Increase Sales per Table; How to Skyrocket Your Sales

Although the current situation seems more hopeful for restaurant businesses relative to other business groups, since the customers and their buying power are returning, most still have the same opinion that their sales just aren’t the same as before Covid 19, but their expenses only get higher and higher. Ingredient prices also went up. It’s stressful to think about it. So, don’t think about it. Let’s find a way to boost sales, because even big brands have to find all kinds of strategies to boost their sales right now.

Review Sales Equation

Let’s review the following sales equation to remind ourselves where sales come from:

It’s a short but very powerful equation because, if you understand it, it’ll lead to sales-boosting plans. Wow! Are you excited? Hang on, because this is just the start. Let’s find the values of this equation.

Average price per head means the average amount of money paid by one customer for a meal. For example, if there are four customers at a table and the sale is 1,000 baht, the average price per head is 1,000/4 = 250 baht/person.

So, what’s next? Once you know where the sales come from, you can plan what method to use to boost the sales, between increasing the average price per head and increasing the number of customers per day.

If you ask us what we would increase, we’d say it’d probably be easier to increase the price per head than to increase the number of customers because they are already sitting in your restaurant. Just think of how to make customers willing to pay more and establish how much you want to increase per head.

Secret (Not) to Increasing the Price per Head

            We’re going to share a technique for increasing the price per head that every restaurant can do easily, but we don’t know why people don’t tend to do it!

1. Take the water off the table because water makes little profit. Tell your employees not to ask customers, “What would you like to drink?” or “What beverage would you like?” If you ask that, 99% of the time customers will say, “Water.” Have the employees list the beverages you offer, such as chrysanthemum tea, pandan tea, watermelon smoothie and iced tea. List what you want to sell. The profitable items. For example, “Would you like our special green tea with collagen?” Try to sell it straightforwardly and your beverage sales per table will increase immediately.

2. How many dishes should one table eat? You have to train your employees to know how many items a table of 2, 3 or 4 customers or more should order, so they can see whether they’ve maxed out their orders. If not, the employees should start promoting sales. The menu items they should promote depend on the main dishes the customers have ordered and which side dishes complement them.

3. Cap off meals with dessert. You have to train employees to observe when customers finish a meal and afterward present the dessert menu as well as recommend your restaurant’s signature desserts. Again, the employees should approach customers with the menu so the customers can see pictures of the desserts. If the images are attractive and appetizing, it’ll be hard for them to refuse.

These are three very simple things but, believe it or not, in reality, most restaurant employees just hand over the menu and take the orders. We’d like to leave entrepreneurs this message: boosting sales relies heavily on employees since they’re the ones who serve the customers.

Consequently, it’s very important to train your employees on how to serve customers. The words your employees use to communicate with customers have to be prepared and practiced. If a customer asks about your restaurant’s recommended dishes and your employee can’t answer, you’ve just lost an opportunity to sell.

Learn about standard operation procedures, from greeting customers to serving them, in “Systematically Creating Standards for Your Restaurant”, our free online course! Click. 

In addition, today’s restaurants can’t just sell food items. Several large brands have expanded to sell other products such as fermented fish sauce, soups, sauces, snacks or even meal kits people can buy and cook at home. Some restaurants with super spicy nam phrik dishes put them into attractive packages and sell them separately as non-menu products that can increase sales. It’s all up to ideasand management, holding mainly to the sales equation. Then, how you’re going to increase sales relies on planning. Click to read “Meal Kits, a New Sales Opportunity for Restaurants” here.

Click to read other articles here:

• Save Costs, Create Cash Flow: A Restaurant’s Way to Survive 
• Cheer Up, New Restaurants! How to Compete with the Local Competition During the Crisis 
• Does Your Restaurant Have Too Many Items on the Menu? We’ll Share with You How to Trim the Menu to Boost Your Sales! 
• How to Select Recommended Menu Items to Generate Profit for Your Restaurant