Article
Show Me the Money... How to Increase Check Averages Post-Pandemic
As an increasing percentage of your sales come from online orders for curbside or delivery or even scanning a QR code tableside, you might need to expand our check average-boosting repertoire with new strategies. "We used to teach the four walls of marketing to build check averages," says Chris Tripoli, veteran restaurant consultant. "Be present, work with staff, touch every table, and upsell through politely suggesting appetizers, deserts, and drinks."
The traditional tactics operators have long used to boost check averages include specials, upselling and menu engineering to increase sales of profitable items are still relevant; however, they might not apply to your 'new normal' business practices.
Do they still work? Yes, says Tripoli, but only for inside the dining room.
Regardless of the relaxation of restaurant capacity restrictions throughout the country, there is ample evidence off-premises dining will remain a higher percentage of sales going forward. The expression "new normal" applies here.
Consumer behavior has changed, notes Tripoli, explaining, even though more people are vaccinated [and] going out now, it appears many people are not giving up on the convenience and safety of off-premises dining." The upshot, says Tripoli, "People are still loving the idea of ordering online, and we have to be able to market to them with their online order."
But guest choice of on-premises dining versus delivery/takeout is not a zero-sum game. Instead of looking at online sales cannibalizing on-premises dining, think of delivery/takeout as add-on sales as on-premises dining returns.
So says Izzy Kharasch, president of the international foodservice consulting company Hospitality Works, Inc., based in Chicago, thinks 2021 and beyond will show strong demand for on-premises dining, supplemented by delivery and take-out. Kharasch also echoes Tripoli's and other experts' prediction for delivery and takeout demand to remain constant. One of his customers, in California, projects 2021 sales to be 130 percent of 2019 levels, as a result of increased overall demand.
The top and bottom line: Operators who can maximize sales in every mode of service, including on-premises and delivery/takeout, are going to experience record sales. And, if they are poised with a sharp pencil to manage cost control and cash flow, the margins will follow.
How to Boost Check Averages for Takeout
To drive takeout averages up, Tripoli recommends focusing on two areas: digital hospitality to enhance the takeout guest experience and new menu offerings, designed to tempt regular customers who are looking for a new experience.
Even though your face-to-face contact with guests has diminished in the pandemic (mask-wearing notwithstanding), the best operators are doing everything to make the touchpoints genuinely sincere and warm. This includes warmly expressing gratitude at every opportunity, perhaps as they have never done so in the past.
Tripoli recommends adding "a surprise thank you card with a suggestion to reorder in every curbside bag." Some operators have extended this concept with a free brownie or other small incentive. "There isn't an immediate per-person average increase in sales, but it's a good strategy for guest retention, which increases the lifetime value of every customer," he adds. "People react well to being treated well."
When considering new offerings, look at better ways to present existing offerings to increase their appeal or value. If certain items are particularly popular, perhaps offer them as part of family "meal-deals" including salads and side dishes.
"Daily specials and family-sized packages for curbside pickup or grab and go are ways of presenting your menu now that you've repackaged it... or automatically adding something, like every entree comes with two sides, or the special comes with dessert, and now you're able to charge more," says Tripoli. This tactic leverages the change in consumer behavior toward curbside or delivery while increasing the check average beyond the per person average you would earn from the same number of diners ordering individual entrees.
And even though people are venturing farther from home with new-found confidence created by vaccination, they still have cabin fever and will enjoy entertainment and value where they can find it. Taking the family meal kit one step further, operators are finding success by turning meals into more of an experience, such as a build-your-own pizza kit for families, or create a nacho platter, where you provide and prep the ingredients for guests to cook as a group activity. While your food costs may be higher with a meal kit option, the margin per order can be higher, offsetting the extra costs.
Spend the money and time to optimize your online ordering system. Making online ordering easy and enjoyable is often enough to build repeat patronage. Diners seeking convenience look for it as soon as they scroll your menu.
When your pizza kit costs more than an extra-large pizza with the same toppings, the check average per order also tends to be higher too. Since the experience is interactive, it doubles as entertainment, thus guests may justify the higher price tag.
Would You Like Bruschetta with That?
When orders come in over the phone, there are still opportunities for traditional server upselling. "Making recommendations is not trying to push something," says Kharasch, who suggests training employees on specific prompts to go with telephone orders, such as an appetizer to share or a mention of the alcoholic beverages that can be ordered with take-out. He's found that sharing works better, so rather than trying to upsell two appetizers, it could be a shared salad or a side of fries to accompany the burger.
Mark Moeller, national restaurant consultant and owner of The Recipe of Success, suggests that servers use their listening skills so they can upsell appropriately. Listening can help a server figure out who a caller is ordering for (themselves, their family or a crowd? Are they rushed or relaxed?). Then they can make appropriate suggestions. "For example, if a guest orders guacamole, it is easy to respond, 'large or small?' It is better to ask how many they are feeding tonight, perhaps say a small is perfect for two if you are looking for something light." "Keep in mind that a pick-up order may not require drinks, but a couple ordering the same glass of wine may be better off ordering a bottle instead of individual glasses," he says. Training servers to make suggestions when orders come in over the phone can nudge check averages upward while garnering appreciation from customers for the thoughtful suggestions.
Be a Problem Solver
With takeout orders, Carly Spross, managing partner for Flashlight Marketing, which represents Tavola Restaurant + Bar in Springfield, Pennsylvania, says her client made a point of identifying and solving potential problems for their guests. "Our chef does a really nice job of including reheat instructions with our takeout stuff. I think that's the biggest problem with takeout," she says, discussing how items often need a reheat by the time they're brought home.
In a creative advertising move, Tavola Restaurant + Bar partnered with a local radio station to advertise their take-out to a new audience. "One of the DJs started a podcast to push takeout and support local businesses," Spross explains. "We did two of every course from our apps all the way through to dessert and we delivered it to the DJ, so that really showed our audience this was totally worth it if you were still only in a position to order takeout. Once we did that, our takeout sales skyrocketed," she says.
Online Menu Design
The same principles apply when laying out an online menu and a printed version, says Tripoli. "The items you list at the top and bottom are going to get read more often, so if I'm doing my POS engineering, I'm going to want to remember that."
To boost check averages, consider having the digital menu immediately present upon viewing the main courses, rather than appetizers or beverages. This way, consumers don't have to hunt for what they most likely came to the site to purchase -- a meal.
From there, make it easier for guests to customize their orders with add-ons using a checklist approach. For example, a simple click to add chips and queso or side of guacamole to their enchilada order. Or perhaps suggesting proteins to add to a salad order, with a click to prompt them to build the dish they really want to eat, while you enjoy incremental sales increases. Spend the money and time to optimize your online ordering system. Making online ordering easy and enjoyable is often enough to build repeat patronage. Diners seeking convenience look for it as soon as they scroll your menu.
Spross's client took this advice to heart and over-hauled its menus for both dine-in and takeout. Rather than maintaining separate pages on their online and on-premises menus for cocktails, food and dessert, they put everything in one.
Spross noticed this has actually helped Tavola Restaurant + Bar sell more full meals, "because you weren't relying on your server to present an additional menu or two [and] when you're suggesting dessert, you've already seen it." This held true for their takeout spike, too, when a significant percentage of the orders were for full meals, including appetizer, entree, and dessert.
The Eyes Have It
Don't skimp on photography. Including appetizing images next to items, particularly on your online menu, helps as well, because people eat with their eyes first. An Iowa University study found that youths were 70 percent more likely to order a salad to go with their cafeteria lunch if they could first see a picture of the salad.
Spross can confirm this works for adults, too, mentioning that Tavola Restaurant + Bar included images of their signature cocktails and desserts on the new menu because "they're so pretty and that visual reference really helped the upsell versus relying on our staff to be able to speak to that." Fine-dining operators who prefer the elegant "laundry list" menu might take this advice to heart as well. Even a few photographs of items you wish to promote on a given evening could boost sales and margins.
Keep Learning…
Want Kids to Eat Healthier? Don't Tell Them, Show Them
https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2013/07/18/digitaldisplays
Tripoli recommends using images to build that power of "digital suggestive selling" at the shopping cart "checkout stage". Consider it like a retail impulse purchase. Once an item has been put in their shopping cart, consider showing suggested items to add on to the order, such as a side of fries or onion rings to accompany that burger, he recommends.
Reward coupons are another way to incentivize customers who have ordered online to come back. If your POS system captures email addresses with every online order, you can put a coupon code in the receipt or a follow up thank you email to prompt them to come again. If you're hoping to convert more customers to ordering online, instead of phoning in their order or using a third-party delivery service, consider sending the same coupon to your email list or including a printed coupon with every takeout or third-party delivery order. Winning customers to order directly from you increases your share of revenue and gives you the chance to push those check averages higher in subsequent orders.
Avoiding Dine and Dash
Many operators, including you perhaps, are not in a hurry to increase seating capacity and are staying with pandemic distancing, your RevPash (revenue per seat hour) is likely to plummet. That is, unless you find ways to increase check averages.
And maybe for the foreseeable future. Tripoli believes that "more room at the bar or between tables" will be the new normal, and says there may be other changes in store for diners. "We may not go back to [things like] individual leather menus. It might be one per table. Why should we go back to anything that might remind the guest of too many fingerprints, or has it been washed? We don't want our guests thinking that way," he says, to illustrate how operators should be thinking.
Spross agrees with Tripoli, that now is the time to learn how to build check averages with indoor dining. At Tavola Restaurant + Bar, that meant catering to guest comfort levels, including maintaining separate entrances and exits, shrink wrapping silverware roll-ups, putting wet naps on tables, using disposable menus with QR codes, and putting personal water pitchers and cups on tables.
While some guests balked at some of these safety measures (like water cups that were covered with plastic) because they wanted a more refined dining experience, positive online reviews told the real story. "Guests were so appreciative of us going above and beyond the basic level of requirements and they felt really comfortable and then they came back [again and again], and you have this larger loyalty because we were able to exceed the expectations," Spross says.
In addition, guests comfortable with the space can increase their willingness to enjoy appetizers, drinks, and desserts, rather than feeling like the clock is ticking. While increased spaciousness and a communal menu or QR code at the table won't directly increase spending, Tripoli does see a link between guest comfort and check averages. "The more relaxed [and] comfortable they are, the longer they might stay and the more they might spend," he says.
Anecdotally, Kharasch says that's been true for the times he's dined out with his wife. For Kharasch, the longer visits come down to two variables: comfort and trust. When you can make guests feel comfortable and get them to trust that your restaurant is a safe place to be, they will want to stay. If you miss these marks, it should go without saying, you'll struggle to increase check averages because guests will want to dine and dash.
Time is of the Essence
Building trust starts well before guests are seated with the use of social media, newsletters, signage and other avenues to demonstrate to guests your commitment to safety, a topic we've covered before. "[Trust] isn't something you can tell people, they have to see it for themselves," says Kharasch, who recommends that operators pay attention to cleanliness and customer service. "We're still recommending servers wear a mask, the tables are being cleaned, [and] every public space the customer can see is meticulous," he says. When guests walk in, they should be greeted right away and shown to a table -- the last thing you want is people waiting inside the door, not feeling welcomed.
When orders come in over the phone, there are still opportunities for traditional server upselling.'Making recommendations is not trying to push something,' says Kharasch, who suggests training employees on specific prompts to go with telephone orders, such as an appetizer to share or a mention of the alcoholic beverages that can be ordered with take-out. He's found that sharing works better, so rather than trying to upsell two appetizers, it could be a shared salad or a side of fries to accompany the burger.
If you want additional sales in this environment, you need to get orders rolling early and often. Kharasch cites a California customer that placed "a huge emphasis on greeting people [and getting them] to the table even faster than before." Another top priority for this concept was getting in that first order, whether for drinks or appetizers; the sooner someone has a glass of wine or shared appetizer, the sooner they can start to relax.
The restaurant used to have a big bar menu with 25 cocktails but that's been pared back to six, at a single price point. "We get the drink order, we offer apps to share, nobody is pushing apps for each person," Kharasch says. The restaurant is also focusing on tables more closely, initiating the soft sell for another round of drinks when the first round is half gone. Waiting until the drinks are finished to offer another round is usually too late. "It's not that we're pushing alcohol, it's that we're pushing service [and] being more attentive," Kharasch explains. They're aiming to sell an appetizer to every two people and a dessert to every four people. These little tweaks have led to a sales increase per check of 33 percent while helping people feel looked after as they return to dine-in.
Prime the Pump
Another way to increase guest comfort is through what Tripoli calls the "welcome back way of building check averages," in which a manager or owner might bring a complimentary starter to every table as a special thank you from the kitchen. Alternately, a complementary miniature dessert with a kind word, like "we wanted you to have a little taste" of our signature dessert, reinforces the hospitality that is so often missing from delivery or take out. Sometimes people will order more (say, a coffee to go with the dessert or a full-sized portion because it was so tasty).
Other times, it reinforces that sense of welcome so when a guest is considering dining out again, they'll choose your restaurant or perhaps recommend it to others who might be preparing for their first dine-in experience. There's a long tail effect to this strategy, but it can build profits, and demonstrating appreciation for your customers never hurts, either.
With these enticements, it helps to lean into what already gives your restaurant a competitive advantage. Tavola Restaurant + Bar has a well-known signature cocktail program created by their bar chef, who uses herbs grown in an onsite garden. Bar orders took a dip during the pandemic (although people were still ordering to-go cocktails), and it turned out the bar chef also had an interest in baking. They let her run with a new dessert program. Now, from-scratch desserts offer another way to tempt diners.
While server upselling may not seem polite in the current environment, Tripoli suggests taking a slightly different tack through the power of suggestion. When a server compliments a guest on their choice of entree (even if it's something the individual themselves doesn't eat), the guest becomes open to the power of suggestion. By slipping in a wine recommendation or suggesting they save room for a dessert that complements their meal, the server might bump up the check average.
Kharasch agrees. Rather than the traditional upselling, such as by suggesting a top-shelf liquor for a cocktail or pushing appetizers, servers should focus on giving guests options.
These suggestions play into the overarching goal of hospitality, something many diners are missing after a year of cooking from scratch or enjoying delivery. When you help the guest have a great time, whether it's in person or with takeout or delivery, they'll retain that positive impression, come back again soon, and spend more during subsequent visits.
Stealth Price Increase Caveats
You don't want to leave money on the table, but think carefully about stealth price increases. Even if your online guests are out of earshot, do not think no one notices. Your most important guests, your repeat customers who keep you in business, do notice when last week they paid $12.95 for your chicken parmesan and this week you are selling the same item for $15.95.
The last thing you want regular guests to feel pickpocketed -- particularly when they are doing what they can to support you during a challenging time.
