10 Tips to Increase Your Restaurant Revenue

As a restaurant owner, it’s easy to lose sleep over your bottom line — cutting costs and managing margins can’t be taken lightly. So while you’re doing all you can to reduce food and labor costs, consider these 10 out-of-the-box options to increase your restaurant’s revenue.

1. Get a handle on inventory

To keep track of your restaurant’s earnings and losses, you need full visibility into what’s coming in and going out of your restaurant — at all times. A POS system with smart inventory tracking can provide you with this much-needed visibility. From low-inventory warnings to detailed sales item reports, you can breathe easy knowing you’re able to pinpoint when that last bottle of pinot went out or if it’s time to order more cuts of steak.

2. Optimize your menu

Your menu shouldn’t just be a mishmash of apps, mains, and desserts. The deliciousness of your offerings doesn’t mean a thing if they’re not raking in their full potential. Whether it’s re-naming a classic menu item or situating your highest margin items where your customers’ gaze will first meet your menu, do everything you can to optimize your menu to increase sales.

3. Host an event

There’s no shortage of special events your restaurant can pull off without putting a strain on your bottom line or stressing out your staff. Whether it’s a father-daughter night or a wine and cheese tasting, leverage the right technology to ensure your event’s success. With the help of event management software, you can streamline communication with your staff, impress your customers, and — most importantly — increase your revenue.

4. Secure a social media presence

Chances are, the majority of your customers are active on social media, and you should be too. Restaurants with a strong social media presence blow their “unsocial” competition out of the water. Be where your customers are: Get set up with a Facebook business page, a Twitter account, and an Instagram account to promote your daily specials and share drool-inducing photos. Once you’re a certified social butterfly, get set up with a free social media management tool to monitor the activity and engagement on your channels.

5. Sell branded products

Do you run a coffee shop with home-roasted beans? Package them and sell them. If you own a microbrewery with one-of-a-kind brew, offer it for sale in growlers or kegs. Selling something you’re known for as a branded product is one surefire way to generate a secondary revenue stream.

6. Increase speed of service

You know that the more tables you turn per hour, the more money you make. So why not provide your staff with the tools they need to increase the speed and efficiency of service? For example, a mobile POS would give servers the ability to send orders directly from the POS to the kitchen without having to race to and from a stationary terminal bottlenecked by other servers.

7. Partner with popular delivery services

In today’s app-driven environment, convenience is king. Consider teaming up with popular delivery services in your area, like Seamless, GrubHub, or Uber Eats. This can help streamline your ordering process, attract new customers, and satisfy your existing customers all from the comfort of their smartphones.

8. Embrace the power of upselling

Train your servers to be better salespeople by mastering the art of upselling. “Bottled water or Perrier?” “Would you like to add chicken to your Caesar salad?” A recent study by restaurant management software consultancy Software Advice found that mobile POS technology has a direct and positive effect on a server’s ability to upsell. It helps to increase average check size by prompting servers to suggest add-ons and highlight priced modifiers to the customer.

9. Organize a workshop

Do you have the best pizza in town? Are customers constantly raving about your killer cocktails? Show off your skills and host a virtual or in-house workshop. Extending the experience of your restaurant into hands-on participation will not only help you make some extra cash with the workshop fees, but it’ll do wonders for customer loyalty as well. 

10. Get creative with your marketing

Sure, email marketing is a tried and true way to reach potential customers, but why not give text marketing a try? With the high open rates of text messages, it only makes sense. Create an offer to get customers to subscribe, like “Get Free Dessert,” then start sending weekly specials to your growing list of subscribers. Your customers will look forward to receiving these deals, and you can look forward to the revenue from repeat visits.

Manage new business with the right tools

There’s extra money to be made in the restaurant industry. By taking action on just a few of these tips, you’ll be well on your way to running a more profitable restaurant.

Tripleseat’s event management software features help drive more sales, impress customers, and grow your events business in a way that’s manageable and profitable. On top of all that, we have partnered with the top companies in the industry to help your restaurant or venue keep track of payments, reservations, lead generation, marketing, POS/back office tasks, customer engagement, and more.

Schedule a demo at a time and date that works for you to learn more about how Tripleseat can help you build and streamline your events and private dining business.