Increase Restaurant Sales When you Boost Customer Loyalty

That’s why it’s so important to set your restaurant up for success and avoid costly mistakes.

Focusing on your guests first can help generate new, loyal customers whose business you can count on over and over again.  Here’s how you can win the loyalty battle:

1. Make Your Restaurant a Social Experience

Some things just go better together. The same goes for dining and socialization.

Punch Bowl Social discovered the secret of turning dining into a social experience.  People love good food paired with good conversation. That’s why it’s important to figure out how your restaurant can be conversation-friendly so the stories, jokes, and ideas your diners want to share with each other during mealtime aren’t drowned out by loud music or an overly-attentive server.

The secret? It’s all about human interaction .

Relationship-building happens everywhere: it’s essential to encourage conversation on your social media channels. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to neglect your Facebook page. (Or worse, to not have one at all.)

If you’re too busy to manage your social media channels by yourself, find someone on your team who is passionate about connecting with customers online. Make sure he or she understands how to leverage paid social marketing to gain and retain customers

2. Dig Deeper Than Guest Check Average

As a restaurateur, you know how important it is to keep tabs on your guest check average But, that’s not the only stat you should be monitoring. Your guest check average is just that — an average.

This number alone doesn’t provide the insight you need to act on if you want to find new opportunities for increasing sales.

Dig deeper. Ask questions like:

• How many apps and entrées did you sell?
• What about desserts, bottles of wine, or craft beers?
• What sells the most, and of those, which are most profitable?
  

 Now, put this insight into action. For example, if you notice that dessert sales are lower than expected, ask your servers if they’re offering dessert to every customer, every time.

3. Delight Customers During the Entire Dining Experience

From the moment a customer arrives at your restaurant to the moment they leave, it’s important to offer a memorable and satisfying experience.

Many restaurant owners overlook the brief moments just before a customer steps back out into the world. We’re talking about the checkout process . These days, it goes far beyond your standard restaurant credit card processing systems to the options your customers expect, like split checks, split items, and splitting items by seat.

While the process is not necessarily glamorous, nothing leaves a more bitter taste in a customer’s mouths than when their swipe or dip doesn’t work as expected — or if they have to wait 20 minutes while you figure out how to split their check .

What if the payment process could be more than expected and one final opportunity to delight your customer?

The last experience your customer has in your restaurant is the checkout process.  When a guest feels like the checkout process is tedious, a great meal can turn into a bad memory.

For example, the lunch crowd is notoriously strapped for time—especially when the meal is over and diners are trying to make a quick exit. Even if you’ve done everything right so far, each second spent waiting for the check can feel like an eternity for the customer.

Why not let them pay for their meals right there at the table, using a feature like Total Touch POS EMV or contactless checkout?

Not only will they appreciate the time savings, they’ll also leave your restaurant on one final high note — and perhaps share their experience with their friends!