Money
How To Woo the Bank
After sprucing up its image, this Bacolod restaurant was suddenly getting loan offers from banks.
By Mishell M. Malabaguio
Evaristo says that his idea of collecting business cards from customers also proved very effective in creating customer awareness for Aboy's. It got started when on a whim, he asked his customers for their business cards, which he then posted on the wall of the restaurant as keepsakes. This routine became so well-established that the clients themselves started freely posting their business cards on the wall. After collecting hundreds of the business cards, Evaristo decided to classify them according to industry as a reference for his customers—an extra service that Aboy's soon became very well known for.
Six months after, buoyed up by the success of its marketing initiatives, Aboy's started enjoying brisk business and the Evaristos recovered their initial investment in the restaurant. Then, sometime in 1995, a representative of Allied Bank knocked at their door offering them a loan. The couple decided to borrow P4.8 million from the bank to expand their restaurant business. They used the loan to buy a P3-million lot at Liroville Subdivision, at the back of the Golden Field Commercial Complex in Bacolod, then built a 120-seater restaurant worth P1.8 million on it.
With a daily average of 300 to 350 customers dining at their new restaurant during peak seasons, the Evaristos did very well and were able to fully repay their bank loan in 2000. At this point, Evaristo began to further improve and standardize his recipes as well as focus more intensely on the quality of Aboy's food preparation and customer service. "Our trade secret does not lie on my recipes alone but on a combination of many factors, particularly the kind of service my crew gives to our customers and our being hands-on in running the business," he says.
In 2005, the Evaristos took a P9 million loan from the BPI Family Bank, then another P5 million in 2006, to further expand the capacity of Aboy's restaurant to 500 seats. They also added more restaurant facilities and hired a bigger crew to further improve their customer service.
Today, Aboy's has a total of 75 employees, 12 of whom work in the kitchen, six in the grilling area, and the rest in the restaurant floor to serve the diners. However, Evaristo has made it standard practice to require all of the restaurant employees to be at the dining area during lunchtime so they can all serve the customers. "Cook ka man or accountant, basta lunch time, you have to serve," he says.
The Evaristos attribute the success of their restaurant to good marketing, good pricing, and personalized service to customers. "Paminsan-minsan nga, pinapayungan ko pa ang customers, minsan ipinagda-drive ko sila kapag walang makuhang taxi o kapag nahihirapan silang makabalik sa kanilang hotel [Sometimes, I even have to walk our customers with our umbrella, and at times I drive for them when they couldn't get a taxi or when they find it so difficult to get back to their hotel]."
Even as the competition gets stiffer with the opening of more Manila-based grill restaurants in Iloilo, the Evaristos are very confident that Aboy's Restaurant can hold its own because of its key success secrets. Recently, in fact, Aboy's opened its business for franchising under the guidance of RK Consultancy, having decided to make its well-loved food specialties even more widely available to the dining public.
CONTACT DETAILS
ABOY'S RESTAURANT
Liroville Subd., Bacolod City
Telephone: (034) 435-0760; (034) 435-2340
LOANS FOR SMES:
Allied Banking Corp.
Allied Bank Center
6754 Ayala Avenue, Makati City
Telephone: (02) 816-3311
BPI Family Bank
Telephone: (02) 754-6880
Fax: (02) 754-6839
E-mail: cqnarciso@bpi.com.ph
