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This question is about sales specialist skills.
How to increase restaurant sales
You can increase restaurant sales by establishing target goals, offering delivery and curbside pickup options, and extending your operating hours. Sales can also be increased by enhancing your mobile presence, attracting new customers, and training your staff to upsell.
Establish target goals: It is important that you have a baseline against which to measure future improvements. Under normal circumstances, you might use historical internal sales numbers or industry averages. These can help you to establish goals that are reasonable and attainable.
However, COVID-19 has rendered much of this data moot. This makes it harder to gauge your success over time. Even still, it helps to compile at least one or two weeks of sales data before moving forward.
Delivery and curbside: With social distancing rules in place for much of the past few years, most restaurants had to downsize their floorplans, limiting the number of patrons who could dine inside. By offering delivery and curbside pickup, you can serve more customers while still promoting social distancing.
To get started, you'll need;
An online ordering system that allows users to place their orders remotely
A virtual terminal solution that allows you to take orders and payments over the phone
A point-of-sale system that accepts contactless payments at the curb and in the field
Operating hours: Another way to help counteract the negative effects of having less "usable" floor space is to extend your hours. This requires taking on extra costs (such as wages and utilities); however, it also allows you to add more sales while still promoting social distancing.
Alternatively, you can try to attract more traffic during lulls. If lunch is your slowest period of the day, for example, consider offering lower prices or meal deals mid-day. Just be sure to advertise these changes so that patrons are aware of the special deals you now offer.
Mobile presence: It's no secret that more and more people access the web primarily on their mobile devices. No matter how much time you put into your business's website, if it's not optimized for phones and tablets, most of your customers will bounce right off the page.
Make sure your website looks great and functions properly on tablets, phones, and desktops alike. Consider listing your business on Google My Business and creating social media accounts. This will help to maintain an active online presence and allow you to promote daily specials, menus, and events.
New customers: Make the extra effort to give your guests a great first experience and turn them into loyal customers. You can get new faces through the door by participating in your city's restaurant week events. While every city does it a little bit differently, participation is sure to keep you busy that week!
You can also develop a first-time customer program and market it using your online and social media presence. You can offer things like free appetizers, desserts, or beverages. You can also encourage customers to write reviews and receive a free entree or beverage as a reward.
Upsell: One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to increase sales in your restaurant is to teach your staff to upsell. A skilled server should know how to increase sales without being too pushy. You want the customer to feel in control of their decision and not to feel pressured or bullied into buying more.
Teach your staff to describe menu items in detail, suggest upgrades (e.g., would you like to add cheese or bacon to your burger?), and be knowledgeable about when to make suggestions. For example, they will have better results by suggesting specialty cocktails during happy hour.
Restaurant owners are continuously thinking of ways to improve processes and increase efficiency. Using these sales and business-building ideas restaurants will easily find themselves on the road to success.
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