10 Important Restaurant Revenue Drivers to Take Advantage Of

No matter how well your restaurant is doing, you can always sell more. The food industry is notorious for being challenging. If you want to not only survive but actually succeed, you need to take advantage of restaurant revenue drivers.

In this article, you will find both the classic ways to increase restaurant revenue such as upselling, and some overlooked ones that help you increase sales, such as managing your online reputation.

Use these ideas to increase your profit:

10 Must-know restaurant revenue drivers

If you want to outshine your competition and have a constant stream of new and loyal customers, use these restaurant revenue drivers:

1. Make it easier for your guest to order and pay at location

Your restaurant’s goal shouldn’t be just to attract customers to your restaurant. After all, there is a finite number of people in your area and, if they don’t come back, you are left without clients.

Therefore, you must also provide an irreproachable customer experience that persuades every client to come back. The first step in doing so is to make it easy for them to order, without having to wait around for a server.

You can do so by using a QR code restaurant menu that will both your employees and your customers happier because:

• Clients can scan the code after they are seated, browse the menu and order when they are ready, directly from their mobile device. They no longer have to try to get a server’s attention, they can even pay from their phones;
• Employees have more to focus on other tasks because they don’t have to take orders or payment.

Read more: How to Set up Contactless Ordering at Your Restaurant via QR Code

2. Engineer your menu

The menu is one of the main restaurant revenue drivers because it is the main thing clients interact with. Here are a few menu engineering tips you must follow if you want to increase your profit:

• Make your menu smaller: with fewer menu items, you need to pay for fewer ingredients, and you reduce food waste. Moreover, you take away the choice paralysis some customers face when they have too many food options;
• Allow customers to customize their dishes: with toppings that have a high profit margin;
• Create combo menus: to persuade people to order more than they initially wanted;
• Mention allergens and nutritional values: to make your menu appealing to people who suffer from allergies or follow a specific diet.

Read more: How to Write a Menu for a Restaurant: Complete Guide with Examples

3. Increase table turnover

If you want to increase sales in the restaurant, you need to serve more people in a day. The best way to do so without compromising client experience is to make the ordering and payment process faster. You will need:

• A table reservation system with an order ahead feature that allows customers to both order their favorite dishes and pay for them when they book a table. When they arrive, they can just receive and enjoy their food;
• A QR code ordering menu: so clients can place orders directly from the table, as soon as they are seated;
• A POS system to process orders and payments faster without having to write them down on a notepad and run to the kitchen to get the preparations started;

4. Start selling your food online

One of the main restaurant revenue drivers is an efficient online ordering system that helps you sell more of your food online. Here is what you must do to get the best one:

• Sign up on GloriaFood and complete your restaurant’s information;
• Create a restaurant menu and publish it on your website. Or, better yet, get a sales and SEO-optimized website that will rank you high in Google searches;
• Download the order-taking app and start accepting orders!

Read more: 8 Compelling Benefits of Online Ordering Systems for Your Restaurant Website

5. Make upselling part of your daily life

Upselling and cross-selling can be great restaurant revenue drivers if you do them right. The trick is to help the client with recommendations, not push an unrelated item on them, risking making them uncomfortable.

Check out these tips:

• Allow size customization for menu items: hungry customers will be tempted to go for the bigger size, and they will pay extra for it;
• Make food and beverage recommendations: train your employees about the best pairings so they can give good advice to undecided customers;
• Always ask about dessert: don't forget to have your servers try your desserts, so they can knowledgeably describe the text and texture of a dessert and tempt clients to try it.

6. Improve staff retainment rate

Did you know that acquiring a new employee is way more expensive than keeping an existing one? Labor costs already make up a large part of your expenses, you don’t need them to go higher. Here is what you can do to make employees satisfied with their work:

• Rely on technology to make their work easier, such as using an online table reservation system to take away the pressure of having to answer the phone;
• Ensure fair scheduling to prevent disgruntled employees;
• Be open for discussions and feedback to solve problems before they get so big that employees quit;
• Offer benefits and rewards for good work.

Read more: Restaurant Staff Incentives: 10 Efficient Tips to Motivate Employees

7. Manage your online reputation

Did you know that 92% of consumers read restaurant reviews and 33% would never visit a restaurant with less than four stars? What previous clients say about your place online has a great influence on whether potential customers will visit your place or not.

Check out these tips for managing your online reputation:

• Create an account on all review platforms in your area such as Google, TripAdvisor, and Yelp, and monitor them;
• Make it a habit to respond to each review, in no more than two days. This way, even if it is a negative comment, you get a chance to come up with a solution and turn it into a positive one;
• Encourage positive reviews by directly asking for them on location and social media. You can even offer a small reward such as a free dessert when provided with proof of a positive reward.

Read more: 5 Easy to Implement Tips to Get More Positive Google Restaurant Reviews

8. Increase digital convenience

Digital convenience is one of the usually overlooked restaurant revenue drivers. Hunger can strike anywhere at any time and people want to be able to order food. They don't want to waste time making a phone call, they want to order it with just a few clicks on their phone.

Here is what you can do to give customers the gift of convenience:

• Have a sales-optimized website: that guides people to the menu and other important information such as address and contact info. It must also be responsive so it will load fast on every type of device, be it mobile or desktop;
• Provide a table reservation system: directly on your website, so clients can book a table with a few taps on their mobile devices;
• Use an online ordering system: not a third-party provider, so customers can order directly from your trustworthy website;
• Allow customers to allow from social media: by adding a direct link to your menu in the description and the posts' captions.

9. Don’t let customers forget about you

Most customers lead busy lives and even if they had a good experience at your restaurant, they may forget about it. You can implement email marketing campaigns to tempt people to order from your business again.

With the Autopilot module from GloriaFood, you can set up your campaigns once and they will run, as the name suggests, on autopilot. Here are the types of campaigns you can create:

• Encourage second order: send people a small promotion to encourage them to order again;
• Re-engage clients: old clients may want to take advantage of the irresistible offer you send them;
• Cart abandonment: if people get distracted when they order, you can remind them of your delicious food.

Read more: Ultra-effective Email Marketing Ideas for Restaurants You Must Try

10. Reward client loyalty

If you want more return customers, you must show them that you appreciate their loyalty. An easy way to do so is to reward them for their purchases. You can set up a simple reward system with the Promotions module from GloriaFood.

For example, you can give people 50% off their next order after they have placed five orders with you. Or you can offer a free dessert for every third order.

Raed more: 5 Simple & Effective Customer Retention Strategies for Restaurants

Final words

Taking advantage of restaurant revenue drivers is a must if you want to enjoy a considerable profit each month. Try out all the ideas mentioned in this article and sit back to enjoy the sales number increasing.