Cost of living crisis. Cost of energy. Cost of living wage. Cost of ingredients. Costs are high, and maybe the bank balance and morale is low.
The below tips could help bolster your confidence, or at least give you some ideas for ways to make your venue more viable.
Find the operational quick wins. It’s difficult to see the big picture when you’re really in the weeds. If you can take a step back, a breath, look for areas you can instantly tighten things up, such as:
Add-ons on the menu, or suggested wine pairings. These can be great upsells if you’ve got a strong team, or you can print them onto menus.
Analyse your service journey for costly inefficiencies and quick and easy opportunities. Don’t underestimate the small stuff. Are you binning 2p coasters after every use? Are you hiring someone to come in to do a daily job that can be done two-three times a week? See if you can spot little opportunities to save without costing the customer experience too much.
Check your table turns - how long do you have between bookings? If your seats are sat empty for 15 minutes when it only takes 5 to get the table turned, have a play with your res system to maximise bums on seats.
Are you opening earlier or later than you need to? If no-one’s through the door in the first hour of opening, try shifting by 30 mins. Every little helps.
Optimise your customer booking journey. Most booking systems have comprehensive booking journeys ready to go - if not, talk to your account manager. The following can be game changers:
Get lots of no-shows? Check your reminder email. Does it send? Does it look good? Does it provoke FOMO if you were thinking of no-showing? Sort that out, it’ll take you five minutes to check it.
Do you follow up after a booking? Get an automated follow-up email to really work for you. Ask for feedback after a day or two to boost reviews, and most-importantly, get the customer to come back. Trial different lengths of time between these follow-ups; it could be 2 weeks, it could be 6 - it’s really venue dependent.
Birthday emails! Send the birthday girl or boy a free glass of bubbly, a discount, or a little surprise - most people enjoy a birthday treat. Make sure they’re treating themselves with you! Most occasions bring in groups too, so you could secure yourself a nice 6-top.
Sort your social media out.
If your social media isn’t showing off your sunny terrace the second the sun shines, get out there and take a picture.
Chef’s put a new special on? Create urgency with a “this week only” post or Story.
Create a Highlights reel of you best selling point, be it your wine list, your killer sticky toffee pudding, or your lovely team.
Ok, I could go on for hours! If you need a hand coming up with some inspiration, give me a shout - we can take a look at your venue together and find key opportunities to boost your profitability.
Contact me at fiona@nettlehospitality.co.uk to chat.
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