As we already know, Covid-19 brought new trends and changes to the hospitality industry. A few years ago, restaurants didn’t emphasize the outdoor space. However, because of the increased demand, more and more restaurants are looking to serve their customers in outdoor areas.
According to Future of Restaurants report even though indoor dining space is opened back, “over one-fifth of diners believe outdoor seating is crucial for safety, and 65% of customers would choose to dine outdoors even when it’s cold.”
This can challenge the restaurateurs because outdoor dining has different dynamics. Lack of experience and knowledge might result in a loss in revenue for some of the restaurants. To avoid this, we gathered some tips for restaurants to streamline their operations and increase revenues in outdoor dining.
1) Restaurants can host special events and activities in outdoor space
Guests love entertainment. Especially when the weather is good, folks like to listen to some excellent music and enjoy their favorite food & beverages. Hosting live bands, DJs, or a music show in an outdoor space can increase the sales of high-margin items such as cocktails, drinks, and snacks. When guests have a good time, they spend more money, give more tips and leave more satisfied. Thus, venues need to find entertaining activities for their guests to boost revenues.
2) Promote outdoor activities with campaigns
Promoting outdoor activities is crucial to creating more awareness for the event and generating more traffic for the venue through social media, printed flyers, and digital menus. Digital menus like FineDine come with a campaign management feature. The campaign module allows restaurateurs to display information on the menu regarding their events or daily/seasonal specials at the venue. Through pop-ups and promotional banners, customers will be aware of the upcoming activities and be keener on coming back. So, campaign features in digital menus may increase awareness, returning customers, and eventually loyal customers.
3) Let guests place their orders from the digital menus
Having an outdoor space is costly because it means the venue must increase the number of staff. However, not all establishments have enough budget to do. As a result, guests can’t place their orders because of the lack of staff or miscommunication during the order process. Digital menus like FineDine let guests order their meals from the QR Code Menu and the Tablet Menus (iPad Menus). Since guests don’t depend on the staff and can order their food anytime, the average ticket size can increase up to 30%. Added the reduced labor cost, order management tool can increase revenues of restaurants more than 30%.
4) Create a special menu for the outdoors to boost sales
Running from the kitchen to the patio or making sure the food stays warm despite the cold or windy weather could be a hassle for the restaurateur. To avoid this, restaurateurs can create a special menu for outdoor seating. This menu can contain high-margin items, shared dishes, snacks, cocktails, and suitable items for the changing weather. Small menus are easy to sell and can boost sales.
5) Engage with your customer to improve your services
If outdoor dining is new for you, you need to make sure you cater to your customer’s needs and make sure customers are satisfied. Collecting feedback and reviews and engaging with them can improve your services and, hence guest satisfaction. Digital menus, like FineDine, come with a feedback module where restaurateurs can take reviews from QR codes or tablet menus.
To sum up, digital menus like FineDine can streamline restaurant operations and create a better experience for outdoor dining. If you are looking to get more information about FineDine, please visit our website.
About FineDine: FineDine is a growing tech company that provides menu management, order, and payment solutions by providing data-driven digital tablet and mobile menus for a more innovative and profitable dining experience. Founded in 2015, FineDine rapidly became one of the fastest-growing and leading menu management systems globally. Operating in 60+ countries, the platform supports 40 languages, reaching thousands of customers internationally.
