With autumn right around the corner, Coronavirus lockdowns are a reality restaurant owners have been dealing with for months. With no clear end in sight, it’s important to continuously look for ways to adapt, adjust, and ultimately boost your profits. Though the restaurant world has taken a hit, it’s also an industry that’s notorious for its resourcefulness and ingenuity. With a few tips, we’ll all get through this crisis together. Take a look at a few key ways you can ramp up your revenue:

Update Your Advertising Strategy

As you pivot your business to offer more takeout and delivery options, it’s important to pivot your advertising strategy as well. Offering first-time orderers coupons and discounts is a great way to encourage new business.
For many, social distancing has meant spending more time on social media, meaning advertising on various social media channels is an increasingly important aspect of any marketing strategy. Advertising on social media means you need content that’s relevant and up-to-date, so offering updates on nightly specials, current hours of operation, and ways for customers to place their orders are all good strategies to consider.

Scale Your Delivery Options

Before the pandemic, delivery items were generally sold individually. Now, as entire families increasingly turn to delivery options, it makes sense to offer family-sized meals. Offering family-sized meal packages can work for both you and your customers. These options allow families to come together over a special meal at home, while allowing you to cut down on the cost of producing and packaging individual items. Plus, marketing these new items effectively can result in capturing a delivery and takeout market you might not have had otherwise.

Give Your Menu a Makeover

Optimizing your menu is a great way to not only increase your margins, but also to provide a better experience for your customers—which will keep them coming back!

Check out a few ways you can makeover your menu:

● Streamline — When customers order food for takeout or delivery, they don’t want to spend a lot of time browsing through a menu with too many options. Streamlining your menu so that it’s simple, easy to read, and provides a few stand-out options will not only help your customers feel less overwhelmed, but it will also help you cut down on the costs of stocking less popular items.

● Up-Sell — If you’re in the restaurant world, you already know how razor-thin your margins can be, even in the best of times. Focusing on selling items that have the highest margins will help you increase your revenue. How you design and optimize your menu can play a major role in which items you sell the most of, so try putting your most profitable items front and center.

● Go Contactless — For in-house or outdoor dining, utilizing technology to offer contactless menus can provide your customers with peace of mind. It can also help you increase your profit margins, since offering contactless options can help you save on single-use menus. Contactless ordering systems, such as the one offered by Adora, can also make the entire ordering process faster, more effective, and less prone to costly errors.

Staff Strategically

Restaurant staff are often a tight-knit group, and you care about their safety, work environment, and livelihoods. Now more than ever, it’s important to staff strategically. Many hospitality workers are accustomed to earning tips as part of their salary, so you should keep in mind that fewer diners means fewer tips for your staff.

You might be used to having all hands on deck in anticipation of a Friday night rush, but operating with less staff means lower labor costs for you, and more tips for your staff. It might take some trial and error to figure out the best way to schedule employees as you adapt to the new normal, so being flexible and fostering communication and dialogue between you and your staff is key.

The Bottom Line

At Adora, we understand how difficult these times are for restaurant owners, and we’re here to help however we can. From providing innovative ways to managing deliveries, to offering contactless ordering systems, to being there 24/7 with the customer support you deserve, we’ll help give you the tools you need to increase your profits, keep your restaurant running at its best, and keep your customers happy.