Nothing on a center draws calls like a second generation restaurant space.
Put a vented restaurant space on the market and the phone behaves differently. The call volume goes up several times over, and the composition of it changes: a much larger share of callers have never operated a restaurant and are working out whether they can.
That is not a reason to screen them out. First time operators sign leases and some of them do very well. It is a reason to find out which is which before you spend a Saturday on tours.
What the caller wants to know first
Almost every one of these calls opens with the same three questions, and a line that knows the space can answer all of them without a callback:
- Is the hood still there, and what type is it?
- Is there a grease interceptor, and what size?
- What is the existing use permitted for, and does beer and wine transfer?
The third one has an important caveat: entitlement questions belong with the city and the owner, not with whoever answers the phone. The right answer on a call is what the space physically has, and that the broker will walk through the rest.
The question that sorts the list
Ask whether they operate anywhere today, and how many. It is not a gatekeeping question and it does not sound like one, but the answer reorders your callback list immediately. Somebody running two locations and opening a third is a different afternoon than somebody who has been thinking about it.
Follow it with concept and square footage. An operator with a concept says it in four words. Somebody earlier in the process describes a feeling.
Volume is the real problem
A busy second generation space can produce more calls in a month than the rest of the center produces in a quarter. Answering all of them personally is not realistic, and letting them go to voicemail means the experienced operator who called at 7pm is gone.
Screening on the call keeps the volume from reaching you while making sure the two or three real operators in it get to you inside a minute.
You decide what the line says. If you do not want the asking rate quoted on a space this hot, it does not quote it. If you want every caller asked whether they have a liquor license today, it asks.
$99/mo per listing. Cancel when it leases.