Restaurant upselling can be a real challenge for many restaurants in today’s new reality. Almost everything has gone virtual and ordering food from a local restaurant is no exception.
So how do restaurants go about this? Is it possible to upsell online with just a mobile app and some time-tested strategies? Or is it better
Today, we’re going to look into an upsell strategy using a full restaurant CRM like DeliveryBizConnect to drastically increase your profit. But first, a little bit about upselling and cross-selling.
Restaurant Upselling vs. Cross-selling with your Restaurant Online Ordering System
Both strategies have worked for centuries and their effectiveness relies on one key element – they work best when they’re not too obvious. However, they’re not quite the same so we use whichever is more appropriate.
When we upsell, we offer a product of the same kind but more superior in quality, size, or has extra features. So instead of just selling regular hamburgers, McDonald’s tease their customers’ appetite with things like Big Mac and Quarter Pounder.
Cross-selling is a little different but the idea of getting customers to spend more is essentially the same. You offer something else that goes naturally with the initial purchase, hence the famous line by MacDonald’s, “Would you like fries with that?”
Compared to upselling, cross-selling requires more thinking and being able to read your customer. Otherwise, you might sound a little pushy. Cross-selling usually works with first-time customers as they’re more likely to try different things on the menu.
Old customers, on the other hand, are already settled so they’re more into something bigger, better-tasting, with added extras, and so on.
Bottom line: restaurant upselling and cross-selling works if you know your target market. Later in this article, we’ll introduce you to a complete restaurant CRM that allows you to do just that (and more).
Restaurant Promotion Ideas and Restaurant Upselling Strategies
1. Menu Specials on Specific Days
One of the best ways to get your customers stoked is to offer specials on specific days of the week like a “Wing Wednesday” or “Saturday Special.” This is where you offer bulk orders at a discount or with a free bottle of something, and so on.
The goal is to get double or triple the sales volume in a short span of time. When you do the math, offering discounts and freebies in exchange for higher volume should equal larger profits than on a typical day. This is, by the way, how corporations earn big despite having small margins on each individual item.
2. Holiday Specials
Similar to your weekly specials, you can also leverage certain days to get customers to order more from you. The reason is quite obvious. During holidays, people just want to spend the day and not worry about cooking and doing the dishes.
It’s also the time where they get together and so big menu items in your restaurant should be in order (pun intended). In other words, instead of individual servings, think “family size” that serves 4 to 6 persons at a 5% off or special menu items offered only on that specific day. Again, we want to get as much volume as possible FAST!
3. Bundled Items
We might be moving a little bit towards cross-selling here, but it surely won’t hurt if we try this one. It’s extremely popular among fast food chains. Customers rarely ever get just the burger or just the chicken. It’s usually with a side of fries plus soda and or ice cream, and so on.
When you think of it, you’re actually helping your customers on bundled items. They not only save extra dollars (or get a free something); they won’t have to look around for something else they want to have as well. And of course, it only means one thing for you – more sales and increased profits.
4. Experiment on Your Menu
Over time your customers’ eating habits and tastes change. Try experimenting on your menu from time to time. Nowadays we’re seeing more customers go for something healthier like a vegan, low-fat, and low-calorie alternative to regular menu items, or in the case of meat products, something organically grown like free-range chicken or grass-fed cattle.
Or, you can try something new by giving your menu items a taste of international cuisine (Korean style, Japanese style, Italian style, Spanish style, etc.). Customers pay a little extra on your premium items, but hey, that’s what they came for in the first place.
Marketing Your Upsells Online
Now that you have some strategies down, we need to get the word out. In pre-COVID times this would have been a walk in the park. As a matter of fact, you don’t even have to say a word.
The moment customers come to your restaurants, they’re already greeted with all sorts of restaurant upsells on the walls, at the counter, to the small tent card sitting on top of the table.
However, this time around with most restaurants reduced to just doing curbside pickups, takeouts, and deliveries, you’ll need a different approach. And for that, we have a solution for you:
1. Upsell Using Push Notifications
Push notifications are very powerful particularly nowadays where most of our online engagements happen through mobile. It’s permission-based marketing that puts you in a safe zone for General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and gets your message straight into your customers’ phone screens.
For this to work, you need users to download and install YOUR APP which is a tall order to say the least. But like we said, we have the solution. DeliveryBizConnect is a complete, full restaurant CRM that includes push notification service.
And, unlike most third-party delivery apps, we put you at the helm of things from your message, to your target market, automation, and so on. Just keep in mind to use push notifications judiciously and not to overdo them.
Once a week or twice a month will do and it can be as simple as “It’s Wing Wednesday at A1 Restaurant. Save $2 on our Wings Bucket! ORDER NOW” with a link to your online menu.
Watch our video to learn how your customers can start using our DeliveryBizConnect online ordering app with YOUR personalized branding and download link (for referrals and customer tracking):
For maximum benefit, we encourage our clients to share the download link with their code to customers and share it with their friends.
2. Upsell to Multiple Segments
The big advantage of having customer data and a restaurant CRM at your fingertips is you can hone in to a specific segment of your target market and offer personalized messages, say for your push notifications, SMS, or email marketing, increasing your sales by at least 25%. DeliveryBizConnect gives restaurants an unfair advantage by giving access to customer data not possible on other major third-party delivery apps.
With a full restaurant CRM like DeliveryBizConnect, you don’t just get your food delivered at 3.33% delivery cost vs. 30% from major third-party delivery apps, you’re in full control however you want to collect and control your customer’s data.
Watch our video to learn how DeliveryBizConnect’s restaurant CRM can increase your sales 23% or more.
3. Upsell In-app Using Modifiers
Some upsells are less obvious than others, and their usually the best ones. When customers order from you, they should have a last-minute option to put some add-ons to their initial order. This saves customers time and delivery charge and earns you more sales and profits as a result.
DeliveryBizConnect allows restaurant owners to make their own upsells by incorporating special menu items as one of the modifiers, or allowing users to put add-ons – extra rice, extra sauce, extra gravy, double cheese, triple cheese, and so on.
Watch our video to learn how it’s done on DeliveryBizConnect’s back office and how it would look like on the user’s end.
Start Doing Deliveries Now
If you need any help on how to jumpstart your own food delivery service, feel free to book an appointment with us for a 30-minute Complimentary Restaurant Sales Expert Call. We’re on a mission to help restaurant owners get back on their feet and increase sales like never before.