It is estimated that only 10 per cent of restaurants use proper menu engineering practices and 30 per cent use some of the techniques, leaving a whopping 60 per cent of restaurants that don’t use any of these strategies to help increase sales and profits.
When I read this I was astounded that the number of restaurants that don’t use ANY of these techniques was so high. With the 2017 season just around the corner, now is the perfect time to start using these proven practices to help grow your revenue and profit when developing your new menu.
Now, for a lot of us we learnt about this when we were in school, which in some cases was a long time ago, so perhaps a little refresher is in order. If you didn’t cover this in school, or the concept is new to you, then you may want to do some internet research if you’re inspired after reading this article.
Some of the more common “don’ts” I have seen lately is the use of the dollar sign in the price i.e. …$6.00. This brings attention to the price, which you don’t want to do. But what you should do is put the price in as part of the description. Now, I am sure you have noticed that establishments are even leaving out the $ sign, writing the price as “six dollars”, or even using fractions rather than decimals, such as “6 ¼”.
All of these practices are just more modern or current versions of not bringing attention to the price.
Another mistake I often see is wordy descriptions. We have to remind ourselves that, on average, a customer will only spend 90 seconds reading the menu, so descriptions need to be specific, focusing on the most important part of the dish.
This includes key ingredients with the strategically placed adjective. This same strategy needs to be used for the item heading. Stay away from names that don’t have anything to do with the dish. So if the dish is “Pepper Steak” call it that and not “Lumberjack Dinner”. When you do this, you are forcing the guest to read the descriptions, which is going to take too long and the guest will end up ordering whatever is easy, and chances are it is not going to be the item(s) you wanted him or her to order.
Another great selling tool is to name the farm or producer of the main or key ingredients, in the heading and/or description. With people being so conscious of the food they eat, they are more aware of the products they buy and are willing to pay more for certain things.
So, if you are serving organic eggs tell them. If the beef you are serving comes from a local farm, or the vegetables that are served are grown on the premises, your guests should know.
These are all key selling tools that should be a focus when describing your dish. They could make the difference in the amount of money you can take to the bank.
The menu is often your strongest selling tool so it is important that it is working as hard as you are. On average, when you use menu engineering practices you can increase your revenue by as much as 15 per cent, and profit as much as 20 per cent.
