How to increase restaurant revenues? The BA-BA

This is THE question on restaurateurs' minds. In a sector where margins are thin and forecasts difficult (inflation, seasons...), how do you stay profitable over the long term?

The good news is that there are a number of strategies for boosting revenues.

Here's the ba-ba in this article! 💸

🤓 Also read on Malou: 10 tips to increase your restaurant's margins.

Increase prices (sell for more)

This is the most obvious way: review your pricing.

You can raise your prices, especially if they are too low.

✔️L advantage: results are immediate.

✖️L the downside: the reaction of your customers. Dissatisfied, they may leave your restaurant. On the whole, a price increase isn't always welcome, especially if it isn't justified. 

💡Our advice: it's best to raise prices very gradually and on selected ingredients (which have risen as a result of inflation, for example). 

Be transparent too: if your customers ask, explain your approach (continue to offer quality at the best price) and thank them for their loyalty ("you're supporting the restaurateurs").

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Did you know? AI (Artificial Intelligence) can be an ally in increasing your restaurant's profitability! Find out how in this ebook👇

Increase sales (sell more)

Second technique: try to increase your sales.

To do this, you can : 

1. Increase sales volumes: maximize the value of each visit, coach your teams to push more dishes and extras (cheese, dessert, coffee...) to sell more, offer delivery for more sales;
2. Offer more things to sell: add dishes to the menu, add high-margin extras (drinks, desserts, tapas), do an exclusive collaboration with another restaurant;
3. Increase the average ticket: create special formulas, promotions, premium options (e.g.: 3 types of vodka to choose from for 1 cocktail) then coach your teams to push them.

✔️L advantage: results are rapid and can be highly effective. Unlike price increases, sales optimization is a discreet, effective strategy that doesn't risk affecting customer satisfaction.

✖️L disadvantage: you'll have to invest time (training your teams) and money (adding products to the menu).  

💡Our advice: "pushing for consumption" is not always well received by the customer. Do it with tact: write scripts for your teams, rehearse so that the speech flows. 

Diversify the offer (vary sales)

The idea is to diversify your offer to increase sales with new products and services.

For example: a catering business, private dinners, events (concerts, stand-ups, New Year's Eve parties), reservations for professionals (company meals) or individuals (birthdays, weddings, etc.).

✔️L The advantage: diversifying your offer is an opportunity to try out new activities. It may be that your location or your kitchen lend themselves well to it, and that the new activity explodes! For example: Asian restaurants work very well in the catering business, brunches for business events...

✖️L disadvantage: the method isn't always effective. Offering a catering service is not suitable for all types of restaurant, and can remain anecdotal. By diversifying, you're taking a gamble!

💡Our advice: be careful not to get lost in diversification, you need to stay in tune with your restaurant's concept (e.g. selling merchandising

Optimize the menu (sell more with less)

In the kitchen, you'll know this technique as "menu engineering".

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Objective: restructure your entire menu to sell better and more, without spending resources.

🤓 At Malou, we've dedicated an entire article to menu engineering to boost your income.

Actions in brief: 

• Divide your dishes into 4 categories;
• Highlight popular and profitable dishes;
• Boost profitable but less popular dishes;
• Make popular dishes more profitable (review portions, negotiate prices);
• Cut out dishes that are neither popular nor profitable;
• Revisit the design, the order of dishes, the storytelling...

This strategy is formidable. Its only drawback is the need to free up time. A rare commodity in the restaurant business!

You can also optimize other aspects of the restaurant:

• Your team's efficiency (schedules, turnover);
• Time-consuming processes (reservation management, cleaning, etc.) are eliminated. 

Reduce expenses (sell more with less)

It's one of the most obvious techniques: reduce your expenses as much as possible to maximize your margins. Result: you increase your revenues by finding your restaurant's ideal margin.

Actions in brief:

• Renegotiate with your suppliers or change suppliers to lower the price of your dishes;
• Review your raw materials (cheaper, local and seasonal ingredients);
• Renegotiate your fixed costs (rent, insurance, energy bill);
• Review your portions (standardize, create cards) ;
• Reduce waste and losses. 

Digital marketing (selling more with less)

Digital strategies are much more recent than their predecessors. Their aim is to increase the visibility of an establishment, attract a maximum number of customers and rapidly overtake the competition.

Actions in brief: 

• Search engine optimization(SEO), including local SEO (presence on platforms and directories, keyword strategies to get there first)
• Collecting and managing reviews (+ Google My Business listing)
• The social media (Instagram, Facebook)
• Steering 

The latest Malou 2024 study, carried out on a sample of 300 establishments, estimates the effectiveness of digital marketing. Count per month : 

• ‍+4.7% increase in sales sales 📈 ‍
• +4500 € more average income💸‍
• +174 additional customers 👥

✔️L The advantage: these strategies require little investment, and their effectiveness is exponential over time.

✖️L drawback: you need to be regular and have time! That's why we always recommend using a tool like MalouApp.

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