16 Tips and Tricks to Increase Restaurant Sales
It is easy to lose your mind over your business’s bottom lines. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to manage margins and cut costs.
These 16 ideas will help you increase your restaurant’s sales while you do everything you can to cut food and labour costs. These ideas are easy to do online or in person. You can also adapt them as your local government reopens or save them for later when you have full dining capacity.
Sign up for signature packages
Ryan Rosenberry, Event Manager at Red Beard Restaurants & Special Events, says that he is always thinking up new event packages to keep my company’s image fresh and stay true to his company’s values and vision. Tripleseat is quick and easy to use. This saves me hours every month.
You save time, which means spending more time on tasks that will increase your restaurant’s revenue, like proactive selling and lead follow-up. Win-win!
Optimize your menu
Are you a disorganized mess of mains, desserts, and apps? It may be time for a rethink. If your menu items aren’t performing at their best, it doesn’t matter how delicious they are. This could be as simple as renaming a classic item or placing your highest margin items in a location where customers will see your menu first.
You might consider changing the items every two years if you have been giving out the same version for years. Social media is a great way to promote a new menu. You get high-quality photos of a few dishes.
Host a themed party
You don’t have to stress about staff or profits by having special events. You can leverage technology to make your event a success, whether it’s a father/daughter or wine and cheese tasting.
Event management software can help you streamline communication with your staff, impress your customers, and improve your customer service. You can also increase sales at your restaurant.
Are you looking to maximize your space when business is slow or closed? You can host many creative events at your venue to bring in new clients and guests. For example, reach out to local artists, yoga studios, and florists. Look for opportunities to form a partnership that will improve restaurant sales.
Get a social media presence.
Your customers are likely to be active on social media. This means that you should too. Restaurants with a strong social media presence outperform their “unsocial” competitors. It is crucial to be there for your customers.
You should have a Facebook page, an Instagram profile and a Twitter account. These are great places for sharing your daily specials or photos that make you giddy once you are a social butterfly. Set up a free social media management tool like Hootsuite to track the activity and engagement in your channels.
Branded products can be sold.
Are you a coffee shop owner who sells house-roasted beans? You can package them and then sell them. You can offer your microbrewery’s unique brews in growlers and kegs for sale.
A branded product, which is a well-known product, can be a great way to increase sales at restaurants. If you have invested in your branding and design, printing T-shirts can boost your business. ).
Service speed increases
It is well-known that the more you turn the tables per hour, the more you make. Give your staff the tools to improve the efficiency and speed of service.
A mobile point-of-sale (POS) device allows servers to send orders directly to the kitchen. They don’t need to rush to a stationary terminal jammed with other servers.
You can partner with top delivery services.
Convenience is the king in today’s app-driven world. You might consider partnering with local delivery services like Seamless, GrubHub and DoorDash.
A great way to increase restaurant sales is to partner with delivery companies. You can streamline your ordering process and attract new customers while satisfying your customers.
Accept the power of upselling.
Master the art of upselling to train your servers and make them better salespeople. “Would it be better to have Perrier or bottle water?” “Would chicken be a good addition to your Caesar salad?”
Another great use of your POS system is this. This can increase the average check size of restaurants and help boost sales by prompting servers for add-ons or highlight price modifiers.
Organize a workshop
Are you the best pizza place in town? Do your customers rave about your amazing cocktails? Host a workshop online or in-person to showcase your talents.
You can make your customers more loyal by extending the restaurant’s experience into hands-on participation. This is a great way for restaurants to increase sales without advertising.
Explore new marketing strategies
Email marketing is an effective way to reach potential clients. Why not try text marketing? It makes perfect sense, given the high open rates for text messages.
To get customers to sign up, create an offer such as “Get Free Dessert”, then send weekly specials to your growing subscriber list. These deals will be a hit with customers and increase restaurant revenue through repeat visits.
Consider private dining
Private dining is an option if themed events don’t appeal to you. Perhaps you have a large banquet room that could be used more. Small private parties can be attracted to even a small semi-private space enclosed with curtains.
These services can be especially useful when your business is slow or otherwise closed. Are you unsure how to promote a program such as this? These are five ideas.
Make a newsletter for restaurants.
It’s been said before, and it will be repeated: restaurant newsletters work. A newsletter can have a huge return on investment. It is one of the best ways to increase restaurant sales. In terms of effectiveness, newsletters are more effective than social media. You also have more control over your target audience.
This blog post about restaurant email Marketing will help you find the right platform, build an audience, and show you layouts that encourage people to scroll.
Host pop-up experiences
Pop-up bars, restaurants and other venues are a hot trend. These limited-time experiences, whether they are promoting a TV series or showcasing a chef on tour, have been a huge crowd-pleaser.
Depending on your availability, you have various options to make them work for your business. Tiki Tuesdays could be a regular event, with special cocktails and tropical drinks menu. Partner with an emerging or visiting chef to have your space open for one night per month.
All your details can be found in one central place.
Restaurant sales can suffer when details are lost. It’s important to be organized, especially if you manage an events program for your restaurant.
Ryan advises that you log as much information into your event notes as possible. Tripleseat is a good choice if you do a lot over the phone. It will give you a clear paper trail that outlines expectations for everyone involved.
Participate in the Restaurant Week of your city
Participating in your area’s annual Restaurant Week events is a great idea. This gives your space more exposure and allows you to attract more customers to your restaurant.
Restaurant Weeks offer a unique opportunity to showcase your signature dishes and try new recipes. These events can be used to promote your private events. You can include details about your program to check presenters and offer a special deal if someone books an event within a specific period.
Join a loyalty program
Do you want to encourage happy customers to return? Incentivize them! There are many ways to incentivize repeat customers for continued business. The best incentive for you will depend on your budget, business type, and personal preferences.
For casual eateries, you can choose to use coupons or punch cards. Higher-end restaurants may use email or app-driven programs. Whatever route you choose, the important thing is to make the process easy for the customer to take part in.
Do you want to increase your restaurant’s revenue? Tripleseat and private events will increase restaurant revenue.
Restaurants have the potential to make more money. These tips will help you improve your restaurant’s profitability. Tripleseat can help you manage your events, from the initial inquiry to the final payment. Tripleseat can help you manage event leads, booking details and communication. Schedule a demo to see Tripleseat’s features if you aren’t a Tripleseat customer, but want to learn more.