5 Ultimate Tips for Increasing Restaurant Sales

You have the perfect menu. It’s well-rounded, and your customers love it. You also have great ambiance and servers skilled at customer service.

Yet, your sales could be better. This is a common problem, and one that is fixable.

In this article, we look at the five ultimate tips for increasing restaurant sales, so you can watch your bottom line grow and enjoy a restaurant full of diners every shift.

#1: Increase Your Table Turnover Rate

You know that the more people you serve, the more money you’ll make. To do this, you need to turn your tables over in an efficient manner. (tweet this)

And, you have to do this without letting your customers know you want them to eat and leave, not eat and linger.

Here are some tips:

• Utilize a host to keep reservations and walk-in guests moving in an efficient manner.
• Make sure you have enough employees on hand to serve your guests. For example, you must have enough cooks to prepare the food quickly to increase table turnover time.
• Use technology. Invest in mobile POS systems so your guests can pay from their tables. This reduces the time from server pick-up of the credit card, running it, bringing it back, and waiting for a tip and signature.
• Have an efficiency expert review your dining room. They can help you arrange seating in the most effective manner.
• Always seat parties at tables fit for them. For example, don’t set a group of two at a four-top.
• Use a small menu so it doesn’t take as long for diners to choose their food.

#2: Teach Your Servers How to Upsell

Your most skilled servers can increase your restaurant’s sales without seeming pushy and with some gentle conversation. They can upsell without putting on the pressure and leaving the diner in control of the order.

Check out these tips for encouraging patrons to order more. Train your staff to use these techniques:

• Describe menu items to your customers in descriptive detail. Encourage your servers to share their favorite drinks, appetizers, and desserts. With just a few words servers can entice diners to order an extra something like an appetizer.
• Always assume your guests will order at least an entrée. Then, from there, servers can encourage side orders such as a side salad.
• Offer suggestions to your customers in the way of dessert or after-dinner drinks when the main course is over.

The goal of your servers is to create a rapport with the customer. In essence, the server is a trusted guide, and the diners will follow-up by ordering what the server suggests.

Bottomline – teach your servers how to be salespeople, and your restaurant reaps the benefits. (tweet this)

#3: Create and Maintain a Social Media Presence

First, if you aren’t using social media, this is a must-have in the 21^st century, and you should take steps to remedy the situation as soon as you finish reading this article.

Next, if you’re on social media, but you aren’t actively posting and checking in every day, we encourage you to do so.

Your restaurant needs to be active on social media now.

Social media at a minimum is free advertising that allows you to connect with customers and engage them in an intimate setting on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

You most likely don’t need a business page on every platform. Do your research and find out where your customers are. We suggest Facebook and Instagram as good places to start.

With social media, your goals are to increase brand awareness, build your following, create relationships, and garner trust. You do this through interesting and engaging posts with beautiful images and video.

In addition, you can also advertise on social media platforms. For example, Facebook and Instagram ads are quite inexpensive and easy to do. You will reach more people by creating targeted ads to your audience.

You can target ads through demographics, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences simply by placing some code on your website or using your email list.

The bottom line here: social media is a way to increase restaurant sales, so create your pages and make a plan for staying active.

#4: Leverage Online Ordering

Another way to increase restaurant sales is through online ordering.

This enables you to take more orders and sell more food even when your restaurant is full.

Like most restaurants, you have a lot of competition. Combat this with online ordering and even delivery options. When you add these benefits, you increase the likelihood that people will buy your food whether they feel like going out or not.

Your customers will appreciate the convenience of ordering online. If you offer pick-up, make it easy for customers to walk up to a window or through a separate door.

Always keep their convenience in mind when setting up online ordering, pick-up, and delivery options.

#5: Implement a Loyalty Reward Program

You want to leverage the lifetime value of your customers. To do this, we suggest implementing a loyalty program.

This is a great way to increase your restaurant sales by focusing on your existing customers.

When diners are part of a loyalty program, they’ll spend more to earn the reward, and they’ll spend more when redeeming their reward. And, when they’re getting close to redemption time, they’ll even increase the number of visits to your restaurants just to earn the reward.

In addition, they’ll tell their friends and family about your great loyalty program, and they’ll want to join, too.

Do be sure and get email addresses so you can stay in touch with your customers as this helps with retention which ultimately increases sales.

Final Thoughts

Increasing restaurant sales is top of mind for restaurant owners and managers, and with a little strategy and work, you can do it.

With cutthroat competition, you want to stay on top of digital trends while keeping customer service as one of your most important attributes.

Work to retain your current customers with loyalty rewards and use digital media to increase your new customers.

To maintain a steady cash flow and even increase sales, put the customer at the forefront, work your marketing strategy and train your servers in the art of selling.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that drives business to all your restaurants and edges you above the competition by using mobile-friendly design with a terrific user experience. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Image: Jay Wennington and Jason Leung on Unsplash