Are you trying to find out how to increase restaurant sales? Whether you’re a restaurant owner, manager, or a marketing person… there are 3 foundational ways to increase your restaurant’s sales that need to be addressed. For each of these points, we’ll try to give you examples that will help paint a picture of practical things you can do today to prevent you from ever having to close your doors!
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1 – Increase the Number of Repeat Customer Visits
The number one (easiest) way to increase restaurant sales is to increase the frequency of which your customers come back a second, third, fourth, etc. time. The barrier is very low as these people have already tried your restaurant and know what to expect. They already have an opinion of you and it’s your job to get them back in the door wanting more! Sadly, most restaurant owners rely on their product/food and service to ‘wow’ the customer enough to get them to come back on their own time. This is the biggest mistake you could make! Since these are the EASIEST customers to bring in, you should make it your primary focus to come up with more ways to make this happen on demand.
Some ways to increase customer frequency:
- Email your customer list regularly with special offers to help drive more sales and customer visits.
- Email your customer list regularly with information about your restaurant that helps nurture and build stronger relationships
- Send SMS texts to your customers with offers to help drive them back into your restaurant
- Similar to the last bullet point, send automated Facebook messages in bulk to your customers to bring them in regularly.
- Create a trackable Loyalty Program that encourages customers to come back again soon. For greater effect, give customers almost all the points they need for the prize/free item the very first time they sign up to help encourage them to come back. If you don’t have one in place yet, you’re missing out!
- Have your servers ask customers if it’s their first time visiting. If the customer has been there before… put a different colored napkin on the table. This should signal a manager to come by and hand out coupons for a free item for their next visit. They will think you treated them like royalty and will be sure to tell all their friends about how great you were!
- Sometimes enhancing your customers’ experience is what it takes to get them to come back for more. Think about what ways you can improve the experience your customers have that surprises and delight them.
- Retargeting ads will allow you to hyper-target people that are already your customers giving you an advantage while also making your ad cost cheaper.
- Personalized content can go a long way. If you have systems in place that help you call people by their name, remember their birthday, and know what their favorite dish is, they’ll come back as frequently as possible!
2 – Increase the Number of New Customers
A bit harder method, but still can be easy… Come up with processes that are designed to get new customers in the door. Usually, this will cost you a bit more, but getting someone in the door for the first time is extremely valuable. Primarily because it puts that person in the bucket of “customers” – which means they’re going to be WAY easier to get to come back as long as you have a process or plan in place like in step number 1 of this article.
Ideas on how to bring new customers into your restaurant
- Run Facebook and Instagram ads with offers for free items or BOGO offers
- Create a birthday program… this will allow you to collect their info and send a coupon for a free item once their birthday comes around. Pro tip: Give them a free offer for signing up, too! This will surprise and delight them and help get their first visit checked off the list!
- Host a “bring a friend” day and offer a BOGO meal deal.
- Run a giveaway. This will create excitement around your restaurant and reach new people. It’s also a great idea to reward everyone that enters with an offer they can’t refuse… like a free appetizer.
3 – Increase the Order Value for Each Customer
This way is a little trickier but when done, it works beautifully. Adding just a few dollars to every ticket will increase your sales to a much greater degree. If you have 100 tickets and each one was $20… You’d have $2,000 in sales. Let’s say you increase them each to $25. You’d then have $2,,500 in sales. This is a 25% increase in sales – all from a $5 increase per check. This can make a big difference for your restaurant!
How to increase the check value of your restaurant customers:
- Regularly train your employees on how to end each order with phrases like “Do you want fries with that?” Asking if the person wants something specific will help boost those numbers! “Would you like a cold craft beer with that burger?”. These work!
- Offer regular coupons/vouchers! This sounds counterproductive but research shows that when you offer discounts to your customers, ticket values rise overall!
- Encourage your customers to bring guests! Let them ‘spin the wheel’ if they bring a friend for the chance to win a prize.
- Invite your customer list to have their birthdays at your restaurant. Most people don’t eat alone when they go out for their birthdays. Offer the birthday gal a free entree and let their friends spend money on all the apps, drinks, and desserts.
We hope you found this article helpful and were able to find 3 easy ways of how to increase restaurant sales. If you have any questions about the contents of this article or if you’d like to speak to a restaurant marketing specialist, please reach out to us today at hello@aycockmarketing.com.
