6 Tips On How To Increase Restaurant Revenue Using Data

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In today’s economy every restaurant operator is looking for a way to increase revenue and lower costs. Every owner has the key to finding this secret sauce if they know how to leverage their data.

With the influx of technology in the restaurant industry, owners have a wealth of data being generated. Taken individually it might not mean much, but when analyzing together to spot trends, this data can be used for everything from reducing food waste to maximizing your staff.

While major international brands often have many systems to pull data from, even smaller brands can get a wealth of data from data sources like:

• POS
• Reservation systems
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Statistics show that businesses that use data analytics increase profits 8-10%. Here are 6 ways for restaurant owners to use these data points to increase revenue.

1. Streamline Menus
   Data from a POS system can help you pinpoint best-selling items, underperforming dishes, time of day certain items are ordered, and even what menu items drive repeat customers. Using this data restaurant owners can cut items that don’t move and add similar dishes to the top sellers.
2. Reduce Food Waste
   Having a dialed in menu is the first stop in reducing food waste. Restaurants can also use POS data and inventory information to know what items are nearing expiration and need to be pushed. If the back-of-house has smart appliances that are connected to the Internet, owners can get real time information on what needs to be ordered. Analytics is also extremely helpful for demand forecasting. Data can show if holidays, special events spike your traffic and even if certain weather has an impact on sales, to help owners better hone in on ordering food.
3. Improve Marketing
   By using the data at your disposal, you can greatly improve your marketing campaigns. Restaurants can target promotions tailored to the individual for everything for a coupon for your favorite sandwich to offering birthday freebies. These individual specific offers can also be designed to increase customer frequency. The data can also show which LTOs worked and which didn’t.
4. Operational Improvements
   Looking at the data you can see your best and worst performing staff, understand when you need more and less staff, see which staff members sell the most and much more. Studies show businesses that use analytics can increase productivity by 17%.
5. Forecasting
   By looking at the trends in your data you can effectively project food and labor needs for the future. Dialing in supplies and labor will reduce unnecessary spending, as well as ensure that the restaurant is prepared for busy times too.
6. Build Loyalty
   A brand that has a loyalty program not only has the benefit of all the consumer data it will collect, but also the strong brand ambassadors the program generates by rewarding top consumers with targeted promotions and freebies.

If you want to learn more about how your franchise can better leverage its data, contact Fransmart today.