Allan is restaurateur walking on a financial tightrope. He’s got competitors sitting next door as well as down the street. His biggest worry: How to attract a customer and make sure they come back again. This is a worry shared by many a restaurateurs. Question: How to increase restaurant sales without advertising? The answer is simple. Retain existing customers and make them bring new ones. Sounds odd? Maybe not. Consider this: Once a customer walks in, give them an experience which they cannot forget. Make them want to visit again. They would automatically turn into your ‘running advertisements’. Word of mouth is immensely more impactful as compared to paid advertisements. Why? Because paid advertisements only ‘make the case’ while ‘running advertisements’ tell you their firsthand ‘experience’. Still not sure how to do that? No problem. Here’s a set of things to help you achieve just that.
On-ground performance
Improve your on-ground performance. Just work on the following and see the magic they do for you.
- Upselling
- Personalize
- Develop rapport with the customer
- Provide quick service
- Make customer feel special
- Ensure efficient table turnover
- Create enticing ambiance
- Work on server behavior
- Feedback forms
Think you’ve tried everything? Think again. There's still something which might work better than all other sales attempts. Yes, your guess is right. It’s technology. What if by using a combination of technological advancements without spending much your sales graph assumes an upward trajectory? Want to know how? Read on.
Technology
In today’s world of restaurant business, only those survive and thrive who are novel in their approach to sales. Novelty is in many ways synonymous with strategic ‘use of technology’. Today, restaurateurs are increasingly turning to online presence for business promotion. By working on the following, you can positively impact your sales.
- Website
- Mobile app
- Social media
- Google My Business
Guess what, this is not the end of the road. Rather, this is only the beginning. While all of the above can be potentially impactful from sales point of view, they require ‘manual input’ and working literally all the time. For as soon as you stop updating, you stop being ‘in the business’.
Restaurant Management System: Your ‘think tank’
What if you have an agent to think for you and make sales pitch too, on its own? You would surely like to have it, wouldn’t you? It’s called Restaurant Management System. Also known as POS, this system thinks, not only for you but for your customer as well.
With this system, you have the ease like never before. From recording sales transactions to inventory management to employee evaluation, ‘customer services’ and sales, this is a panacea for all of your restaurant’s business needs. But today, we’ll focus only on one aspect: Sales.
One of the most important things that this software does is keeping traction of the following:
- Customer frequency (no. of visits)
This feature helps identify loyal, not-so-loyal, and random customers. Using this data, you can develop customized strategies to not only retain the different set of customers but also pull new ones.
- Customer buying preferences
With this feature, you can know the likes, dislikes, mood, taste, etc. of the customer. Having this data can help you ‘target’ the customer with a customized sales ‘package’. Your Restaurant Management System would provide ‘suggestive menu’ for the customer to choose from. This would not only surprise but also endear the customer and make them want to visit again.
- Customer frequency (which days)
Having this data, you can know which customer visits you on what days. This knowledge can help you model your services into specialized services for each day.
- Customer frequency (what times of the day)
This feature enables you to especially tune your services and environment to customers’ likes at the prospective time of their walk-in.
One may wonder how having data and analytical reports on the above help boost sales. Simple.
By keeping traction of the above, the system enables you to do the following (in addition to many):
- Present ‘suggestive menu’ (this is sort-of pampering which can endear customer)
- Offer ‘special deals’ / ‘complimentary drinks’ (this can work magic on both new and existing ‘loyal’ customers)
- Award value points for each visitation (for both new and ‘loyal’ customers)
- Offer something against a set number of value points
Want to boost your sales? This system is what you need. Either bog yourself down with pen and paper making estimates and strategies which would consume time and may just as well backfire. Or, get yourself this software for spot-on analyses, potential sales trajectories, and customized sales plans to enhance profits (or turn losses into profits if you are a struggling restaurateur). The choice is yours.
