Successful restaurants are always rethinking and seeking new ways to improve their offerings. Restrictions imposed on restaurants as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, on the other hand, have led several to reassess their strategies for reaching and sustaining operating efficiency. It can be difficult to maintain your restaurant sales in the face of tough competition and swiftly shifting trends. Finding a balance between getting new customers and maintaining existing ones is crucial to success. Introducing a better POS system, staff training programs, or even completely rethinking their services are examples of strategies to achieve this balance.
Diversifying revenue streams can help restaurants increase their typically small margins. Most significantly, for many restaurant owners, adding new services can be a way to increase footfall. Restaurant operators who want to broaden their business might take advantage of a variety of complementary options. Creating a strategy and breaking it down into smaller chunks is the best way to tackle any new goal.
4 Ways To Diversify Your Restaurant Services To Increase Sales
Here are 5 ways you can diversify the services that can help you increase restaurant sales.
1. Takeout And Delivery
Not every food item is suitable for delivery, nor should it be. Some foods do not travel well, while others take an excessive amount of time to make. As a result, it’s a good idea to adapt your menu based on whether customers will be eating in or taking it out. You’ll want to select or create new menu items for your take-out menu that will travel well and serve quickly. Create a separate takeout and delivery menu that is a simplified version of your regular menu. Select foods that are simple to prepare and transport. Avoid fragile things that can break or melt during transport.
You can offer curbside pickup to your customers for the fastest takeout service. If you have a parking lot, set aside a few spots near the entrance. Train your employees on how to properly handle curbside orders and take payment. Keep your drive-thru window stocked with the supplies you’ll need to serve clients fast. To avoid being forgotten, keep napkins, plastic cutlery, and condiments out of sight. Check your speakers to make sure they’re working properly and that consumers can hear you. You can also set expectations with your drive-thru personnel regarding how long orders should take to finish.
2. Online Ordering
Online ordering is a lifeline for restaurants these days, and it’s difficult to argue against the advantages of having an in-house online ordering system. Guests were already flocking to internet ordering even before COVID-19 struck. Provide online ordering for takeout, delivery, and drive-thru service on your restaurant’s website. Many customers prefer to shop online rather than over the phone since they can place orders instantaneously and at any time. Accepting online payments will speed up the entire procedure.
According to survey results from the National Restaurant Association, 60% of all restaurant and foodservice sales were takeout, drive-through, and delivery back in October 2019. Even in the face of enormous obstacles, restaurant owners and employees adopted online ordering this year. They shifted their focus to delivery and curbside pickup, tweaked their menus and service styles, and did everything they could to keep their businesses surviving while ensuring the safety of their employees.
A solid online ordering system should also be able to interface with your current POS systems, support your loyalty programs, and encourage upsells and additional sales with features like suggested add-ons. With fewer dine-in services and extra delivery expenses, the latter aspect is critical for increasing average order value (AOV) and achieving profitability.
3. Loyalty Programs
You can think of your loyal consumers as virtual brand ambassadors in many circumstances. One of the most effective ways for any business to generate traction is through word of mouth. You can set up your loyalty program in a variety of methods, but one of the most typical is to establish a membership program that tracks each time a customer visits your restaurant so they can work toward receiving a free item of your choice.
People often distrust paid advertisements, yet they trust a friend’s recommendation for a favourite restaurant. This indicates that your loyal consumers are crucial to your company’s growth and should be treated as such. Free beverages and desserts are frequently a wonderful alternative because they are less expensive than an entree but still make your guests feel valued. You can create a loyalty card or mobile app that allocates points via your POS system or a punch card system with a fresh hole for each client visit.
Offering a location for activities such as corporate parties, for example, can go a long way towards establishing a relationship with local businesses and the community at large. Customers are more likely to visit your establishment on a weekday if you have weekly trivia or happy hour. Booking live music is another excellent approach to encourage people to return to your establishment regularly. Overall, having games or music at your restaurant makes guests feel more relaxed, which encourages them to stay longer and order more from your menu.
4. Marketing Strategies
Having a website for your restaurant is the equivalent of having a storefront in every country. If you wish to expand your restaurant, you’ll need a decent website. A website provides access to a much bigger market of potential customers. It makes it quite simple for potential and even current clients to locate you. While creating a website can be a lot of work but the returns are likely to be well worth the effort. You might also hire expert website services for a reasonable price to complete the task.
One of the most effective brand-building tools for any organization is social media marketing. Using social media to promote your business may put it in front of thousands of potential clients. Beyond brand awareness, social media marketing can assist you in obtaining fresh insights into your target demographic. Restaurants can also use social media marketing to solicit feedback from current customers.
Assessing and reassessing how things are functioning is a crucial element of running any successful firm. Restaurant operators are always looking for ways to streamline operations and boost productivity. There are numerous elements to consider when looking for techniques to increase sales in your restaurant. The good news is that many of the basic principles apply to all types of dining establishments, so if you stick to the acknowledged best practices for attracting new customers while thinking of innovative ways to keep them, you’ll be well on your way to success in no time.
