The restaurant business is a competitive industry. As a restaurant owner, you juggle managing different aspects of your business – from the location of your restaurant to its ambiance, from the menu to food, from restaurant furniture to the staff. So, how do you grow a restaurant business amidst the competition? Well, cutting down your operating, food, and labor costs are good starting points. However, to stand apart from your competitors, you must adapt to new strategies with meticulous planning and specific actions.
As the government regulations ease and people start dining out again, now is the time to seize the opportunity. Read on to know how to boost restaurant sales and attract new customers while retaining existing ones:
How to Increase Restaurant Sales?
1. Convert Customers Into Promoters
When it comes to marketing for restaurants, nothing beats the word of mouth publicity. Your existing customers, if treated well, can promote your business among their friends, families, coworkers, etc. Try to recognize your existing customers and search through your database to know what they ordered and what worked for them previously. You can use this information to suggest dishes and improve their dining experience with better service. Such a small gesture makes them feel valued, which, in turn, not only encourages them to re-visit but also brings you more customers.
2. Use the power of Upselling
Upselling is another great yet instant way to increase your restaurant sales. Upselling is a common strategy in restaurants where you try to enhance a customer’s bill by selling upgraded products or more dishes/items. Upselling requires your staff to understand the restaurant’s menu well and build a rapport with the customers. Train your staff to understand the restaurant’s menu and learn which dishes they can upsell. If you have introduced new dishes to your menu, consider offering free samples to your regular customers.
3. Make sure local customers find you easily
Local customers are the key to the growth of any restaurant as they are loyal and regular. Listing your restaurant on Google My Business (GMB) will make it easier for new customers to find you during local searches. Since the consumer base in the restaurant business can be quite local, local search on smartphones is the best way to find restaurants in the vicinity. For non-tech-savvy local customers, you can consider offline marketing through flyers, pamphlets, and newspapers.
4. Provide good offers and happy hours
Promotional offers and happy hours are tried and tested marketing strategies that work. After all, complementary dishes, discounts, offers, etc., seldom fail to attract traffic and increase sales. Moreover, by offering happy hours during otherwise slow or less busy hours, you optimize your resources and increase sales simultaneously, especially if your restaurant is always staffed during those slow hours. Here are a few ways to implement promotional offers during happy hours:
- Provide complimentary side dishes or starters with drinks
- Offer discounts on your dishes
- Buy-One-Get-One (BOGO)
5. Evaluate Online Ordering Strategy
Gone are the days when people used a phone to reserve a table or order their meal. If your restaurant is not available online, you are missing significant revenues. Nowadays, many customers opt for ordering online as it is instant, effortless, and convenient. By offering online ordering, your kitchen staff can finish more orders in less time. Also, you can reduce operational costs. Moreover, due to Covid-19, people are still reluctant to dine in and prefer delivery or take-out options. Update your website with a separate section for online ordering. Additionally, enabling online payment helps to complete the ordering process quickly.
6. Invest in high-quality furniture to offer comfort to customers
Before your customers can experience the service or taste food, restaurant furniture and ambiance make the first impression and set the tone of their dining experience. Investing in commercial-grade high-quality furniture might seem expensive initially, but it saves you repairing costs in the long run and offers ultimate comfort to your guests. By offering them comfortable chairs, booths, or couches, you encourage them to sit for a longer duration which, in turn, increases sales.
7. Offer smaller plates
Since takeaways and delivery contribute a significant portion of the restaurant business these days, it would be wise to offer mini-meals. Although offering a large number of small-quantity dishes gives different options to your customers, you should decide the plate size cautiously. For example, small plates are less likely to work in a family restaurant. However, you can try “meals for one” for individual diners or takeaway orders to increase your customer base.
8. Price it right
The price on your menu combines your labor costs, cost of raw materials, operational costs, etc., plus profits. However, while pricing the dishes on your menu, consider your clientele, location, and local competition as well. For example, if yours is a restaurant located around a college or a food park, your dishes must be relatively cheaper. Similarly, you cannot expect customers to come to your restaurant if the restaurant next door offers the same dishes and similar dining experiences at a lesser price. On the other hand, if yours is a fine-dine, high-end restaurant located in the city center, you can set your prices accordingly.
9. Create some great combo meals
Combo meals are excellent for your customers who do not want to spend much. Combine your best-selling items with a side dish or/and a beverage. Combo meals have two benefits. For your customers, it gives them a cost-effective way of enjoying a mini-meal. Also, it gives you a chance to sell low-profit high-selling dishes with high-profit not so popular appetizers or side dishes.
10. Optimize your menu
Your customers perceive your restaurant’s menu differently than you do. For instance, while designing your menu, you focus on its design, item description, pictures, prices, etc., while your customer, most probably, focuses on the price only. Ever thought about why your customers seldom order the most profitable dishes? Maybe your customers feel that your most profitable menu item is too expensive? Optimize your restaurant’s menu regularly to price the dishes strategically, and discontinue some items that your customers no longer order.
11. Always sell branded products:
People love branded products and merchandise. Selling branded products is a perfect way to generate new revenues for your restaurant. From glassware to collectibles, from fridge-magnets to t-shirts, you can consider several options. Setting up a counter to sell branded products requires significant investment, and it’s sensible to start small with a limited inventory. Starting with a small quantity ensures that you do not overspend and helps you gauge the response of your customers.
12. Have a proper table set up to accommodate more guests
Your restaurant’s capacity depends on how many tables you can fit comfortably in your dining area. With Covid-19 regulations on social distancing, how you arrange restaurant tables can have a lasting effect on your sales. Space-efficient restaurant booths are perfect to offer a cozy, personal seating place without flouting Covid-19 norms. Alternately, you can go with rectangular or square tables. Use them separately or join them to accommodate more guests during events, banquets, or large gatherings.
13. Collaborate with famous delivery services
Popular food delivery services can be great levelers. Especially if yours is a new restaurant, collaborating with online delivery giants like Grub Hub or UberEats, etc., gets you the much-needed initial exposure. Investing in POS software allows you to integrate with delivery partners to manage online orders. Ensure that your restaurant page has an amazing profile with all relevant information and conforms to hygiene guidelines. Sure, these portals will charge you some commission, but your restaurant reaches a wider customer base without much effort. Be sure to factor the commission into your profit margin.
14. Have a loyalty program
Rather than attracting new customers, it’s rather a good starting point and easy to focus on retaining your existing customers. A loyalty program can help to increase your sales and grow your business as well. For example, by offering loyalty points or discounts to your regulars, they might bring their colleagues, friends, or relatives to your restaurant and dine at your business more frequently. Ensure that your loyalty program offers real value to your customers like:
- Membership plan that gets your customers a complimentary beverage or side dish with every meal.
- Food coupons or discounts on visiting your restaurant again
- Points earned they can put towards future visits
15. Logical price increase
As a restaurant owner, it might seem logical or tempting to increase the prices to generate more revenue. Moreover, as the raw material cost and labor cost keep increasing, enhancing the price of your dishes might seem inevitable. If you wait till you can no longer supply the dishes at the current prices, there can be two cases:
- You won’t be able to raise the price significantly to be profitable.
- If you hike the price considerably to book profits, you might drive the customers away.
Rather than holding off an increase in the price unless you have to, it is always preferable to increase prices logically yet slightly.
16. Social media promotions
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., have changed how we interact and socialize. As everyone is active on these platforms, you can use social media to promote your restaurant or make announcements. Whether it is a change in your restaurant timings or special offers or events, an active social media marketing strategy can boost your sales significantly. Unless you want to feel outdated, make sure you post regularly on all your social media accounts.
17. Plan restaurant layout to increase efficiency and workflow
Your restaurant layout must be in sync with its ambiance and concept. Additionally, it should be efficient to ease the operations in the dining area. A well-planned layout starts the moment a customer steps inside your restaurant. He should be able to find his way inside the restaurant and the dining area without any effort. Similarly, your restaurant staff and customers should be able to move around freely in the dining area. Also, to streamline the workflow, make sure that different areas of your restaurants like the reception, dining area, kitchen, pantry, etc., are well-connected.
18. Create trust among your restaurant staff
From your kitchen staff to servers, from cleaners to the manager, a popular restaurant thrives on the rapport between different working groups. Trust building and effective communication require hard work and time but give commendable results over time. In a trusting and cohesive workplace, there are no grudges, and every action of your staff contributes to the growth of your restaurant business. Since your restaurant staff deals with your customers directly, consider their feedback and opinions to make them feel valued and motivated.
19. Improve based on customer feedbacks & Reviews
It’s true that despite putting your best efforts, there might be issues with some customers. After all, you can’t please everyone all the time. While many restaurant owners appreciate the positive feedback, they fail to address disgruntled customers’ feedback and reviews. In today’s digital world, bad reviews spread like wildfire, so acknowledge and address them promptly.
20. Plan a restaurant newsletter
Email marketing through a newsletter is another great way to create a long-term relationship with your customers. Unlike SMS or telemarketing, emails do not have a word limit. Use periodic newsletters to share your restaurant philosophy, blog posts, upcoming events, or relevant marketing strategies. A restaurant newsletter helps to engage your regulars and nurtures bonding.
Summing it up
The restaurant business, like any other business, thrives on being profitable and generating sales. As an owner, it takes more than offering lip-smacking food to make your restaurant prosper. With over a million restaurants in the United States, you have to cover an extra mile to stand ahead of your competition. Successfully running and managing your restaurant requires you to excel at several aspects, and this post highlights some of them. Hopefully, with these 20 handy tips, you will be able to increase sales to run a profitable restaurant business.
