How To Maximise Hospitality Sales In 2022
31st January 2022
With all restrictions ending shortly, including Covid-19 passports, it’s hospitalities time to shine! There are proven ways to maximise restaurant & bar capacity and encourage your customers to stay and spend more.
Offer free WiFi to your customers
Offering free guest WiFi comes with so many benefits, including increased spending, marketing opportunities, and increased customer satisfaction.
A study shows that when free guest WiFi is provided, 60% of customers spend longer in the venue, and up to 50% will end up spending more.
Guest WiFi allows your customers to stay connected when visiting your venue, whether that be a quick browse, or #FoodGram upload (hello free advertising!).
‘Purple WiFi’ is one of the best guest WiFi options for a hospitality business, it allows you to collect valuable customer data which is an amazing resource for creating personalised marketing material. Providing WiFi is good, but providing strong and reliable WiFi is great. Astaris have been doing our homework, and we asked hospitality business of all sizes what matters most to them and their customers, 86% of restaurants said that it is ‘very important to your customers that you offer a strong WiFi’ connection in your venue.
Not only is WiFi important for your customers, but it’s also an essential part of running your business. So many of the fundamental parts of a hospitality business rely on WiFi including tills, PDQs, tablets, kitchen orders, kitchen printers, music systems, and more…
So invest in the best WiFi for yourself and your customers.
Make it easy to book
Online booking makes it quicker and easier than ever to book a table, even last minute. This is great for maximising the number of people in your restaurant at any given time and has proven to make the most of table turnover and therefore have more people in your restaurant at any given time.
Making your restaurant available on online apps and websites such as Design My Night and OpenTable makes it easier than ever to book a table with you. These resources are great for filling all empty chairs, whilst running a more seamless and stress-free service.
Personalise your marketing
As we mentioned earlier, ‘Purple WiFi’ allows you to collect customer data. Some of this data can include email address, phone number, date of birth, or whatever else you set it up to ask.
This data can be invaluable for marketing, having access to this information allows you to totally customise your marketing efforts, particularly email marketing campaigns. Birthday offers, discounts, link to your website and social media page and so much more!
Getting people to sign up to your email list is a good idea too, offering an initial incentive for signing up will be sure to encourage people, offering a 2-4-1 deal or free drink is a great way to get more names on your list, and then you can continue your promoting.
Simple Psychology
Without realising it, we are surrounded by sales and marketing tips and tricks, but have you thought about utilising them in your business?
You cannot force anyone into ordering and spending money on things they simply don’t want, but there is nothing wrong with a little convincing. Just juggling a few words around can make all the difference, “What dessert will you be trying today?” is bound to get more sales in comparison to “would you like to order a dessert?”. Both are asking the same question, but one is more convincing.
Upselling is a tried and true method of increasing sales, so ensure you invest your time into valuable staff training to make sure everyone is on board with increasing sales.
Build a social media presence
One of the best places to market your business to the new generation of diners is through social media, creating clear branding and a distinctive message on social media platforms is sure to boost bookings.
It’s the perfect place to showcase your amazing food, unique venue, or creative cocktails. Every restaurant has something special that should be visible for the world to see, and social media is an amazing platform that allows you to do just that, for free.
People want to do their research before deciding where to spend their money, and social media is one of the two places they will look first (either that or your website!) and they can see firsthand what’s in store for them at your restaurant.
For more information on how to get the most out of social media for your restaurant check out this blog post –https://neilpatel.com/blog/social-media-restaurant/
The most important thing to do on any social media is to give useful information, so may sure your profiles tell your customers exactly who you are, where they can find you, how they can contact you, and more.
So make the most of these opportunities and start incorporating them into your business today!