Restaurants have notoriously low profit margins. Owners often struggle to cover all the costs, between payroll, electricity bills, rent, and food costs. The easiest way to raise sales in any business is to leverage the existing customer base. This can be done by raising your check average per customer.
A check average is the median amount each individual pays for a bill in a restaurant. Raising this amount will increase your day-to-day profits without adding business hours or expenses to your budget. If you want to learn how to increase check averages, these are our top tips.
1. Train Your Staff
Servers are your sales team and thus the most important part of raising your profits. A knowledgeable front-of-house staff will sell your food best, as it also means raised tips for themselves. Remind servers about upselling and cross-selling tactics and possibilities during shift meetings. Conduct regular tastings of new dishes and wine so staff members have the necessary knowledge to sell more of it.
Make sure to quiz them on the daily specials. When servers know them by heart, rather than reading off a page, it shows professionalism and earns guests’ trust. The more knowledge your staff has of your menu, the easier it is to suggest sides, appetizers, desserts, and drinks.
Teaching staff to offer specific menu items is more productive for sales. For instance, “Would you like to start with our signature lemon drop martini?” is more effective than, “Would you like something to drink?” Keep it simple; allow servers to show their personalities with natural delivery and personal touches, not scripts. Pushy or robotic servers put off customers.
In-depth wine knowledge helps staff to upsell wine. If a customer selects an inferior glass, most customers will pay a few dollars more when the server explains the taste profile of a better option. Steak may be upsold to a better cut, an option to have broiled blue cheese on top, or with a good side to accompany it. Adding liqueur or a scoop of ice cream to a dessert will add to guest satisfaction and sales.
A strong culinary staff backs the FOH sales force by ensuring exceptional food quality and presentation. This is extremely important to create return customers and positive guest experiences and reviews.
2. Increase Drink Sales
Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are high-profit, high-margin items, so they’re a great add-on for customers who otherwise veer to water. Hold off on bringing water out as soon as guests sit down; if they are thirsty, it will point them toward the drink menu. Offering special non-alcoholic drinks not usually found on menus will pique the interest of guests who aren’t interested in alcohol and are looking for a change from the usual offerings. A house-made strawberry lemonade or a special mocktail list can raise sales for kids and adults.
A specialty cocktail list will help guests looking for an interesting new twist and can raise the bill a few dollars from a typical rum and coke order. Training your staff to pair food with the wine list might become your biggest money maker yet.
Restaurants often rev up sales during off-peak hours in the afternoon by adding happy hour specials; however, research your local liquor laws thoroughly before offering any discounts on drinks. In some areas, liquor control laws prohibit discounted alcohol, and restaurants could lose their liquor licenses for this practice. If this is the case in your area, you can still offer a happy hour menu with food discounts on appetizers or a special, small plate menu. This is a great opportunity to get budget-minded guests or families in the doors during a time when you normally have empty seats.
3. Offer Combination Deals
Adding a soup or salad for an additional charge with an entree, less than the cost of the same salad or soup on the starters menu, will feel like a good deal to guests. These items have a high profit margin and are quick to prepare. Have your service staff offer it to customers when they order a qualifying entree.
Servers can cross-sell dishes by offering sides or sauces to compliment the meal, like bacon or cheese on a burger or salmon on a salad. Substitutions can be made for more premium offerings—for example, onion rings or fresh fruit substituted for fries.
4. Develop a Focused Menu
A short, focused menu helps to cut down on food costs and preparation and narrows down infrequently ordered items that lead to food waste and lost prep time. Shorter menus make it faster for customers to make a decision, keeping up table rotation during busy times.
Customers often get overwhelmed with too many choices, the more options there are, the less satisfied people feel. This is known as the paradox of choice, and it’s good news for your business. A streamlined menu helps to simplify the process and save time explaining the menu to guests.
Additionally, adding a few different sizes will also increase sales. Offering the option to add a small salad to an entree or regular and large options for appetizers gives people more choices and can raise sales significantly.
5. Update Your Menu Design
Psychology shows that where menu items are placed has a significant effect on what the customer orders. Most customers only take two minutes to decide what to order, so where you place your most profitable menu items is important. Reader’s eyes are naturally drawn to the top left, top right, and lower center of the menu—this is called the Golden Triangle. Add your highest-profit, most popular dishes to these areas to sell the most of them.
Highlight high-profit items by italicizing the title or noting that it’s a chef’s choice or house special. This will draw attention to these items, allowing them to be ordered more often.
Price anchoring is a way of making customers feel like they’re getting a good deal. Placing a menu item next to a more expensive item can make it seem less expensive, for example, a 9 oz $70 filet mignon next to a 14 oz $45 T-bone makes the T-bone look like a great deal.
6. Use Descriptors
When building an appetizing menu, descriptions are key to selling your products. “Mushrooms on a bed of pasta” doesn’t sound nearly as delicious as “Sunny yellow, forest-grown, organic chanterelle mushrooms sautéed on a bed of fresh peppercorn tagliatelle noodles, tossed in a garlic butter sauce, and topped with shaved, aged parmigiano.” Better descriptions denote better quality and will demand higher prices.
7. Craft Specials
Often, a daily special is just an amalgamation of leftover ingredients that a chef throws together to turn a profit before they spoil. Specials should be used to highlight a seasonal ingredient, a new cooking technique, a fresh fish caught that day, or a dish interesting enough to warrant an addition to your other menu choices.
Creating quality, intentional, and appetizing food specials will make your customers excited to try something new. This is great for repeat customers, as it shakes up their dining experience and makes coming to your restaurant exciting.
If you have access to particularly good produce during a season, for instance, asparagus in the springtime or watermelon in the summer, incorporate them into your daily specials. This creates a limited-time offer and tempts guests with freshness and short availability. Gourmet specials cost more than other menu items when quantities are scarce.
8. Tell a Story
One of the best ways to increase your check average is to use local, seasonal ingredients in a variety of ways on the menu. If you receive an order of mushrooms from a local forager, implement them across different menu items to highlight their flavor and the overall great quality they provide.
Customers love items that are local, rare, and tell a story, with 38% of adults saying they’re more likely to choose a restaurant offering locally sourced foods over one that doesn’t. Be creative and thoughtful with local items unique to your area. Another example would be utilizing a small batch local whiskey distillery for artisanal old fashioneds.
9. Use Prix Fixe Menus
Prix fixe (pronounced pree-fix) or fixed price menus ensure that each guest has a set menu price and menu. Prix fixe menus are often used during special occasions like Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve. Restaurants use a set menu with several courses and two or three options for each course with recommended wine to pair with each.
Prix fixe menus can include add-ons for premium ingredients. For example, during truffle season, freshly shaved truffles may be a supplemental add-on for many of the courses. Wine pairings or cocktail pairings are excellent choices to increase customer spend alongside a prix fixe menu.
Wine tastings and chef’s table experiences can use the prix fixe model to make dinner an event and often command high prices with wine pairings. Guests can be treated to a small presentation with each course or wine tasting about the food and or wine, why they pair well together, and the preparation that went into it.
10. Leverage the 99 Effect
The 99 effect is a psychological trick that boosts sales by seemingly being a better deal than the rounded number one cent higher. A number such as $19.99 appears to be less of a sticker shock to customers than $20.00. Research shows that using this basic pricing rule in all areas of sales has had a significant impact on higher spending.
11. Add a Sides Menu Section
A sides section of the menu is often listed at the bottom, giving more options after your guest has decided on a full-priced entree. You can put items such as fries, salads, veggies, sauces, and other popular items here. Sides are often only a few dollars each, encouraging more orders for low-cost, high-profit items. This is also a good place for parents to find options for children.
12. Take Reservation Deposits
No-show reservations cost restaurants money and it’s becoming an increasing problem. Large parties that show up late and no-show reservations leave empty tables during the busiest times of the week. This can have detrimental effects on your business leaving frustrated guests waiting with eyes on empty tables, angry servers with decreased tips, and lowered nightly sales.
Many restaurants have decided to fix this problem by charging a reservation fee per person at the time of the booking. The fee is then deducted from their final bill after the meal or kept in the event of a no-show booking. This system is best used in high-demand locations. Sending reservation reminders the day before the meal can remind guests of their reservations, giving them an opportunity to cancel without a penalty if they call within a set number of hours before their reservation.
13. Fit Reservations to Tables
The dining room setup is crucial to maximizing your best check averages. Tables of two should be used for only two tops. Placing two people at a four-top table wastes the potential for a higher tab. Square tables can be moved and added to other tables creating multiple ways of seating different numbers of guests. Round tables are more difficult, as they don’t leave room to adjust for smaller party sizes and leave uncomfortable spaces between if they’re combined.
14. Include Thoughtful Menu Modifiers
Ensure that your point-of-sale (POS) system is fluid and easy to navigate with easy ways to add extra ingredients and dedicated options for add-on dishes. Automatic prompts asking servers if they’d like to modify dishes and add extras are a constant reminder to upsell and different options for doing so. Adding avocado to a salad or house-made sauce to a steak are a few ways to add more options.
15. Incentivize Staff to Sell
Incentivizing your staff can be a great way to encourage them to sell more of a certain item. Push a specific wine or a new special with a great profit margin. You can track the sales of an item through the POS system.
Weekend sales competitions are a fun way of building healthy competition among the service staff and give you an idea of who your sales superstars are. Prizes can be a free bottle of wine or a gift card to a neighboring restaurant.
16. Conduct Consistent Table Touches
A “table touch” in the restaurant industry refers to the number of times waitstaff check in on their guests throughout the dining experience. This is one of the best ways to ensure your guests have the opportunity to order more food or drinks. Training your waitstaff to be present, but not overbearing or intrusive, is key.
17. Sell More Desserts
Desserts often don’t sell—if the restaurant isn’t busy, it’s a lost opportunity for extra sales. It helps to suggest dessert twice, when guests first make their orders, servers should plant the seed by telling them to save room for dessert. Then again, after plates are cleared, offer desserts by name—for example, a house-made, flourless triple chocolate fudge cake with coffee or a dry malbec. If guests are too full, offer to split a piece in the back or take one home.
A dessert tray sells itself, having servers bring out actual desserts made fresh each evening is more enticing than a menu.
16. Offer Impulse Purchases
Cafes, coffee shops, and counter-service restaurants have counter space to display shelf-stable items next to the register. Full-service restaurants can outfit their takeout counters with grab-and-go items.
(Source: Pinterest)
Gum and gift cards are a natural fit for coffee shops. Reusable cutlery and hand sanitizer make sense in quick-service restaurants (QSRs). If you have space, fill the display case with pastries, cakes, sandwiches, and quick-grab items. For walk-up orders, this is the best way to entice guests with what you have available or give them the idea to add a dessert to their takeout.
17. Encourage Online & Pickup Orders
Utilize your online platform for delivery or pickup orders. Customers often spend more when ordering online because they have more time with the menu without distraction and concern about returning to the conversation. This leads to higher sales and more add-ons.
Online systems support item pairing and add-on prompts. Automatic suggestions allow businesses to choose which items will be shown first on the electronic menu guiding guests to the items you want to sell more of. Familiarize yourself with the available tools to customize options, for example, to a medium cheeseburger, add bacon ($2), sub onion rings for fries ($2.50), plus a side of ranch (50 cents).
Promote reaching a specific total by offering a free, low-food-cost deal. For instance, with orders of $75 or more, the customer will receive a free delivery or a free dessert.
18. Know Your Customers
Create a profile for your regulars, log the dates of their special occasions, birthdays, and anniversaries, and save their favorite dishes and drinks. On future visits, cater to their tastes and offer thoughtful items for them. If a guest loves merlot, have the bartender or sommelier suggest a bottle. The chef may greet them with a suggested food pairing. These personalized suggestions are always appreciated; they build friendships while thanking them for their patronage. Send free dessert coupons or discount offers to their email on special occasions.
19. Use Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are a significant way to increase not only check averages but also the return of frequent customers. Loyalty programs build relationships with your brand. One example is when a coffee shop gives a customer a punch card. Every time the customer comes in, they receive a punch for each coffee bought. When they hit 10 punches, they receive a free coffee. This incentivizes the customer to keep returning, for a small expense to the business.
Use your customer loyalty mailing list to send special offers. Coupons for a free appetizer or pastry with a $100 purchase or free delivery for an order of $50 or more are a few ways to reward loyal guests.
Read more: Restaurant Loyalty Program Ideas + Examples
20. Pay Attention to Customer Reviews
Focus on what your guests are saying after dining at your restaurant. If a customer leaves a Yelp review, “Great meal, but I wish they had more vegetarian options.” These comments are helpful for your business, they tell you what your customers want. Feedback allows you to build a better dining experience while subsequently offering more items that, in turn, will increase your check averages over time.
21. Offer Meal Deals
If you have a night of the week that crawls by, like Mondays for example, make it a family night. Offer a special on all-you-can-eat wings, or a meal catered to large parties. A set price for two courses with a salad and a choice of (low food cost) items like pasta or pizza can get people in the doors. Often large groups end in high tickets even if each individual meal is discounted. Drinks and sides bump up sales, and deal nights often become the most popular night of the week.
22. Create the Right Atmosphere
Don’t underestimate a classy, comfortable atmosphere. Create a space where people want to be, they’ll linger, chat, and spend more money. If they aren’t ready to go, they’ll order another drink or have dessert.
Lighting is incredibly powerful for creating an intimate space. Soft lighting makes for good conversation and helps diners relax. Soft, comfortable fabrics and chairs, a pleasing color scheme, and a spacious dining room layout all add to the experience. A beautiful space encourages guests to return with friends, dates, and colleagues.
Music is another important ingredient in creating the right atmosphere. A mix of popular and lesser-known songs that fit your brand and ambiance will create the environment and personality of your restaurant. A quick tempo at a high volume turns tables quickly, while a soft relaxing vibe entices cocktail sipping and encourages conversation.
Learn more: Restaurant Lighting Ideas & Tips from an Expert
Check Average Formula
Check average tells you the average amount a customer spends on a single meal in your restaurant and is one good indicator of the health of your business. It is calculated by dividing the restaurant’s gross sales by the number of customers served for a specific day.
For example:
$5,000 daily sales / 100 customers served that day = $50 individual check average
Check Averages by Restaurant Type
The average per-person pricing depends on the type of restaurant you run and your menu prices. Here are some average amounts across the industry:
- Coffee shop: $11
- Quick service: $8 to $15
- Casual dining: $12 to $15
- Full-service upscale: $16 to $25
- Fine dining: $50 to $500+
FAQs
These are some of the most common questions we encounter about increasing check averages.
Last Bite
When margins are thin and you have a whole staff to provide for, a few extra dollars per customer can massively contribute to your success. Use these tips while keeping the guest in mind. If you focus on creating an unforgettable guest experience, they’ll return and tell their friends about it. Raising profits is a win-win for restaurant owners and customers with everyone walking away happy.
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