In the endemic phase, competition in the restaurant and cafe industry is at an all-time high, leaving some businesses to wonder: how can I boost business despite rising prices?
You are well on your way to achieving great success if you provide high-quality products and excellent service to your customers. Yet, there are more tactics you may use to boost sales.
Let’s dive into key strategies you can adopt to boost business and safeguard your restaurant or cafe from the threat of inflation today.
Optimise The Menu
Your menu is the main reason people come to your business. But so many menus are put together in a haphazard way, don’t have enough information, and contain unnecessary items.
A regular menu engineering analysis is the best way to ensure your menu is always working at its best. This means:
- Take a look at what items sell well and what don’t, then make changes based on your findings.
- Don’t add items to your menu that need rare ingredients, since supply shortages are a big problem in the food industry right now.
- Make sure the food you serve tastes good, has a lot of flavours and doesn’t take too long to make.
- Think about how the menu will look. Organise items by category and focus on the dishes that gain the highest margins.
- To improve your menu, keep up with the latest trends in the food and beverage market.
- Invest in good photography and copywriting for the descriptions of your dishes to convert your customers.
By evaluating and improving your menu all the time, you can make sure that you’re giving your customers the best choice of dishes to boost business.
Streamline Processes
Time is of the essence in the restaurant or cafe business. Any delays or setbacks can quickly turn a customer experience sour, which is the last thing you want. The best way to avoid pissing off your customers is by streamlining processes.
You can boost business for your restaurant or cafe by:
Training Your Employees
It is important to make sure that your employees are well-trained because they are the main point of contact with your customers. To give good service, they should always know about the brand, the products, and any promotions that are going on. Well-trained staff can cut down on wait times and ensure operations are smooth by knowing how to solve problems.
It’s also important to go back to continuously train your employees and not just during onboarding. As they gain more experience, conduct regular post-mortems to understand why issues occurred and how to collectively improve.
Providing Cashless Payment
Post-pandemic, more and more individuals are attempting to avoid touch with banknotes for reasons of cleanliness and safety. As a result, cashless payment solutions are becoming popular these days. You must tap into this rising demand to boost business.
To cater to different customers’ preferences, provide a variety of cashless payment options such as QR, credit or debit cards, and financing applications like Touch N Go or Boost. But make sure the cashless payment option you choose is simple to use and quick in order to avoid long lines at the counter.
Offering a QR menu and Ordering System
A restaurant’s future sales depend a lot on how happy its customers are. Think about how else technology can improve customer service in restaurants and even help you sell more in each order.
For example, mobile order and pay technology let your customers order from your menu by simply scanning a QR code.
Guests choose items from your menu and pay for them right from their phones, so they don’t even need to wait for a server. With a lower chance of mistook orders and a faster process, your customers are more likely to return.
Win Customer Loyalty
It goes without saying that good service is the best way to keep customers coming back. If a customer like the way you treat them, they will probably come back. It’s important to keep the customers you already have, so try to form relationships with your regulars. It’s also a good idea to get feedback from your customers on what they like and dislike about your business.
Do you want happy customers to continue buying from you? Make a programme to reward them for their loyalty! There are several ways to thank loyal consumers for their continued support, depending on your budget, the kind of business you operate, and your personal tastes.
Casual businesses may employ punch cards or coupons. On the other hand, higher-end restaurants could rely on email or app-driven services. The goal is to keep the process easy for the customer so that they engage, no matter which route you take.
Maintain an Online Presence
In this digital era, consumers do nearly everything online, including finding and keeping up with eateries. This is a great opportunity to boost business as restaurants and cafes that can adapt to their customers’ lifestyles can form better connections. Maintaining an online presence includes:
- Run a social media account. Most of your customers today will be on social media and the only way to reach them there is to create one for your business.
- Keeping customers updated and informed. Are you temporarily closing for renovations or running a promotion? Be sure to bring your customers up to speed.
- Share user-generated content. Encourage your customers to tag you if they post about their experience and reshare those postings on your feed.
- Update your Google Business Profile. Make sure all the information on your business page checks out so your customers can have a seamless experience.
- Respond to reviews. Yes, even the bad ones are a good opportunity to show professionalism and a willingness to improve
Find the Right Suppliers
One of the crucial ways to boost business today is to work with reliable suppliers. But it can be hard to find the right suppliers, especially in times of supply chain issues. Using a platform like Dropee’s can make it easier to find the right wholesale supplier for your restaurant and cafe business, which causes less stress.
Dropee caters to more than 50,000 retailers in Malaysia. It has a huge list of raw ingredients and works with hundreds of suppliers for all the supplies you need. Dropee not only lets you do all of your business online, but it also gives you flexible payment terms, product suggestions, and a lot more.
Boost Business with Effective Strategies
The harsh competition and difficulty securing supplies in the food industry today may be difficult, but it is not impossible to navigate as long as you have the right strategies.
Whether you’re new to the restaurant and cafe industry or are a veteran who wants to streamline your operations, Dropee’s solutions can help you get where you need to be. Sign up here to digitise and boost your business in 2023.
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