If you own a restaurant, there’s a good chance you have asked yourself on several occasions – “what in the world am I doing wrong?” What do you need to update in your restaurant to continue increasing your sales?
When considering these common questions, several answers may come to mind. You may think about changing up the interior, seating, service, and food. However, one of the most essential elements of any restaurant is often ignored – your menu. The menu design will have a direct impact on your restaurant sales – sometimes in ways you never imagined.
Some of the top signs it is time to consider a menu redesign can be found here.
Slow Decline in Sales
While your restaurant may have been a hit when you first opened, have you begun to see a gradual decline in sales? Is there no explainable physical reason for this to happen? If so, the issue may be the menu design.
If you have a menu that is unable to guide your guests to the right items they need to order, their entire experience will be compromised. This will result in your customer base fading away or defaulting to the most common items that don’t produce enough sales.
Lower Profits
Even if your sales are fine at your restaurant, you may not be making a decent profit. When this happens, it is time to look at your reports. However, when investigating the underline issue, it is a good idea to look at your sales reports focused on “high-profit items.” There is a good chance the menu items with the highest profit margin aren’t being sold often enough.
This means your menu design hasn’t been thought out carefully in terms of item placement. In this situation, it means the soft spots in your menu, nor your highlights or decoys have been used properly. All this will provide visual benefits through graphics or pictures (if used in your menu) redundant.
This is another sign that you need to recharge and redo your menu design. This is especially important if your restaurant always seems to be full of people, but you aren’t generating enough revenue.
Unpopularity of Certain Items
While you may think it’s not a problem to have items that aren’t that popular listed on your menu, it can actually be damaging to your business. For example, if specific items aren’t being ordered, the ingredients you have on hand may expire, and you have to re-stock those items just to let the spoil again. You will also be losing out on selling a different menu item that may be more popular.
If you are dealing with any of the issues here, now is the time to consider redesigning your menu. Doing so will help ensure the desired results are achieved and that your menu helps ensure the success of your restaurant rather than hindering it. If necessary, seek help from the professionals who can help guide your menu redesign.