashtag, post offers and encourage engagement. Guide the dialogue. The goal is to keep people talking, tweeting and sharing. You'll find the buzz online carries over to the buzz inside your restaurant.

Hire a PR Expert

Many successful restaurant owners employ the expertise of a PR person or agency to secure television appearances, press placements and other media opportunities. They have direct connections with top-tier media and can greatly increase your exposure through their network. While this is not necessary, it can certainly be helpful especially for those who own multiple restaurants or locations or those who are new to the restaurant industry.

Whether you've been opened for a month or 10 years, are starting a first location or a fifth, keep the energy of your restaurant buzzing and you'll always have new customers trying it and past customers returning.

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