Here you have some Tips on How to Increase Restaurant Sales and Gross Earnings
The restaurant industry is highly competitive and owners are looking for new and different ways to sell meals, drinks and alcohol to consumers. Your competitors are no longer just other restaurant owners in this new era of technology and digital marketing. Now you have online sellers, supermarkets, mini-markets, food trucks, social media restaurants and convenience stores selling meals, drinks and alcohol. As an entrepreneur running your own restaurant you have to think ways to increase sales and gross earnings.
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1. Upselling & Training. Do you know what’s your average ticket amount per day, per week or per month? If you don’t it’s time to evaluate this. Your accountant will not do this. An account will just register numbers and keep you happy with the IRS. Try to raise your average ticket by 10% by up-selling. Franchises such as McDonald’s do a great job in doing this. The attendants always ask, would you like French fries, a dessert, or add an extra burger? You need to train your people to offer extras. Remind your staff that they are in the sales business and train them to become sales people not just order takers. Your sales people should always offer the highest ticket items before offering any inexpensive items. You need to develop a pricing strategy and train your order takers to sell.
2. Online Ordering Strategy Are you offering takeout, delivery or even pre-orders on line? Is your website mobile friendly and does it have the capability of people placing orders via their smart phones. If not you need a web designer to convert your website into a mobile friendly app with an order inquiry form that is delivered to your store every second. A web designer can do this for your for about $150 to $400. The investment is worth it considering that your customers can order via their phones. Once your online order form and website is mobile friendly you want to include this in your social media marketing.
3. Communicate with Staff. How often do you meet with your staff? You need to have meetings on a weekly basis and inform them on your strategies. In the end these meeting will end up being more like sales meetings discussing pricing strategies, number of orders, number or up sells, and other factors. You cannot afford to run your restaurant in an old traditional manner. Today, you need to integrate technology, digital marketing and salesmanship.
4. Get Customers to Come Back. Many studies have shown that if you can increase your existing customers into repeat customers by 5% to 10%; this will increase your profits from 20% to 100% in less than 1 year. How will you get new customers to come back? First impressions is everlasting impressions. You need your staff to meet new customers like queens and kings. You need to obtain data and offer them specials and promotions. This may defeat the upselling in the short run but it will bring back customers.
5. Social Media Hot Buttons. Today, more people are ordering online via the social platforms. Long gone are the days when people went to the yellow pages. Today, people look up on google, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. You need to be in every social media platform, appear on google, and most important google maps.
These are just a few tips on ways to increase sales and gross earnings at your restaurant. It’s time for you to restructure somethings and develop new strategies.
By Gil Zapata Gil Zapata is the founder of Lendinero and a business consultant. He is passionate about helping small businesses become more profitable, fintech, and digital marketing.
