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By Sofia Hondrogiorge
Do you want to know the golden money-making moment for your restaurant? It is that brief moment where people walk to your doors and take a quick glimpse of your menu. If you don’t win them over at this point, you are practically putting money in your competitors’ pockets.
Your menu is your key money generating tool when built correctly. Your advertising and promotional efforts will only get you so far. Without a well-built menu, your customers will not dip into their pockets and spend.
We have created a 4-part mini-series that will provide insights on how to boost sales revenue with your menu.
Week by week we will cover;
How the layout of your menu can help lift sales revenue How pricing & descriptions increase sales revenue How persuasive selling and promotions on your menu boost sales revenue - The role menu aesthetics and visuals play in improving sales revenue
The layout and positioning of your menu are extremely important when it comes to generating revenue. Each item and category of items you are selling needs to be well thought out and positioned in a way that will drive customers to selecting dishes you want them to choose.
Where are the prime menu locations?
Various studies on paper-based menus indicate that there are two common prime locations. The first being the upper right-hand corner of the menu. The second is referred to as the ‘golden triangle’ typically on single page menus where customers view the middle of the menu first prior to navigating to the right-hand side.
TabSquare.AI’s digital menu results reveal that the prime locations of the menu are in the categories displayed first. And the best place to put the items you want users to order is at the top of the options within the category.
Eg If the main meal category is the one you want your customers to order from and you would like them to select the chicken schnitzel and mash, the main meal category you should be displayed first and the schnitzel dish would be presented as the first meal in the category.
TabSquare.AI’s solution also has the ability to create a prime location which is significantly bigger than other menu items. When items are placed here, there is an increase in adoption rate as customers are more inclined to order a dish that is taking up prime menu real estate.
How to choose what items to put in your prime location
When it comes to boosting revenue with your menu, there are two main things you need to consider.
The first being profit margins. Those menu items that have the highest profit margins should be the ones placed in the primary menu locations. It would not be as worthwhile to have a garlic bread in the key location rather than a high profit margin chicken dish. When you place the high margin items in places your customers will be more likely to order from, it will result in an increased average spend per customer.
The second being pushing perishable items. It is no secret, most items you will be selling in your restaurant will be perishable. However, you should be placing the most perishable items in the best locations. Whether these are dishes you may have ordered too much stock for, or items that you may not have sold enough from within the week. The goal here is to reduce wastage of food and money spent, in turn, increasing revenue. The perishable item push will likely change on a week by week basis. Changing locations of menu items to reflect perishability, especially when it is an ever-changing variable can become extremely difficult to manage on a paper-based menu, where miniscule changes can come with large costs.
The ease of change on a menu, whether for perishability, seasonal change, new item additions or price alterations to name a few are some of the reason’s restaurant owners are moving from paper-based menus to digital menus. Digital menu solution providers such as TabSquare.AI make these type of menu changes as easy as can be. With a user-friendly CMS that allows restaurateurs to make real time changes to their portfolio of venues at any time, from anywhere, the menu is completely in the hands of restaurateurs. And changes can be made without needing to fork out large sums of money.
Restaurateurs can make initial research-based assumptions for their menu structure and think about which items have the highest margins and are the most popular amongst their customers. However, companies such as TabSquare.AI turn research-based assumptions into results-based facts. TabSquare.AI’s digital menu performance dashboards can track the categories that are performing the best, which items are selling the most and which items are being clicked however not ordered. These customer-based insights act as the forefront for menu rebuilds and are at the heart of creating profitable menu structures.
If you would like to take your menu to new heights with a perfectly engineered menu that is tailored to boost sales, get in contact with us today for a free demonstration.
