Events can be a great source of income for a restaurant, but without proper organization and planning, they can be a disaster. That’s why we brought in Jonathan Morse Founder and CEO of Tripleseat, an all-in-one platform that streamlines the event planning process for restaurants and venues, to share some of his advice on how to throw the best events and make a profit.

Consistency

It used to be that when a restaurant had multiple locations, a person could call two different locations and have two totally different quotes and experiences. The information would come in via a phone call or e-mail and keeping information straight was difficult. It is critical that while planning events you have some way of managing information in a consistent way, whether that is excel, google docs or the more modern Tripleseat- it is important to get all information in one centralized place, so everyone is on the same page and knows how to handle orders uniformly.

Know Who Your Customer is

If your restaurant has a catering side to it, keeping tabs on your customers can really give you a leg up. By keeping a log of who orders what and how often, you can begin to see trends in your customers ordering habits and better market to them to get more sales and stay more organized.  For example, say you have one customer who comes in every month and puts in the same large order for a deli tray. You can use this information to begin sending this client targeted promotions to bring them in more often.

Communication

This is the number one pitfall that restaurants face according to Jonathan. Events usually result in special menus, special setups and a lot of different balls in the air. It is critical to the success of an event that you are constantly communicating with your client and with your staff. You should constantly be checking in for every step of the way to make sure that you are setting things up in a way that your customer wants it, and if there are any changes-you must let your people know right away.

There is no such thing as over communicating. You and everyone involved should know exactly when things will be delivered, how they will be presented and who will be taking care of each task.

Does keeping everyone in the loop sound like too much to handle? Jonathan’s app takes care of this communication piece by using technology to keep everyone informed. Did your guest change their preference from peas to carrots? No problem, you can input that into the order so now your chef knows what to prepare, and your customer can see that the change has been made. This takes care of the headache of trying to manage to inform and to communicate with everyone involved.

How to Drive Additional Revenue

You might be interested in the added revenue of catering events, but not feel ready to take them on. That’s okay, there are plenty of other ways to increase revenue outside of the four walls of your business.

This is another area where keeping tabs on your client base is important. Say you have a special room within your restaurant that you see is empty on a Friday night or special holiday. You can take the information you have about groups that come to your establishment and reach out to them to offer a deal on booking that room on that day. Now your special event’s room is filled, and you are gaining additional revenue that otherwise wouldn’t have been there without contacting your customers.

In filling up your event rooms, it is important to make sure that you are considering what that room is worth and what the customer can spend. An event room is worth more on a weekend than it is on a weekday, and it is good business to know how much revenue can be generated in food and drink from that space. Say you know that space generates $20,000 in food and drink on a Friday night. By getting to know what your customer’s budget is before booking the room, you can significantly increase your bottom line. If your customer’s budget is $5,000 and the room is worth $20,000 on a Friday but $4,000 on a Tuesday, it would be best to book that group on a Tuesday instead.

Hosting an event at your restaurant can be daunting, but there are tools out there like Tripleseat that can take the guesswork out and help ensure that you are providing the absolute best experience for your guests. Learn more about Tripleseat at http://www.tripleseat.com/

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