Restaurant Menus Need To Do the Job of Servers

Let us make a couple of assumptions. First, you may have the best servers in the business. If you do, then you know they get very busy on occasion and do not do the best job of selling your product. Second, your menu is seen by many people before they ever see a server. You may have it on the Internet, posted outside, on take out forms and even people who ask for a menu before they are seated.

Menus have to sell. They take the principles of selling and put them into a written form. Sales is an art, but there are some basics that you can incorporate into a printed document. For instance, the goal is always to up sell. Do you have a filet at $25. Maybe you should have the "Big Spenders" cut at $32. How about the baked potato that comes with dinner? Do you have a "twice baked" potato for $2 more that is a half of a potato with cheese and sour cream made from the leftovers from the previous evening?

Names can be intimidating to a customer - just enough to let ego bend their pocketbook. Examples include a classic that Hooters uses. A "Gourmet " chicken wing dinner that comes with 20 wings and a bottle of Dom Perignon, for a couple of hundred dollars, has impressed more than one young lady over the years. You would be surprised at how many they sell! The same concept can be applied to wines, by offering a bottle of Pinot Noir for a normal price and a "wine lovers" bottle at a higher price right next to it.

Selling should be for future visits also. Here are a few things that need to be on your menu;

Your contact information for takeout or reservations.

Events that are annual or upcoming.

Specials that occur weekly like a Cajun night, pasta night or south of the border night.

Credit Cards you accept and discounts that you may offer.

Any policies that need explained BEFORE ordering like gratuities and large parties.

Special things your restaurant may do like catering or party trays.

Arguably, there is a limit of information that can fit on a menu and even more debated is how long you leave the menu on the table. Many restaurants find that making the menu available throughout the dining experience will bring more questions and lead to a follow up visit for another dish. A well placed menu can be a conversation subject for a group.

A couple of things you don't want to do is leave a dirty or stained menu with a customer. Never utilize an outdated menu or fail to point out anything that may not be available before the guest orders.

Selling you product is part of marketing. They go hand in hand to produce long term loyal guests.

Keywords: