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Idea 4:
Put your daytime menu prices up by 50 cents each – track the sales of the food products over a month period, what sells well, what doesn’t, what other dishes could be added (you could do a customer survey for this), what products turn over a profit and what ones are you not making money on (such as pies and sausage rolls that people are more likely to go down the road to the bakery for)?
Sometimes in business we can be afraid to put our prices up – but even just a ‘tweaking’ occasionally can help increase the profit margin, without customers/clients being ‘upset’ over this. More importantly ‘fine tune’ your product and service range (that is, what does and doesn’t sell well?) to allow for cost efficiency which will benefit your turnover and profit in the long run. What are the current ‘price trends’ in your industry? What products/services do competitors have premium prices on?
Idea 5:
The customer survey could be something as simple as when people pay for their food – ask them, for instance (or get them to write down – have an A5 sheet of paper and a couple of pens at the counter; or what about a facebook survey or an SMS survey?) “What is a food item we don’t have that you would like to see here in the café?”’ For customers willing to take a minute or two to answer this question then they could go in a fortnightly draw to win a voucher for your dinner menu.
What is the most pressing question you would like to ask your customers right now? Will this question provide valuable information on how you price your products or the type of customer service/added value that is needed? The key is if you are going to do a customer survey then plan it well and don’t just see it as ‘yet another thing to do’.
Idea 6
Open for dinners initially just 2 to 3 nights a week - monitor your number of customers, what they are buying the most etc; so at the end of a couple of months you can evaluate whether the dinners are turning in a profit for the business. The dinners could run on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night – have menu items that you don’t normally have as part of your day time options, so that it is a separate dining experience for the customer.
For instance, Saturday nights – cater for ‘children’, run a kids menu on this night (for example, shaped hamburgers, hotdogs, waffles, traffic light drinks). You could also have scattered around the café on this night half a dozen board games, families could play these while dining. Market the evening as a ‘complete dining experience’ for the family; you could also cater for childrens’ birthday parties on this night (offer to organise the birthday cake and entertainment as well – a ‘Children’s Dining Birthday Package).
What is another product or service that you could add to your business? Is it a seasonal product/service that could be offered, when and for how long could you run a trial period for? What are the extra costs involved in marketing, staff, and resources if a new product or service is added?
Time for action! Which of these ideas are you going to apply to your business in the next month? Tell a friend, a partner, a business mentor to keep you accountable on the action: NOW GO TO IT!