It’s a reality in the restaurant industry that we can never return to where we were prior to the pandemic. Or at least, not anytime soon. The jam-packed bars and queues for lunch and the days of waiting lists would not happen for a very long time. But this doesn’t mean that restaurants won’t have any chance of driving sales. This incredibly challenging period provides a good avenue to maximize restaurant revenue online.
This tough time is all about re-defining strategies and stepping outside the box to offer unique products and experiences to your patrons. How can you create stirring and captivating offerings to your customers to maximize restaurant revenue online? Here are some ideas:
1. Offer curb-side pick-up and delivery services and do a shout-out of these services in your online footprint.
2. Up-sell, up-sell, up-sell – there’s no better opportunity than to sell more to customers who are already placing their orders with you.
3. Invent great deals such as package deals or family style meal deals.
4. Make use of your app to offer big rewards such as offering something free to customers who download your app on their smartphones. The more catchy your call-to-action banners are, the more you will be surprised with how much sales you can make from it.
5. Make your digital menu available on your website and in your social media accounts. Don’t forget to include photos of your meals to appeal to the cravings of your customers.
6. Offer gift cards that customers can give to their friends and family or those that they can use as donations. This is an innovative way of making sales while encouraging your customers to support your restaurant.
7. Take advantage of the wonders of social media and over-communicate whatever new services or offerings you have. There’s so much information that you can share that would help you maximize restaurant revenue online such as your hours, open locations, delivery platforms, safety measures, specials deals and offerings, and the list goes on.
8. Show your customers what you have behind-the-scenes. You can go live on your social media accounts like Instagram and Facebook to show them how the magic in your food offerings happen.
9. Feature your customers on your social media accounts. Encourage your customers to post their experiences with ordering from you (make sure they include photos and videos in their posts) and share them on your page. This is a great way of building your community and increasing your business.
10. Create polls using your social media accounts and ask customers what they want you to improve on and the meals that they want you to offer.
11. To maximize restaurant revenue online, you should be able to build a good online community and another effective way to do this is to entice your customers to tag you in their posts for a chance to win a meal or any good offering from your restaurant.
12. Occasionally share some of your recipes online.
13. Make sure to include relevant hashtags in your social media posts.
The pandemic doesn’t have to be a hindrance to maximize restaurant revenue online. There are a myriad ways on how to create novel ways to increase profit margins. If you need more insights on what you can do to increase your sales online, feel free to reach out to the experts in running restaurants even in the midst of Covid-19 – eRestaurant Consulting.