Restaurant sales; Focusing on the menu items

While compiling a menu for a restaurant, it’s important to have items located strategically to catch the eye of the customer and also increase on your sales. This will be a kingpin towards profit rise at the end of the year. What should be done at this stage, is to re-write your menu and put down all items which are highly demanded by your customers, and see which items have a bigger profit margin to you and are highly demanded by your customers. The next step, is to identify which items on your menu are popular to your customers but have a lower profit return. Analyse every item and what should be done in compiling, is to strategically locate each of the highest contributing item on the menu where your customers, will see them first and act (make an order for them). So what you will do in this case will depend on the type of menu you have. For a single page menu, the best selling items need to be placed first, in the middle and at the bottom and if possible in a unique colour and shaded, so as to look special and different from the low contributing items. Remember “you are doing this to make a customer buy what is more profitable to you” and “what they want.” So, the technique will be; that those that you think fetch enormous profits from your customers will receive immediate attention other factors being held constant. For your customers to see them in a few seconds in case of a double page or more page menu, its better to indicate catchy words like “new”, “special”, and “chef’s surprise”. These items can either be at the top, one in the middle and one at the very bottom of the menu. You can place one at each page, well bolded, and in a different colour plus font and each time your customers come for dinner, encourage your staff to sale from the menu and not from their heads. It is better you encourage the selling of your best profitable items by adding some incentives for your customers and your staff. For example, giving a certain percentage say 1% of each individual sales towards a certain sale and that percentage is calculated into money as a gift will increase your profitability because the customers will be encouraged to buy what is profitable for you and the restaurant. Second, are the incentives to the customers. For example giving a free dessert in case you order for a certain item, may see many ending up buying a profitable item on your menu. It can even be a free starter in case of some selected dinners. This is not cumbersome to execute since as it appears, it’s a win- win situation and the more effectively done, the more cumulative profits realised in the process for your restaurant. I know of some restaurants that have happy hours everyday whereby for diners who come before 7pm, are given free dessert or starter of the day. And indeed when you consider their example, the restaurant is full by 6:30pm for customers not to be caught up by the closing hour of 7pm. This is one way of anticipating customer’s needs and satisfying them since some dine with a limited budget of either no entrée or no dessert. seb1225@gmail.com