Depending on the type of outlet, profit margins for the typical restaurant can be as low as 3-5%; and it’s extremely difficult to cut costs such as staff while delivering a high-quality customer experience.

Employing all possible means to boost restaurant revenue is therefore essential if the business is to survive.

There are innumerable creative ways of doing this, but you should first make sure that you are not neglecting these seven proven methods.

Tried and Tested Ways to Increase Restaurant Revenue

1. Upselling

Attracting more customers is an important goal for any business, but it’s generally far easier and more cost-effective to generate increased revenue from existing customers than it is to acquire new ones.

Upselling at the point of sale is, therefore, a vital best practice for restaurants looking to maximize revenues.

Training waiting staff always to describe dishes, suggest extra sides, specials and suitable drinks is a good starting point, but a modern restaurant POS system like CBS NorthStar can help by giving staff automatic prompts of a range of suitable options.

Handheld, WiFi-enabled tablets will also provide immediate attractive images of the suggested dishes and drinks to help sell them to customers.  

2. Maximizing Table Turns

Apart from upselling, probably the most important way of getting the most out of existing customers is to ensure the quickest possible rate of table turns consistent with a satisfying customer experience. You don’t want hungry customers waiting in the lobby or leaving in frustration because your table service is too slow.

Here again, NorthStar POS helps by ensuring orders can be despatched immediately from table to kitchen and bar; wait staff is informed immediately of any changes in the menu; and customer checks can be made up and paid right at the table.

This automation of many routine tasks not only speeds up table turns but also allows staff to devote more time to ensuring maximum customer satisfaction.

3. Loyalty and Gift Card Schemes

But of course, none of this can happen unless the customer demand is there in the first place, so marketing and customer retention are also vital aspects of increasing revenue.

Loyalty and gift card programs are among the most cost-effective ways of setting about this, and the NorthStar POS system offers a number of integrations making it an easy matter to design, administer and promote a scheme precisely tailored to your needs.

4. Social Media Channels and Online Marketing

A highly visible social media and online presence is now a crucial element of business marketing and can be integrated with your POS system to help promote your restaurant.

Depending on your customer demographic, channels like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are ideal ways of communicating directly with customers, and publicizing special events, offers and promotions.

But you also need to ensure that you have a strong presence in Google local search results; and with the increasing popularity of mobile and voice search, it’s vital that your website and online listings enable new customers to find you this way.       

5. Allowing Online Ordering

Online and voice ordering are becoming ever more important for some types of restaurant and being able to accept orders in this way may result in a significant boost to future revenues.

NorthStar POS offers integrations with a number of leading online ordering companies to make the process simple for both your staff and customers.   

6. Happy Hours and Promotions

Happy hours and promotions are a great way of getting customers in the door, particularly during quieter seasons or days of the week, and your restaurant POS  system can help by providing accurate data on the menu items and drinks likely to be the most popular and the best days and times to run your promotion.

You can also use the waiting staff’s tablets to print details of promotions on customer receipts, post details on social media and even issue redeemable promo codes.    

7. Hosting Special Events

For smaller, community-based, restaurants in particular, getting involved in helping to host local events, whether sporting, charitable or social, can be very helpful in building a business profile and anchoring customer loyalty.

You can also host your own events such as gigs by local bands, comedy or karaoke nights and again a POS system like NorthStar will help you optimize your planning and promotion for the event.

The NorthStar Solution

CBS NorthStar has been a market-leading provider of restaurant technology since 1994 and our latest POS system provides a complete suite of revenue-boosting tools for both staff and management.

Find Out More   

Call us on 800-551-7674 for more information or visit us online here to see a live demo of our system in action.