A restaurant can have the best food in the city, be located in paradise, even offer dreamy prices, but a sales strategy that always results is that your team knows how to represent the value of the business to customers. So, before a customer fall in love with the restaurant, ideally, your staff will gladly sell the specialties of that hard-won-effort venue to take forward each day.
And if we put ourselves in the place of the diner, certainly one of the things that motivates us to return to a restaurant, is that the people who are there, make our stay comfortable, pleasant and that we feel that the investment made has been worth it.
In this sense, let’s first establish some basic features that should be taken into account by all equipment to perform optimal restaurant management:
Friendly character, extrovert, with common sense, and above all a lot of cunning and intuition to know how to moderate the level of attention according to the client. Especially if we talk about the staff that is in the room, ideally it is that it has the ability to give diners exactly what they need, to empathia with the humor and style of the customers, because this will create the right environment for sales strategies can work both ways.
On the other hand, the management of the restaurant, should equip these staff with some basic tools:
The whole team should know what the business objectives are in general and on a specific and specific way each week. Hold regular meetings to report which dishes should be sold especially, the promotions that will be offered and all the options that will be counted. A staff who know perfectly the product that offers, will be prepared to correctly seduce customers. In fact, the more expert the waiter is about what it offers, the more likely customers are to follow their consumer proposals.
It’s also interesting that the team can present their ideas to sell more. That there is an atmosphere of openness and creativity to implement proposals that come from everyone.
And the two parts, team and management, could pre-establish the sequence of service. Mark a map where all the key moments are defined to boost the sale (by offering snacks, by taking the order of food, by offering desserts…).
Taking care of these initial details, the restaurant may be prepared to implement some tricks that will allow to raise sales on an ongoing basis, inducing the customer to consume the products that best suit their preferences and that better work in terms of business.
#1- During service:
Define in advance which star dishes should be promoted and sold especially, depending on the profit margin they generate. This will be the focus of the offer. In fact, management can present an incentive program to staff who best sell these products weekly.
When welcoming new customers, it is important to detect who is the leader, the one who makes the decisions, and focus on it the attention and the effect of empathy, always in a natural and cordial way and without neglecting the rest of the diners who accompany him.
Guide these customers in their choice, especially observing what their preferences are as the service is established. Two ways the waiter can facilitate this process is, or by making proposals based on his personal tastes, “I like him very much…”, or by asking him more specific questions such as “Do you prefer strong or rather soft and sweet flavors?”.
Once these preferences are known, induce the customer to choose a dish from the keys of the week, which of course also meets their needs, offering it first and with emphasis. Dishes that of course should be highlighted in the menu.
Show flexibility and have options for the customer. For example, if this one doesn’t like any of the ingredients in the dish of the day, offer it without that ingredient or when choosing desserts, it’s better to offer one to share, in case customers are satisfied, than not to sell any.
When a regular customer visits the restaurant with new guests, it is essential to strengthen the attention to take advantage of the opportunity to make this double loyalty.
Having a management software like the one offered by ElTenedor, for example, is also an excellent sales tool, because it allows to have the most information of the customer before their visit to the restaurant (their preferences, their needs etc), ideal for the equipment, both in the living room and in the kitchen, can have greater safety in the attention and seduction of these customers.
#2- External actions:
It is also strategic to directly sell the benefits of the staff. There are businesses that invest especially in the preparation of their chef, sommelier or bartender, promoting their participation in events, fairs, contests, etc., and through these actions, they get their talents out of anonymity, representing new incentives for customers to visit and come back.
Another way is to do it digitally. May these more interesting profiles, cook, room manager etc, can each tell their own restaurant stories through social media, as part of a strategy combined with the other digital marketing actions. Attract customers by highlighting a business character, who generates empathy, naturalness and represents a constant invitation to visit the restaurant. Instagram is, for example, an ideal channel to do this.
Finally, regardless of the strategy being implemented, it is essential to always recognize the “commercial” effort and work carried out by this staff. Emphasizing those who are particularly able to stand out, as this will produce a positive chain effect that will incentivize others to imitate their good practices.
Attitude + information + motivation. This would be the right equation to get a restaurant team to raise their sales continuously, but above all respecting the main goal: To sell happiness to customers.
