Why Digital Menus Are Great for Upselling

Until the laws of physics and/or the physical location of your restaurant change, you can only fit so many guests in your restaurant, and foot traffic may never be your greatest asset. Even if you could bring in more diners, studies show it costs five to 10 times less to upsell to a current customer than it does to attract a new one.

Boosting profits is more often than not a matter of building up every individual guest check. By upselling, servers amass incremental sales that look small but add up to a significant amount over time. Digital menu boards can help.

The issue with the server-led approach to upselling is that everything from training inconsistencies to staffing issues can cause your sales numbers to tank. Customers may feel that a cashier is too aggressive in pushing the eatery’s new loyalty card or be so rushed during the ordering process they don’t even have time to consider augmenting their purchase.

Digital menu boards offer an interactive, on-demand experience operators can customize with whatever high-margin items or promotional deals are currently most beneficial. Rather than having an employee tack on a “Would you like fries with that?” as part of the order-taking process, a multimedia menu board could display a tempting video of fries being prepared and dished up with a “Make it a combo for just $3” tagline at the end.

Printed menus are a passive form of sales. You’re hoping that the guest has enough patience, interest and energy to decide what will best impact his or her dining experience. You’re also hoping that those decisions are what’s best for your restaurant. That kind of gamble almost never pays off.

Digital menu boards are eye-catching–using animation, video, design elements and color psychology to guide consumers’ attention wherever you want it to go. Everything from tiny icons signifying vegetarian and organic options to bold “upgrade your gyro” lists act as persuasive copy to help soft sell guests on additional items.

While upselling is most often linked to sales, it’s also an effective way to give your guests a better experience. A family may come in for chicken sandwiches and leave satisfied because the food was delicious, but the visit isn’t particularly memorable because it went exactly as expected. Introduce your guests to a mouthwatering new dessert or sell them a travel mug for their specialty coffee, and you’ve delivered added value that turns an otherwise ordinary event into something a bit more special.

WAND Corporation’s digital menu boards are part of the WAND TRM, a cloud-based restaurant management platform that facilitates operational control from any device anywhere in the world. The uses for this innovative software are almost endless, but for the purposes of upselling, the ability to customize menu offerings is invaluable. Highlight extra shots of espresso in the morning; extol the benefits of adding a serving of locally grown avocado to sandwiches in your California stores; or introduce happy hour customers to the $5/hour gaming tablet available to bar patrons.

Digital menu controls also help eliminate those potentially costly “oops” moments — such as a manager forgetting to reset promotional prices or neglecting to dial in a featured item in time for a seasonal product launch. Automatically scheduling start and stop times ensures all customers have the opportunity to learn about their options and your brand has the opportunity to showcase choices that benefit your bottom line.

Your restaurant deserves a cutting-edge management platform that works seamlessly whenever and wherever you need. For more information on how we can guarantee a 3-6% sales lift, call (800) 786-9263 or visit our Services page.