Restaurants often overlook the importance of lunch specials because their key demographics might be busy during the day. If midday during the week isn’t one of your peak hours, you should consider building a following that enjoys stopping by for lunch. This can supplement revenue made during busier hours and on the weekends.
Maximize lunch profits by paring down your target audience. Are you marketing to business professionals? College students between classes? How long do they have for lunch after their commute from the office? All of this informs what campaigns you’ll run and what avenues you’ll use for marketing these services.
Creating Good Lunch Specials
If the afternoon crowd tends to linger, you might consider building a special drinks menu for them to glance over while they wait. If they need to get back to business quickly, take time out of staff meetings to encourage employees to streamline their customer service, perhaps spending less time on chit-chat so they’ll improve turnaround.
Prix fixe lunch specials help. Busy crowds want fast service; reduce how long they spend browsing the menu by offering a few fixed price choices. Get meals to their tables faster as well by streamlining the rush and providing the efficient service they need. Happy customers will come back on their next lunch break.
Sometimes it can be difficult to garner new business. Give a taste of your food to the neighborhood with free samples alongside copies of the menu, so your target demographic so they’ll think of you next time they want to find a new place to eat. With a limited time for lunch, they might not want to waste their break somewhere that turns out unsatisfactory. Samples give them a chance to know whether that house special will hit the spot.
Delivery is a saving grace for customers whose commute prevents them from becoming a loyal regular. The walk to your restaurant might take up enough of their lunch hour that they would rather go somewhere just down the street. Offer lunchtime delivery, including group specials so coworkers can go in on a bulk order together for a discount. Include a takeout menu and any promotions you want to offer with each delivery so they’ll keep you in mind.
From start to finish, streamline the lunch process. Meals aren’t over when the plates are clean; the customer experience ends when they walk out the door, so even the transaction experience should be fast and contact-free. Smart technology like the Point of Sales powered by eatOS enables mobile pay for touchless transactions and even auto-generates tip percentages for added efficiency. Don’t make customers wait for the check; let people pay up front with online ordering capabilities.
Advertising Your Way to Success
Once you work out the best deals to generate revenue, you need to promote these new endeavors. Your servers are your salesforce and should push the lunch specials during breakfast and dinner to make sure every customer knows you’re ready for midday delivery.
In addition to in-person upsales, take advantage of mobile ads that cater to the modern consumer. Whether they catch someone’s eye during a long commute or through mutual social media followers, online channels matter. People are spending more time than usual browsing the internet during quarantine. Use geofencing to advertise to customers in an appropriate radius and watch your lunch specials begin to pull in much-needed extra profit.
Smart restaurants rely on advanced technology to streamline operations and improve their efficiency.
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