Profit-building tip #5: Boost up-selling

Without effective up-selling, your restaurant is letting money walk out the door with every customer. “Successful up-selling needs to be at the core of every business or professional practice. It can instantly multiply your profits,” writes one restaurant consultant, and nobody would disagree.

For instance, if you up-sell a housebrand vodka to a premium brand, then add one appetizer and one dessert, for a total up-sell of $18 for a table of four. If that table turns only twice, that’s another $36 per table per night. Extend this kind of sales bump over all your tables for an entire year, and it’s a significant boost to your profits... not to mention your servers’ tips. And it doesn’t hurt customer service; after all, what customer doesn’t appreciate hearing about all the options available?

Much of the fine art of up-selling depends on training servers to do it gracefully. In a table-service restaurant, a POS system can be programmed to suggest items that complement the meal ordered, such as wine and side dishes.

In a quick-service setting, your restaurant POS software can be programmed to promote up-sells (“Fries with that?”) or combos (“Drink with that? You save 50 cents with the combo.”) Bundling several items together, or offering lunch, after-work, or dinner specials is a tactic that works well today, especially if customers smell a good deal.

Another aspect of suggestive selling is to encourage servers to push daily specials or menu items the kitchen prepares in volume. With a restaurant POS system, you can run menu-mix sales reports several times a shift, or midway through the lunch-hour rush, to see what’s moving and what needs more push. So up-selling can help boost sales and tips, improve customer satisfaction, and cut down on kitchen waste.

In a quick service environmenet, an order confirmation screen (OCS) allows you to display advertisements and videos, and can be used for suggestive up-selling.