Empty tables on a Tuesday: filling the slow days without discounting the busy ones

Know exactly which hours are slow

"Weekdays are slow" is not specific enough to act on. The hourly sales report usually says something far narrower: Tuesday and Wednesday between three and six, and Monday dinner.

Narrow is good news. It means the problem is a few hours a week, and an offer aimed at those hours costs you nothing on the ones that are already full.

An offer that only exists when you are empty

Tie every offer to a time, not to a mood. A weekday lunch thali, a tea-time combo, a Monday family deal — each with a start and an end, and never on the evenings that fill themselves.

• •Price it on the slow hour's real cost: the staff and the kitchen are paid for anyway
• •Give it a name and a fixed time, so it becomes a habit rather than a discount
• •Never run it on Friday or Saturday, whatever anybody asks

Tell the people who already like you

The cheapest guest to fill a Tuesday table is one who has already eaten with you. A single WhatsApp message to regulars who have not visited for a month — about the weekday offer, not a general sale — reaches exactly the right people.

Keep to about one such message a month. The list only keeps working while people are glad to hear from you.

Be findable at the moment somebody is hungry

Plenty of weekday guests decide in the last ten minutes, from a search for food nearby. Accurate hours, recent photos and a current offer on your Google Business Profile decide whether they choose you.

Post the weekday offer there as well as on Instagram. A listing that shows something new this week reads as open and cared for; one that has not changed since the opening does not.