Profit optimization. How to increase restaurant profits? Profit optimization The problem of managing sales in a restaurant

A good waiter must be able to not only smile politely at visitors, carefully write down the order and smoothly maneuver the tray between tables. One of the most important qualities of a waiter is competence and good sales skills. You must instill in your waiters the understanding that the question “Are you ready to order?” or "Would you like dessert?" This is not yet an act of sale. This is just taking an order. Active selling means that the waiter will interact with the guest and use certain sales methods. Moreover, he must do this gently and unobtrusively, professionally. Let's take a look at some simple restaurant sales boosting techniques your servers can use.

Sullivan's nod

This method is as follows: when offering a guest a dish or drink, the waiter should smile, slowly lower his head down and raise it back, thus depicting an affirmative nod. According to research, more than 60% of guests will unconsciously nod in agreement and order the position suggested by the waiter.

Herringbone method

This method is based on offering a choice alternative. Leading questions asked by the waiter should break the menu or its sections into parts. In this case, it is desirable to divide approximately equally. “Do you want to have a hearty lunch or satisfy a slight hunger?”, “What meat do you prefer: pork, beef, veal, or maybe lamb?” We find out that the guest likes chicken, and prefers rice as a side dish, so we offer him items from the menu that correspond to his choice, for example: boiled rice with chicken fricassee or frittata with rice and smoked chicken breast. And now the guest has a limited number of positions, from which it is easier to choose something specific. Of course, the goal of such a conversation should be a reasonable recommendation of the most marginal dish. But at the same time, the guest gets the impression that this is his choice, because the waiter simply asked the right questions!

Associative chains

This method is based on offering related items to the guest’s order and upselling. For example, a great sales phrase from a waiter would be “For this dish, I would recommend you get Idaho potatoes on the side,” or “Would you like a glass of beer to go with your chicken wings?”

The Stirlitz principle

This method is based on the fact that it is human nature to remember the first and last message in a chain of information. If you need to sell a specific dish, you should start the listing with it, mention a couple of other similar items and end your response with a description of that particular dish, indicating its advantages over others. " For dessert you can try tiramisu, apple strudel or cheesecake. I recommend that you pay attention to our tiramisu, our chef brought the recipe from his internship in Italy"

Dessert offer

Correct words

If the waiter uses “delicious” words that awaken the appetite and evoke positive emotions when describing items, the guest will be much more willing to place an order, and the waiter will increase the average check. Remember that verbal forms of expressions always have more force than descriptive adjectives. A good waiter should have several options for correct descriptions prepared in advance for all menu items. And a good manager has all the right waiters!

Do not overuse diminutive suffixes! If homemade soup still no matter what, then marbled beef in the eyes of the guest it will no longer be worth the money asked for it. No need to belittle the food!

How does it taste?

Remember that there is nothing worse than the answer “I haven’t tried that yet” when asked about the properties of a dish. Even in upscale restaurants you can hear “This cake is delicious, but I haven’t tried this one yet.” At the same time, the waiter is completely sincere and really wants to help you! But in this restaurant there is clearly no system for training employees and they teach everything themselves - they have already tried some things, but have not yet tried others.

A new employee can be trained by the whole team. To do this, in the first week of work, drive him around different workshops. Let him work as an auxiliary worker in a cold workshop for one day, in a hot workshop for the second, then let him go to the bar. By observing the process of preparing a dish, it is much easier for a person to remember its composition and the sequence of using ingredients, and if the cooks and bartenders constantly examine the new employee, asking him various questions about the menu, learning will go much faster.

You can write detailed descriptions of items or arrange visual demonstrations: every time a dish is picked up from the kitchen, you need to show it to the intern and tell him what kind of dish it is, better accompanying the process with a mini-tasting. A person will remember not only the name, but also a visual image, thus he will learn the menu much faster and, in addition, will know what the dishes look like.

You can break the menu into blocks and limit the time frame within which a new employee must learn them. In this case, we recommend using a flexible testing system: without waiting for the actual end of the established period, suddenly examine the newcomer to check at what stage the learning process is. If he has already mastered the entire category perfectly, let him, without wasting time, move on to the next block. And this will continue until he learns everything by heart. We recommend developing a special system of fines and rewards to further motivate employees.

If you hire an employee with experience or after completing special courses, he will still need some time to “adapt”, but he will be able to understand all the variety of positions in your restaurant without outside help. Provided that you have developed a special training menu for waiters, which contains complete information about each dish. To make it easier to understand, the training menu should be presented in tabular form, with the following columns:

• photo of food/drink,
• “delicious” description using the “correct” adjectives and verbs (refined, rich, tender, piquant, etc.).
• Ingredients,
• recommended garnish
• time and standard of delivery.

When compiling such a menu, it is advisable to place dishes with similar ingredients as close to each other as possible. This will help the waiter remember several positions at a time and quickly navigate between them.

Alexander Musatov

I continue the series of articles on the development and implementation of standards in the work of a restaurant, and today we will talk about sales tools.

So many articles, books and manuals have already been written about how to increase sales in a restaurant that it would seem inappropriate to raise this topic again.

However, as part of a series of articles on restaurant standardization, we cannot help but touch on it.

In addition to the popular tools available for servers and bartenders, every restaurateur has his own “secret” knowledge of how to increase restaurant sales. I will also share with you our tricks and tricks that may be useful to you in your work.

Let's start from the beginning and list the most common methods that both waiters and bartenders (contact counter) should use:

“Guide” the Guest through the menu, based on the Platinum Rule of Guest Service.

Use the Sullivan nod.

Use “Chains” when offering food and drinks.

Ask questions to find out about the Guest’s preferences (“Herringbone”).

Suggest in a positive way, without using the particle “NOT”.

When offering food and drinks, use the Guest’s characteristic words - tools for “adjusting” to the Guest. This will help you establish contact/rapport with him. Observe the Guest: the speed of his speech, the number of gestures, posture, establish eye contact.

There is no need to list the entire menu. Offer a choice of two specific foods or drinks.

Use the “Stirlitz Principle” - the principle of “first and last”.

Never forget about an alternative offer.

Respect the Guest's feelings and opinions. If the Guest refuses any dish, do not insist. Do not challenge the Guest's opinion. The Guest has the right to have his own tastes and preferences.

Describe the dishes colorfully.

Use diminutive suffixes carefully.

Use available tools.

Compliment the guest's choice.

Feel like you're on the guest's side.

Before we disassemble each tool, let's remember once again that the employee, first of all, must know the menu with which he works 100%.

In addition to the “technical characteristics” of dishes and drinks (composition, preparation technology, serving, volume of the drink and yield of the dish, a list of “critical” ingredients (honey, nuts, etc.), he must be able to describe the taste. After all, when choosing, for example, yogurt in the store, first of all, you don’t read its composition and don’t make a decision based on the fact that it contains your “favorite” trisodium citrate.

You are initially interested in the taste of yogurt. Also with food and drinks. Train employees to talk about taste, aftertaste, shades of aromas, serving size, consistency.

In order for our guys (at True Burger Bar and Hendrick’s bar) to remember dishes better, they have a permanent 25% discount on the entire bar and kitchen menu. During the introduction of new drink items (within 2 weeks), we are setting a 50% discount on these items. Firstly, this is a good motivational tool, and secondly, what the guys didn’t have time to try during training, they will be able to try on their own at a table or bar counter as guests (outside of working hours, of course).

Now briefly about each sales method (this is how a standardization project traditionally looks like):

Guide the guest through the menu

The menu in our cafe is divided into sections. This is done for the convenience of our Guests, to make it easier for them to navigate, and ultimately easier to choose food and drinks. So take advantage of this and, becoming a guide for the Guest, armed with the “platinum rule”, help him make a choice.

When escorting the Guest to the table, we always offer the menu in expanded form on the drinks page.

An open menu means your openness to Guests. By doing this you show your hospitality. Plus, having an open menu is a good promotional gimmick to sell our signature cocktails.

Try it and you will see how easy it will be to start a conversation with the Guest about his order.

FOR EXAMPLE:

“LET'S START WITH DRINKS? PAY ATTENTION TO THE COCKTAIL CLASSICS WHICH ARE WIDELY PRESENTED ON OUR MENU...”

"Sullivan's Nod"

This psychological technique is as follows:

When you nod, you are influencing the Guest on a subconscious level, making him think about wanting to try this particular drink or dish.

"Chains"

Taking an order from the Guest, the waiter offers a dish or drink, “clinging” to the Guest’s previous choice. For example:

TAKE OUR AMAZING CHEESE PACKS!

THANKS, WITH PLEASURE!

AND SOUR CREAM OR CONDENSED MILK WILL GO PERFECTLY WITH CHEESE CAKES.

GREAT! I TAKE WITH CONDENSED MILK!

NOTE, CHEESE CAKES WILL BE MORE TASTY WITH A LARGE CAPPUCCINO. BY THE WAY, WE CAN ADD VANILLA OR CHOCOLATE SYRUP TO THE COFFEE!

In addition to the classic “chain” option, we can recommend alcoholic drinks to guests in connection with certain groups of dishes (food pairing):

Fish - white wine

Meat - red wine

Hot snacks - vodka.

Herringbone reception

This is a model of accepting an order from the Guest, one of the varieties of the “chain”, when the waiter, asking questions, “leads” the Guest through the menu, determining the Guest’s taste, his preferences in dishes/drinks.

Eliminate the particle "not"

The particle "not" is a particle of negation. Using this particle, a person, as a rule, refuses something. And in our subconscious it is associated with something negative. Now let’s imagine this particle in the question. Think about your first reaction to the question:

DON'T YOU WANT...?

NO I DO NOT WANT TO!

So why set up the Guest in advance to deny and refuse your offer. Question:

COULD THERE BE AN AMAZINGLY TASTY “BLACK TRUFFLE”? YES, ADDITED WITH A “SULLIVAN NOD,” AND YOU WILL SEE - THE GUEST CANNOT RESIST.

Customization for the guest

Tools for customizing the Guest:

Speak the Guest's language

Use a speech rate that is acceptable to the Guest

Use the words that the Guest himself uses

“Adjust” to the volume level that is comfortable for the Guest

“Reflect” the Guest’s behavior

Be careful! These adjustment tools allow you to establish closer contact with the Guest without violating his personal space.

Don't list the entire menu

There is no need to list the entire menu. Offer a choice of several specific dishes or drinks. Even if you really want to show the Guest all the abundance of your offer, or quote a brilliant memory, listing the entire menu in a patter, I assure you - this is unnecessary. You will achieve nothing but “execution” of the Guest. Just waste your time. It is much more effective, and perhaps more impressive, to offer the Guest a choice of several dishes, naturally having previously studied his tastes.

"Stirlitz principle"

Remember the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring”, the moment when SS Standartenführer Stirlitz discusses the topic of human memory. He claims that a person most often remembers the first and last things from a conversation. And remember the long and uninteresting lecture. What do you remember about it, how they greeted you and introduced themselves, and the moment the lecture ended and the teacher said goodbye.

It’s the same with a Guest in a restaurant, he will highlight the first and last of everything you say. Therefore, if you need to sell a specific dish or drink, start listing and describing it with it, this way you will place the right emphasis for the Guest.

WE HAVE A LOT OF DESSERTS: CHEESE PUDDING, BLACK TRUFFLE, POPPY ROLL. AN AMAZING “CHEESE PUDDING” WILL LEAVE AN UNFORGETTABLE FEELING OF LIGHTNESS....

In most cases, after describing Cheese Pudding, no further effort on your part will be required. The guest will be happy to taste this dessert.

Alternative offer

There are times in a cafe when a dish is missing from the kitchen - this is called a stop list. And besides, Guests, as luck would have it, strive to order exactly this, the missing dish. I have to say that, unfortunately, this dish is not available.

Now try to imagine yourself in the Guest’s place. You came for coffee. All the way to the cafe, we imagined a plate with a huge piece of amazing cake, drizzled with chocolate sauce. Swallowing saliva, in fantasies we already enjoyed the magnificent taste. So you enter a cafe, eagerly take a table, the waiter comes up, you eagerly order a wonderfully delicious, wonderfully chocolate-smelling cake - and suddenly “BAM”:

“Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you, “Black Truffle” is already over” (the apologetic face of the waiter and your slumped face). And in most cases: “NO Truffle” (the waiter’s impenetrable sour face and the glowing letters of the word “NO” in your eyes).

The evening is ruined. But you can do it completely differently. Instead of refusing the Guest a dish, offer an alternative option:

Never challenge a guest's opinion

A guest is a person who brings money to your establishment. And this alone makes his opinion law.

Too intrusive offering of any dish gives rise to doubt and mistrust.

If the Guest is discussing some topic, and it seems to you that such statements are complete nonsense or the reasoning of an amateur, under no circumstances show your dissatisfaction and do not prove to the Guest that he is wrong. Maybe your knowledge is incorrect or outdated. And even if the Guest is really talking about a subject that he doesn’t understand, and you can’t wait to show your knowledge and competence, then quietly, without attracting the attention of others, in a nutshell, point out to him the inaccuracies, and then with the proviso that you have other data on the topic of discussion. In any case, remember:

Every person values ​​his own opinion. And a restaurant is not a place for re-education and not an institute for advanced training.

Colorful description

People perceive information differently, so you need to describe dishes differently for different people using descriptive adjectives. To distinguish between people who perceive information differently, the following classification is used: visual, auditory, kinesthetic.

DIFFERENCES IN THE PERCEPTION OF DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES:

The visual is focused on the visual perception of information, so he needs to visually imagine the dish, which means you need to use such descriptive adjectives that will help him with this.

An auditory learner, who perceives information better by ear, only needs to hear your description, so you need to use descriptive adjectives that will help an auditory learner imagine the dish by ear.

A kinesthetic person has perception based on taste sensations. Therefore, when describing a dish for a kinesthetic learner, try to use descriptive adjectives that will help him imagine the dish to taste.

But when communicating with a guest, we cannot clearly determine which category he belongs to, so we should use descriptive adjectives of different colors.

Diminutive suffixes

When accepting an order, describing dishes and drinks, repeating an order, do not overuse diminutive suffixes. Your words are very easily drawn in the Guest’s imagination, much easier than you think. If, when describing a large bowl of soup, you pronounce the word “soup”, the Guest will imagine a small plate and will not calculate his strength. A "piece of meat" is a small piece, not a huge piece of steak.

NEVER RESULT IN REDUCTION UNNEEDED FORGET THE WORDS: “SOUP”, “SALADIK”, “MUG”, “CUP”.

Available means

When describing dishes colorfully, it is very effective to use any available means that will help illustrate the dishes and drinks being described. It can be:

DISHES THAT WAITERS CARRY PAST

BAR DISPLAY DISPLAY PASTRY DISPLAY.

You can invite the Guest to go to the display case and tell about the desserts that are presented in it. Most likely, the Guest will not resist the sweet masterpiece of confectionery art.

Compliment the guest's choice

After the Guest has decided on a dish, be sure to praise his choice.

SO, YOU HAVE STOPED AT “BEEF SHASHLIK” - AN EXCELLENT CHOICE! THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR DISHES IN OUR RESTAURANT.

Such praise will convince the Guest of the correctness of his choice, and will also increase confidence in his abilities.

Feel like you're on the guest's side

You and the Guest are on the same “side of the barricades”. You are the “Host” in the restaurant, and he is your Guest. You should not offer the Guest many dishes if it seems to you that he will not be able to handle everything. Tell him directly about your insecurities.

If the Guest takes a lot of dishes and cannot eat them all, he will blame you for the mistake of choice - and he will be right. You have a much better understanding of the variety of dishes and portion sizes.

The same goes for strong alcoholic drinks. Warn Guests about the insidiousness of cocktails.

Management is often faced with the task of increasing the average check.

Especially for you, Vyacheslav Taranov, the most famous Moscow restaurateur, reveals the main ways:

1. Offering drinks to the guest immediately after serving the menu. Waiters who offer an aperitif make 5-7% more turnover due to it.

2. “No empty glasses on the table!” - this is the motto of a competent restaurant manager. There is no need to wait until the guest finishes his beer and spend several minutes looking for the waiter to place an order. It will still take some time for the waiter to take the order, write it down, repeat it, and punch the cash register. The bartender also doesn't always pour the beer in a few seconds. All this time the guest does not spend a penny - he does not drink anything! Offer your guest a drink while there is 20 percent of the contents left in his glass! This is your temporary head start, allowing you to make the process of spending money by the guest continuous. Follow this and you will get about 10% more turnover.

3. Dessert. Everyone knows that it should be offered after a hot meal. But how often is this done? “Would you like dessert?” - “No, I don’t want to!” As is the question, so is the answer. The waiter should approach the guest with the menu open on the desserts page and offer his recommendations. This, in turn, will add approximately another 5% to turnover.

4. Active offer of accompanying dishes (side dishes, sauces, branded bread, pies). In terms of price, these items are not at all ruinous for the guest, and an increase in the check by 2-3% due to these items in the monthly profit and loss report gives a very pleasant result, expressed in specific figures.

5. Positioning of dishes on the menu. By providing the most interesting dishes from the point of view of turnover with high-quality photographs, you are guaranteed to increase their sales. At the same time, amateur photographs on the menu evoke a feeling of pity and a feeling of an unprofessional approach to business. Here, as in everything: either do it well, or not do it at all.

6. Ongoing staff training. Just tell the waiters “Sell!” and not teaching them the basics of sales techniques is the same as giving the order to soldiers to “Fight!” and not give them weapons. But this, as they say, is a topic for another conversation.

7. Price increases. The simplest, but not always the correct way. We will not consider it in detail.

8. Offering the most expensive dishes and drinks. The method is, in fact, very questionable in terms of effectiveness. Yes, the guest will spend much more than planned. But will he return? Will he get the feeling that he is being scammed? I categorically do not advise offering a guest the most expensive items from the menu or wine list. If the most expensive item costs $25, offer the guest a $20 item and also give him a $15 alternative so that the guest does not feel awkward not choosing the expensive fish. In restaurants where waiters are trying to sell all the most expensive things on the menu, I immediately remember the saleswomen of half-wilted flowers who offered their goods at an unrealistically inflated price in establishments of the early 90s: “Young man, buy the lady some flowers!” Here you are a loser in any case: if you bought it, you paid twice as much; if you didn’t buy it, you showed yourself to be a miser in front of the girl.

• How to sell out a dish the chef hasn't even started cooking yet
• Why is it important to make guests complain?
• How to win customers even from McDonald's

To increase restaurant sales, You don't have to reinvent the wheel. the site has collected for you seven unusual examples of how restaurants increase sales, attract guests and fight competitors.

You've spent a lot of time, money and energy on a potential client, only to hear in response: “I need to think about it.” What to do? Perhaps you need to start with what not to do.

We have selected 8 ways to deal with objections and increase company sales. You will also find a checklist for checking actions.

Method 1. Sell dishes to customers in advance

You can increase sales in a restaurant or cafe by selling dishes that the chef has not even started preparing yet. The Arpicom company placed 200 kg of cuts in so-called dry aging chambers and offered guests to book these steaks at an attractive price of 250 rubles. instead of 590 rub. (you could pay through the website). A week and a half before the end of the ripening period, the reservation was closed. Guests who reserved steaks could come to the restaurant and eat them until September 27th. The announcement of the campaign on Facebook collected 400 likes and reached more than 25 thousand people. The influx of guests from September 16 to 27 increased by 30%. Find out about others how to increase restaurant sales during a crisis.

Method 2. Improve the service, guided by the wishes of the guests

The fast food chain Walker offered its customers financial incentives for reviews. Any client can leave their e-mail after reviewing. Three lucky winners are randomly selected weekly. As a gift they receive certificates worth 1000 rubles. to visit the establishment. According to statistics, more than 35% of clients who filled out the questionnaire are ready to help selflessly. But once you ask for an opinion, you can't help but take action, otherwise the feedback becomes meaningless.

Method 3. Apply the concept “I am a restaurant”

The “I am a restaurant” concept involves the involvement of all employees of the establishment in the process of making important decisions. Personal interest is a significant incentive for development. It involves training and development of employees through joint creativity. Employees are united in teams of 5–10 people, the group leader identifies problems and helps participants pose important professional questions, for example, “What does my work, my team, my restaurant mean to me?” This system allows you to significantly reduce the cost of personnel management in a restaurant, reduce the turnover of line staff, increase the productivity of employees, improve the quality of guest service and increase sales in the restaurant, of course.

Method 4. Give gifts to clients

In one of the restaurants located in Ponta Delgada (Azores, Portugal), the client is given a disc with video images of the most beautiful places on the island as a sign of gratitude. If the client visits the restaurant a second time, he will definitely receive another gift. Why don’t you give your clients CDs, for example, with views of your city?

Method 5. Automate the kitchen work

The director and co-owner of the Dodo Pizza establishment, in order to increase sales in his restaurant, decided not only to speed up the food production process, but also to show customers how pizza is prepared. For this purpose, the kitchen work was fully automated. At each technological stage, an employee is provided with only the information necessary for a specific job, and only the actual completion of the operation (the “Finish” button is pressed) allows another employee to continue the production process at his site.

Method 6: Allow clients to relieve stress

To attract customers, companies go to extremes. For example, here is an unusual service that a restaurant located in the Philippines began to offer. If the client needs to relieve stress, then he is allowed to break plates, cups or vases against the wall for just 15 pesos (about 25 euro cents). At the same time, he can choose dishes containing the inscriptions: “ex-wife”, “boss”, etc. Moreover, for the equivalent of 21 euros, an angry client can even smash an old TV against the wall.

And some cafes go the opposite way to attract guests and increase sales in the cafe. French cafe Metro St. James, opened in the center of Sydney, held a promotion, the purpose of which was not only to attract visitors, but also to bring romance back into relationships between people. A couple in love who came to the establishment from 9 to 11 am could pay for the coffee they drank not with money, but with a kiss. This romantic marketing technique allowed the cafe to quickly gain popularity and increase sales.

Method 7. Don’t be afraid of competitors

In 2013, McDonald's came to the small town where the Dodo-Pizza chain operates. Such an event is always accompanied by a pilgrimage to the newly opened establishment and a significant drop in sales in other restaurants and cafes operating in the fast food market. The management was faced with the task of not only withstanding the blow, but also responding with dignity: to get people to talk not only about McDonald's, but also about local pizzerias. On the eve of the opening of the global giant's establishment, the owner of Dodo Pizza rented an advertising board next to the restaurant. It depicted the signature Dodster roll with a baseball bat at the ready, next to it a frightened hamburger, and below it placed the inscription: “Welcome to Syktyvkar!” What came of it, read

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In any situation there are always opportunities. Using the example of one cafe in the capital, we will tell you how you can triple your income in a few months and attract visitors, despite the crisis.

To the question “How are you?” Now many people answer simply: “It’s a crisis, you understand.” Such a response from an employee may mean his dismissal or a drop in income, from a freelancer - a reduction in the number of orders, from a businessman - a decrease in profits and even losses. Such a global crisis, naturally, has affected almost all compatriots - only 16% of Russians say that nothing has changed in their lives and wallets over the past 1.5 years.

But sometimes things go badly even outside of a systemic crisis - these are personal problems of a company, entrepreneur or individual. If initially everything goes poorly and there is inefficiency, then even in difficult times it will be bad. You always need to develop. So let’s see how you can significantly increase the income of a cafe with minimal investment.

Initial data

Cafe "Black Cat" in one microdistrict of Moscow, there are several other competitors nearby: one of them is a fast food chain outlet, the second is a bar open until the morning, and several other small catering outlets offering their menus throughout the day.

Things were not going well at the Cheka, and it was necessary to urgently introduce anti-crisis measures, or rather, measures aimed at increasing work efficiency. At the start of the experiment, the average daily revenue was 10 thousand rubles, the average check was 300 rubles, that is, about 30 people came per day. Everything was in order with the cuisine and prices, at first glance, it was just not possible to “lure” new customers.

The owners of the Black Cat cafe tried to “stir up” the situation and allocated money for advertising - 75 thousand rubles at a time. We spent it on distributing leaflets, advertising on social networks and in the local newspaper. According to advertising, only 2 (!) clients came within a month.

Something had to be changed and urgently.

Working ideas for attracting customers to a cafe

Management brainstormed among employees and applied their ideas to change the situation. Only those solutions that cost the least were chosen - there was no extra money. In 2 months, we managed to increase revenue by 3.5 times, and net profit increased by 5 times. What proposals “shot”?

Business lunches with the right positioning

The cost of a set business lunch in a cafe is 300 rubles. Not a very tempting offer; people rushing to grab a bite to eat at lunchtime are used to lower numbers. Therefore, on the sign the prices for lunch of the day were indicated “item by item”. The announcement that in the cafe today borscht for 39 rubles and salad for 59 rubles brought in many hungry people.

And once inside, they looked at the mouth-watering photographs of the menu, appreciated the comfort of the establishment, and also took the main course with a side dish or tea and coffee with dessert. In total, all this cost 300 rubles, but the client chose only those positions that attracted him. Although the average check dropped a little, there were many more visitors during the lunch period (from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), which made it possible to increase revenue.

Minimal expenses were required - you just had to rewrite the announcement about a business lunch.

Advertising in the neighborhood

There were no office or administrative buildings near the cafe, only beauty salons, a car service center and a children's creativity center. An agreement was reached with these organizations to place advertisements for cafes on their territory - just small business cards indicating the cafe on the map of the microdistrict. Husbands, waiting for their spouses to have beauty treatments, dropped into the cafe to have a snack; parents, taking their child to a club, could drink coffee and dessert and work on their laptop; and car owners, handing over their car for repairs for an hour or two, calmly “killed” time with some tea or also ordered something substantial from the menu.

Expenses include additional circulation of business cards.

affiliate program

Additionally, a partnership agreement was concluded with these neighboring companies and all their employees, upon presentation of corporate bonus cards, received a 5-10% discount. As a bonus, they received the business lunch menu for the whole week in advance and knew exactly what was in the cafe that day. They sometimes went to lunch alone, sometimes as a whole group, but this also contributed to the increase in the flow of orders, both for the lunch menu and for dishes from the evening menu. The number of loyal customers immediately increased by a couple of dozen people.

Expenses – decreased profits due to discounts for personnel of “friendly” companies, which was compensated by increased turnover.

Promoters with coupons

The new edition of leaflets did not just tell about a cafe nearby, it included a specific offer for a potential client - a coupon for receiving two cups of coffee or tea when ordering dessert. Now advertising materials were not sent to the nearest trash can, new customers came to the cafe with them, if they were satisfied with the atmosphere, interior, prices and choice of dishes and drinks, they subsequently returned repeatedly.

Expenses - 20-30 rubles (the cost of two drinks) for each attracted client, who will pay for a dessert costing 100-150 rubles, and may also stay in the cafe for dinner or even become a regular visitor.

Two months later, the revenue of the Black Cat cafe exceeded a million rubles per month (an increase of 350%). For a small establishment with 8 tables, open exclusively during the day and without alcohol, located in a residential area surrounded by several competitors, this is a good result. Now you can try other ideas to increase revenue and attract customers, which will allow you to get even more without a significant increase in advertising costs. This is possible, as practice has shown.