Digital menu boards are supporting small to medium quick serve restaurants to succeed with their plight of providing this information whilst increasing sales and reducing advertising costs, as these can help restaurant managers overcome the labelling of their food to include the nutritional content for consumers to see prior to placing their food order.
What is the main essential element for any cafe owner?
It is the ability of having a menu that appeals to customers, due to it’s importance this is the first task any new restaurant completes first with an eye catching menu. Without this the customer is left feeling unwelcome and they for sure will return to the favoured snack bars. The menu can be responsible for your cafe being packed or just a few consumers per day.
Producing a menu that works successfully can be split into several parts; production of the menu, item cost, product selling price and the menu layout, each one contribute to a winning formula.
There are 5 fatal mistakes restaurant operators make with their menus, avoid these and your cafe will be packed with loyal customers.
Target the menu to your clients, what item sells most? Which food product do other cafes sell out of first? Do some research by asking people in the trade and if this is your first menu this will pay off for you.
Record your daily sales, this will keep you closely informed with what your customers want, you can see what sells best and what the worst selling item is, then you can target the best selling to maximise results.
Carry out surveys with people you would target when they are not in your cafe, find out what they like and where they eat and you can use this data to target them in the future.
Streamline your menu – use day parting by offering breakfast meal deals, then lunch and dinner specials, otherwise customers will be inundated with the menu and when employees ask for their order they will just pick something that is “safe” and it may not be something they necessarily want.
Menu layout – this will dictate what food your customers will buy, the most important and highly profitable food should be positioned at the top so they the maximum exposure. Again using day parting can achieve this, so that your consumers give the specials the most attention.
