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You can have a crowd-pleasing menu, loyal regulars, and a packed dining roomand still watch your margins disappear. Too many restaurant menus are built on intuition and aesthetics, not real numbers. What Is Menu Engineering and Why Should You Care? Because not every dish thats popular is profitable.
When youre updating your online menu or online ordering system, its tempting to just copy over the dish names from your restaurant menu and call it a day. Well-written menu descriptions dont just tell guests whats in a dish; they entice customers, set the tone for your brand, and can increase sales.
In this article, we delve into five key ways that you should be using your POS data to forecast holiday demand for your restaurant. Improve Seasonal Menu Offerings When it comes to the holidays, consumers love to tuck into festive favorites. On the other hand, no restaurant wants to risk overordering.
Menu pricing isnt just about covering costsits about finding that sweet spot where profitability, customer perception, and operational reality meet. Somewhere in between is the number that makes sense for your food costs, your market, and your restaurants unique position. Set prices too low, and youre leaving money on the table.
Many restaurant operators have misconceptions about average order volume (AOV) and how it works, making statements like: I need more customers to make more money. In this article, youll learn simple, practical strategies to make it happenno awkward upselling or overcomplicated tactics required. Try a server game like Perfect Order.
Keeping menus updated across various online ordering systems and third-party delivery apps can feel like a never-ending game of catch-up. Manually updating menus across multiple online ordering channels is tedious, time-consuming, and prone to mistakes. What is Menu Management Software?
In this article, I’ll share those tips so you can hire people who will excel in the role and not only fill it. I offered several suggestions from our allergy-friendly menu and explained the ingredients to them. She felt confident enough to order and appreciated my effort to address her needs.”
A growing number of chefs are shifting their attention to independent operations that focus on foods with wider appeal that need a commitment to excellence. This was, after all, a peasant food, but now is in a class all to its own from utility to high cuisine. Everybody loves food that you can hold in your hands.
Sure, the chef may have his or her name on the menu, the owner may proudly greet every guest, accomplished line cooks may amaze everyone involved, service staff win the day with attention to detail and salesmanship, and one could certainly argue that dishwashers are MVPs because if they fail, the whole operation starts to crumble.
The magnetism of the kitchen dates to those early days of growing up in a home where food played an important role, not as much as some, but enough to leave an indelible mark on my life. I think, even if these items weren’t on a menu, I would find a way to bring them into the fold. These are my memories of cooking for the soul.
If youre one of the thousands of restaurants that added online food delivery in recent years, you might be wondering: is it actually helping my business grow? These metrics give you a clear picture of your delivery performancefrom order volume and customer retention to delivery speed and profitability.
By Bailey Ramsey, Contributor Food waste is a critical issue in the restaurant industry. To put this in perspective, restaurants waste anywhere between 4% to 10% of the food they purchase. Predicting Customer Demand Accurately One of the leading causes of food waste in restaurants is overproduction.
A spike in food costs, a drop in sales volume, or one slow season can wipe out months of hard work. They tell you how much money your restaurant keeps after paying for everything from food costs to labor expenses to utilities and rent. This gives you a sense of how effective your menu pricing is.
In this guide, youll learn how to use ChowNow tools along with a handful of other effective strategies to increase order volume, boost your current customer traffic, and grow your overall sales. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to stay top-of-mind with customers and remind them its time to order again from your restaurant.
The right promotion at the right time can reignite business, whether that means a packed dining room on a slow weekday or reconnecting with loyal customers who havent ordered in a while. Are you trying to increase your direct online ordering ? Rewarding customers for ordering direct creates long-term habits that boost your sales.
Are you doing all the right thingsserving amazing food, delivering top-notch service, crafting perfectly balanced drinksbut the tables still arent filling up like they should? The problem isnt your food or serviceits visibility and customer engagementand were going to help you fix that. Upload high-quality photos.
In almost every conversation I have with other industry professionals, someone will say “before COVID… ” or “since COVID… ” As a matter of fact, in many of my articles I make the same comparison. In 2025, more plant-based menu items will be appearing at an incredible rate of speed as well.
Nowadays, running a successful restaurant takes more than great food and good service. Another way to get local backlinks is from local news articles, food bloggers, or restaurant directories to boost your visibility in search results. Make sure to add high-quality photos of your food, interior, and staff.
Understanding what customers order, when they order, and how often is an untapped goldmine of information for restaurant operators. What do repeat orders say about our customer preferences? Ordering data includes more than just what gets sold. Which dishes are getting ordered the most?
In this article, you will learn: The five most important restaurant costs to track and manage Easy strategies for controlling food costs and labor costs Tactics to save money without hurting your guest experience Lets start with the big picture and learn where your money is actually going.
Increasing your restaurants online order volume doesnt have to feel like an impossible task. In this guide, well walk through seven practical ways to boost your restaurants online order volume. Optimize Your Website and Online Ordering Experience If your restaurants website isnt easy to use, youre probably losing out on online orders.
Understanding your target market is the foundation of making smart decisions for your menu, pricing, and overall guest experience. Without a well-defined target market, restaurants risk wasting resources on strategies that dont connect and menu offerings that dont selltrying to appeal to everyone, but standing out to no one.
If you want to increase order volume for your restaurant, focusing on online takeout and delivery is key. But growing online order volume isnt always easy. Many restaurants struggle with high third-party app fees, low website traffic, and clunky ordering experiences that drive customers away.
If your site is clunky, hard to navigate, or missing basic features like a prominent online ordering button, your potential customer will bounce because diners have little to no tolerance for friction or confusion when theyre looking for food. 77% of diners visit a restaurants website before they dine in or order takeout or delivery.
By the time you finish this article, youll know how to approach restaurant marketing the right way and not waste time doing guesswork, crossing your fingers, and then hoping you see new customers walking through the door. Everything from food to labor is getting more expensive, which means restaurant margins are tighter than ever.
Every restaurant faces operational challengeseven with a great menu and a talented team, bottlenecks can slow service, frustrate customers, and cut into profits. A single missteplike a delayed order or a system glitchcan throw off an entire shift. Staff scramble, customers grow impatient, and suddenly, a busy night turns into chaos.
In recent years, the food service industry has undergone a rapid transformation of automation and increased technology usage. This has led to many perks for consumers, such as reduced wait times, contactless ordering, and more personalized offers and rewards. Perkins American Food Co. percent from 2025 to 2033 and reach US$ 345.6
A bar is a profitable business option if you’re looking to enter the food industry. In this article: How to calculate your profit margin for your bar What is the average profit margin for bars? Start by tracking all the income your bar generates, including sales from drinks, food, and any additional services.
From managing reservations at the host stand or firing orders straight to the kitchen from table side, tablets are changing the way restaurants run. Bonus points if the interface is also customer-friendly, especially if you plan to use tablets for self-ordering or digital menus. Its a nightmare.
You can't scroll news sites without seeing more articles about inflation, but was does it mean for restaurants? How is inflation affecting food prices? Hiring is difficult, people expect to be paid more, and supply-chain disruptions are all contributing to food price inflation. Just how does inflation affect restaurants?
Whether you like it or not, your restaurants online reputation is shaping first impressions long before a guest walks through your doors or even places an order. Inaccurate details can lead to confusion and lost business, so make sure your restaurants name, address, phone number, hours of operation, menu, and website are up to date.
Is online ordering inefficient? Do you lose money due to food waste? Experiencing over-ordering or last-minute shortages? It is the central nervous system of your restaurants operations, and most of the tools we cover in this article will need to integrate with your POS (point-of-sale) system. Are labor costs too high?
Managing delivery orders shouldnt feel like running an obstacle course, but for many restaurant operators, thats exactly what it is. Juggling multiple food delivery apps means switching between tablets, manually entering orders into the POS, and trying to keep track of ever-changing fees and commissions.
In this article, youre going to learn five restaurant customer retention strategies that will not only keep your current regulars happy but will also help you grow your repeat customer base. Its significantly more cost-effective to keep your regulars walking through the door than it is to get a new customer every time you take an order.
Each system has its own tablet, order flow, and set of requirements, making it difficult to keep up with operations smoothly. Each platformUber Eats, GrubHub, DoorDashrequires its own tablet, login, and order management system. Order management issues. Fortunately, theres an easy solution. Consumers report that 24.4%
Every online order, email sign up, and reward program interaction generates valuable insightsbut if that data just sits there, youre missing a major opportunity. Think about it: What if you could automatically send a special offer to a customer who hasnt ordered in a while? Or adjust your staffing schedule based on peak ordering times?
Have you noticed how food delivery apps are becoming essential in attracting and retaining diners? In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to create a food delivery app tailored to your restaurant’s needs, while staying competitive in a booming industry. The global online food delivery market size was valued at USD 221.65
With a few key optimizations, your restaurant can rank higher on Google, get noticed by people searching for places to eat, and ultimately drive more foot traffic and online orders. In this article, you will learn: How to optimize your Google Business Profile to boost visibility and credibility. Leave us a review on Google!
Rising food costs, nearing 10 percent. Most restaurants have a server based POS system that does not allow for easy access to a customer’s past orders. Worse, paper menus don’t give you the ability to change things on the fly when food items run out. This Isn’t Your Father’s Digital Menu.
77% of diners look at a restaurants website before going out to eat or ordering takeout or delivery. If you dont have a website, that means over three-quarters of the people near your restaurantyour potential customerswill never come in or place an order because they have no way to find you when theyre looking for a place to eat.
Every day, youre juggling staff, food quality, inventory, customer service, purchasing, and moreall while trying to cultivate a dining experience that wows your customers enough to keep them coming back. Customer Service and Experience Great food and drink is only truly enjoyed when its coupled with a great service experience.
In this article, youll learn: The most important restaurant KPIs for restaurant profitability, efficiency, and growth How to calculate and benchmark major KPIs using simple formulas Practical tips for tracking KPIs without getting overwhelmed Lets start by breaking down what KPIs are, and why they require your attention.
The ancestors of the first semi-automatic machines to serve food and drink are still in use today, though instead of restaurants and bars, we see them in public spaces, perhaps small shops. This is what we discuss in this article. Order-Only Automats: Pros and Cons. What Are the Pitfalls of Order-Only Machines?
Online ordering has transformed the restaurant industry, turning what was once a convenience into an absolute necessity. In 2025, the US online food delivery market is expected to reach $424.9 Customers expect to browse menus, place orders, and pay for their meals with just a few taps of their phones. billion in revenue.
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