How to Get Your Servers to Upsell in Your Twin Cities Restaurant

Upselling can make or break a restaurant. If done well, the practice can lead to higher sales, without any increase in the number of covers done.

As valuable as upselling is, the practice can be tricky. The key to upselling is awakening a desire in your guest, without appearing pushy.

Service staff is absolutely key to upselling, so by adding financial incentives to your servers income is best way to motivate them to upsell.

With all that being said, what is the best way to incentivize employees to incorporate upselling into their best practices?

Let’s talk about the 10% factor.

The financial incentive to upsell.

Sharing the following example with the service staff may help to motivate them. This little trick is called the 10% factor.

Raising a check average by as little as 10 percent can have a remarkable impact on a server’s earnings, and can be as simple as selling one dessert or an extra glass of wine.

Starting with a $60 check for a four-guest table, here’s what an average performance will net a server over the course of one year:

$60 check average x 15% gratuity= $9 tip average
$9 tip avg x 5 tables turned 2x/night = $90 in tips per shift
$90 in tips per shift x 5 shifts per week = $450 in tips per week
$450 in tips per week x 4 weeks per month = $1,800/month in tips
$1,800 per month x 12 months = $21,600/year in tips

Now, consider raising the check average from $60 to $66, and selling with a
confidence that can earn a server an 18% gratuity on average.

$66 check average x 18% gratuity = $11.88 tip average
$11.88 tip avg x 5 tables turned 2x/night = $118.80 in tips per shift
$118.80 in tips per shift x 5 shifts per week = $594 in tips per week
$594 in tips per week x 4 weeks per month = $2,376/month in tips
$2,376 per month x 12 months = $28, 512 per year

By applying the techniques of upselling with confidence and enthusiasm, a server can potentially earn $6,912 or more in additional income.

Upselling benefits your profit margins and staff.

Adding 10% to every ticket not only raises your servers paychecks, it increases your profit margins.

If you’re interested in other ways to help your bottom-line, check out our free e-book where we’ll reveal the pros and cons of buying a POS, give you a list of what features are must-haves, and help you choose a merchant services provider.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

Who Wants to Save Money During the Off-Season With Their Restaurant?

Every business has a slow season, and it can be especially rough for restaurants and bars. To help make it through the off-season, we’re going to go over some of the best ways to retain as much profit you can when business is slow.

Save on labor.

In the restaurant industry, labor costs are an unavoidable operational expense; however, this expense is an adaptable source of savings if managed effectively. POS software plays a significant role when it comes to altering your labor costs, because it provides the controls necessary to monitor time, attendance and scheduling.

A handy little app created by Restaurant Manager called the RM Monitor gives you 5 minute real time updates of all your venues. The app goes into detail of how much you’re making at any specific location. The tracking built into RM Monitor allows you to see labor costs, and the profit you’re turning over for that hour. This feature lets you know when labor hits over 30% of what’s sold.

If you don’t catch that 30% line, you can quickly start losing money. Having a tool that lets you track your costs on your phone, and lets you know to send someone home will save your business from losing profits.

Track employee skimming.

One of the awesome features of Restaurant Manager is the ability to track your payroll. Your employees punch in and out using the system. Not only does this make the process of running payroll much more efficient, you will also reduce the “extra 10 minutes” you give away to employees on a daily basis.

Let’s say you have 5 employees, each paid at $10/hour. Each employee gets to work at 8:05 am and leaves at 4:50pm, but writes 8:00am to 5:00pm on their time card. You just gave away 15 minutes to each employee. How much does that cost you?

15 minutes X 5 employees = 75 minutes per day.
75 minutes per day X 5 days per week = 375 minutes per week/60 minutes per hour = 6.25 hours per week
6.25 hours per week X $10.00 per hour = $62.50 per week x 52 weeks per year = $3,250.00 per year

That’s $3,250.00 per year you are spending on time you are not getting from your employees. Each employee is getting a $650.00 bonus every year, just for fudging the time sheet 15 minutes every day.

Eliminating this scenario reduces labor costs up to 8.80% per year.

Saving on labor and watching for time skimming can all be achieved if you have the right tools. Owning a point-of-sale system that does all of this is one of the best ways restaurants can save money during the slow seasons.

Interested in other technology to help your restaurant?

Download our free e-book, and we’ll reveal the pros and cons of buying a POS, give you a list of what features are must-haves, and help you choose a merchant services provider.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

How to Increase Traffic for Your Restaurant During the Off-Season

Fall has come, meaning many local bars and restaurants will be closing down as the summer season comes to an end. If you keep your doors open during the off-season, you understand the struggle of trying to attract customers when business inevitably slows down.

To help make it through the off-season, we’re going to go over some of the best ways to keep busy during these off months.

Offer deals and promotions.

Sometimes it takes money to make money. You’re going to have to offer incentives to bring people in when you’re not bustling with customers. Whether it be discounts on beverages with a purchase of a meal, or buy one get one.

Draw on some creativity, and find what you can give away without cutting into your profit margins too heavily. You can use your POS system to look into your food profits.

Stay in touch.

Remember your locals?

The sad reality is when your business is at it’s most profitable during the peak seasons, locals tend to shy away. Since you’re so busy, regulars and those who live in town probably haven’t stopped by in a long time.

Take advantage of your downtime and reach out to the locals. Run specials around holidays, and try to engage the townies. People who live in town need a break from the woes of life. Attract them in a nice meal they won’t have to cook.

Up your marketing efforts.

Here are some great email campaign topics you can run during the off season to attract customers.

Sending out email campaigns to draw in cold visitors with your steamy, hot piping food is one of the best ways to draw in customers.

Keep up on social media.

We’ve done blogs talking about promoting yourself on Pinterest and Instagram, and you should step up with your social media presence during the slow season. Use this time to capitalize on reminding your customers how awesome your business is and why they should visit.

Interested in other technology to help your restaurant?

Download our free e-book, and we’ll reveal the pros and cons of buying a POS, give you a list of what features are must-haves, and help you choose a merchant services provider.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

How Your Twin Cities Restaurant Can Promote Itself Using Instagram

Welcome back, readers!

Last time, we went over why your Twin Cities restaurant should consider using Instagram as a platform to promote itself socially.

Today we’re going to go into detail about what steps your business can take to use Instagram effectively.

Make food porn!

Yes, it’s a term that’s been floating around the Internet for a while, but it’s the best way to describe the technique restaurants use to draw in customers.

Food porn basically means taking short videos or pictures of your menu items, and presenting them in the most enticing way possible. Instagram has over 97,000,000 posts with the foodporn hashtag, and it continues to grow constantly!

This is pretty easy to do, put a little time and thought into photographing your food. Consider the lighting, and maybe use a bit of slow motion.

Brand all your posts!

You can make a beautiful 30-second video of drizzling chocolate over your restaurant’s famous dessert, but if people don’t have a way to trace it back to you, there’s a problem.

Instagram is great for resharing others videos, but it can be easy to lose track from where the original video came from. To make sure your name stays associated with your post, add a little logo to every image with your company’s name on it.

Below is an example of a business having their logo in the top corner. Notice it doesn’t distract from the video, but still keeps their brand clearly present.

Keep Instagram strictly business.

Instagram is a fantastic way to become more personal to your customers, but don’t become too personal. As tempting as it is, keep your company Instagram page as focused as possible. This doesn’t mean you can’t show genuine fun moments of your staff, but no pictures of your family pet or vacations.

If it’s not related to your business, save it for your personal account.

People follow you on Instagram because they’re interested in the pictures of your restaurant or bar. Posting random pictures that have nothing to do with your company will make you lose followers.

Share customer photos!

It’s so free and simple, plus it will win you brownie points with your followers! Anytime someone tags a photo of your business, be sure to share it on your Instagram account.

Lots of individuals and small businesses have found this an easy way to engage with their customers.

This also gives you extra content to share without doing tons of work. If you use an app like Repost, it’s much easier to share others photos of your business. Be sure to credit the customer who shared the photo, a quick “Thanks” and tagging them is a way to show you care.

By using hashtags and locations on Instagram, you set your business up for some pretty easy advertising.

A final thought on using social media.

Social media is a great and low-cost way to give yourself free advertising and some reach. But before you set out to create an Instagram account for your restaurant, you need to make the commitment to use it.

As discussed in our Pinterest blog, social media takes time and effort to receive any return on investment. So commit to a game plan before and if you want to see some ROI.

Interested in other technology to help your restaurant?

Download our free e-book, and we’ll reveal the pros and cons of buying a POS, give you a list of what features are must-haves, and help you choose a merchant services provider.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

The Top Reasons to Promote Your Minneapolis Restaurant on Instagram

A while ago we posted two blogs about using Pinterest to promote your restaurant on social media. We have received a lot of comments of restaurant owners wanting to implement some of the strategies.

But did you know there are other social media platforms you could be using to your advantage?

Have you looked at Instagram?

Instagram is no longer just home for basic girls wearing North Face gear and drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes. It’s becoming an amazing way for smaller businesses to increase their reach and gain new followers.

Don’t believe us? Let’s look at some data.

Below is a list of amazing data, created by a social media writer.

There’s a good chance that your customers are on Instagram, and that’s the best place to reach them.

Instagram is designed for interactions between you and existing or potential clients. It has higher engagement than Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus combined, it’s a tool your restaurant should use to draw in guests.

Instagram is not just for large corporations.

Social media platforms have become an incredible resource and way to cheaply advertise for smaller companies, competing with large brand names. Even with the smallest budget and some effort, you can see results.

Have your restaurant take advantage of Instagram.

Is your business on Facebook? Then being on Instagram is no additional work for you! Instagram is now owned by Facebook, meaning the two platforms are connected. You can share a post on your business Instagram account and share it on other social media sites.

Interested in other technology to help your restaurant?

Download our free e-book, and we’ll reveal the pros and cons of buying a POS, give you a list of what features are must-haves, and help you choose a merchant services provider.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

2 Credit Card Processing Factors Restaurant Owners Overlook

We don’t talk about payment processing very often, but it’s definitely an overlooked aspect for restaurant owners that greatly affects their business.

Searching for a credit card processing provider is a pain, and pouring over different companies for decent rates is tiring.

As tempting as it is to focus your attention on only one price point, there are two other important factors restaurant owners tend to overlook when selecting a credit card processing provider.

Instead of looking solely at percentages, try looking at these two other vital price points.

#1 Ignoring per-transaction fees.

One of the biggest processing misconceptions is that percentages are the most expensive part of credit card processing. For restaurants and bars, you need to watch out for what your per-transaction fees are. Because they can add up quickly if you are mainly running small ticket items.

Think about it, if your average ticket item is $7-$20, then a per-transaction fee is going to have a large affect on how expensive your total credit card processing bill will be at the end of the month.

Fine dining restaurants that average meal tickets of $100-$200 will not have to worry as much about their per-transaction fee.

#2 Ignoring gateway fees.

Now a lot of POS systems will require a gateway fee. This is not unusual, and doesn’t mean the credit card processor is ripping you off.

However, you shouldn’t let the gateway fee be ridiculous. There are different ways gateway fees are charged across different providers, some charge a handful of cents per transaction. Others have a tiered pricing model that is tied to the number of transactions you run on a monthly basis.

It doesn't really matter what model they use, what matters is the cost to you. Do the math, and figure out your cost. We have seen gateway fees that end up approaching the same total costs as the credit card processing fees which is much higher than it needs to be.

We at BNG Point-of-Sale offer support through our sister company BNG Holdings, Inc. that provides a reasonable gateway fee for our POS systems.

Finding other companies to do this may be challenging, and finding a good company to do this is a tall order.

The problem with only focusing on one price point.

A final thought on calculating costs. When you’re searching for a payment processing provider, it’s important not to get caught up in only one price point.

All costs need to be taken into consideration. Don’t ignore per-transaction fee, or gateway fees. Especially don’t fixate only on your percentage rates.

Alleviate POS and payments processing issues.

If you’re curious about our POS and credit card processing services, read our free case study about one restaurant's success with their credit card rates.

View Case Study

Should You Raise Your Menu Prices Due to the Minnesota Wage Increase?

n August 2014 Minnesota saw the first wave of minimum wage increases, and August 1st of 2016 has marked the next bump of increases. Small employers are now required to pay employees $7.75 per hour, no matter the industry.

While workers are celebrating the pay bump, many restaurant owners are dreading the thought of finding additional cash in their razor-thin profit margins.

There’s a pretty easy solution to cover the new costs to your business that come from wage increases.

Raise the prices on your menu items.

Restaurants and bars don’t like the idea of raising their menu item prices, and we understand that.
You’re worried your customers will freak out and march straight to your competitors.

For starters, your competitors are in the same boat as you, and if they want to stay in business they will have to raise their pricing as well. No business can keep their doors open by running negative profits margins.

For this reason, you need to spend time calculating how much you need to increase your menu items.

One way you can cover the minimum wage increase is by raising some of your menu items prices is by lowering others.

McDonald's used this method when phasing out their popular dollar menu. Since beef prices were rising and costing the company, they cleverly replaced their hamburgers as a dollar menu item to cookies and ice cream cones.

They did this because those specific items are vastly cheaper and cost the franchises less, providing a higher profit margin than the soda and french fries. You can use the same strategy with your own menu.

How much should you raise your menu prices?

Because there are a lot of percentages floating around out there as suggestions, but you shouldn’t raise them just arbitrarily.

Sit down, and take some time reviewing your POS system reports. Calculate how much you’re currently paying employees and factor in the pay increases. Then decide how much profit is needed to cover the expense. Estimate a bit higher to be on the safe side.

If you use a great point-of-sale system like Restaurant Manager, it has tools built in it to consolidate and track your food costs. These features can work with an additional tool, called U.S Foods Menu Builder Pro, which gives you real-time data on the current prices for all your food items, allowing you to see the current costs of beef, cabbage, and the rest of your menu items.

Having that kind of tracking will help you keep your food costs down, and make an informed decision on how to best raise your prices. You need to calculate the total unit cost of each item for your menu, and then create a percentage to make up the wage difference.

Here’s a list of different ways you can price your items in more detail.

Some take away thoughts.

Wages rising are bound to happen over time but your business can survive it. By reviewing your costs and food prices, you can easily accommodate your employees raises, and also catch more money for yourself.

Interested in selecting the right POS system for your restaurant?

Download our free e-book, and we’ll reveal the pros and cons of buying a POS, give you a list of what features are must-haves, and help you choose a merchant services provider.

Minneapolis MN: How Your Restaurant Can Promote Itself On Pinterest [Part 2]

Last time we talked about why it’s worth your time to promote your restaurant on Pinterest. Today, we’re going to talk about practical ways to implement it.

Just a bit of information regarding all social media. You can’t just log in and post one pin a month and expect to see any traffic for your restaurant from it. The more time you invest in any form of social media, the better return on investment you’ll receive.

Some of the ways to promote yourself are more time consuming than others. So you can decide which options will work best with your schedule and your business.

Here are 3 of the best ways your restaurant can promote itself:

Create your own pins.

Creating your own pins are a great way to get direct traffic to your website. Beth Hayden, the author of Pinfluence, revealed that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined.

Click here to see the full tutorial on how to create your own pins from scratch.

Now, the most successful pins carry similar traits. They incorporate engaging images with content to solve a problem, inspire, or appeal to an interest or a hobby.

In order for this to work, you need to create engaging pins with arresting images. Since Pinterest is a visual medium, you need your images to speak and catch your audience in order for them to repin it on their own boards.

Repin other users content.

You don’t have to create all the content that you share on Pinterest. You can repin others content or content you’ve already created from your Facebook page or YouTube channel. Use photos from your website, or pictures of your favorite menu items.

To help position yourself as an authority in your field, share a combination of sources to ensure your boards contain interesting information that’s relevant to your audience.

Create a board for your restaurant.

Boards are where all the pins you create call home. The more boards you have, the more places you will have to organize.

It’s easy to create a board. Just go to your profile, and click “Create a Board.” Then, give it a name, a description, and select an appropriate category.

Here are some ideas for creating a board for your restaurant.

The takeaway.

Investing time into growing your restaurant’s presence on Pinterest may seem like a lot. Profit margins can be tight for restaurant owners, and the thought of spending money you may not have is intimidating.

Don’t worry, we have a solution for you. If you are interested in ways to save your business money by preventing shrinkage or theft.Then read up on the technology we recommend to cut down on your losses and increase your profit margins.

Minneapolis MN Restaurant: Why You Should Promote Yourself On Pinterest [Part 1]

Since Pinterest first appeared in 2010, it seemed like another fad, a bulletin board for amazing DIY crafts, interior decorating, and yummy homemade chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Now in 2016, Pinterest has not only continued to grow from an idea board for weddings and baking, but into a vital resource for businesses to market their brand, especially restaurants.

Pinterest has continued to grow as a social media platform, with over 10 million users. The greatest feature of Pinterest for small business owners, relies on its ability give you a return-on-investment on the site, without hiring a social media specialist.

Restaurant owners have limited profit margins to drop on a social media expert. Pinterest is a goldmine for marketing,sales generation strategy, and promoting your restaurant.

Thus, it is designed to rely circulated content. Your pins can continually gain attention, rather than you having to constantly generate new photos, videos, and posts everyday. With little training and no outsourcing, small restaurants, bars, or cafes already have the tools to promote engaging content on Pinterest’s platform.

Marketing for restaurants on Pinterest.

Every social media platform uses images, Pinterest’s main appeal is its visual environment. Because of it's visual medium, pictures speak louder than words.

Anyone who visits a page with an image “repinned” from your site, will be able to see it. Your image can show up from a follower of your page to their other pinner friends. Or on people browsing a category of interest.

Pictures of delicious looking food are continually circulated under boards, and repinned on Pinterest boards. Sharing great looking pics on Pinterest can earn restaurants followers and marketing exposure.

Converting Pinterest followers into customers for your restaurant.

By adding a subtle logo to any picture, people will see your brand. And know where the awesome picture came from.

Customers see something, click on the photo, and be taken to your site. From there, that traffic can search your website and explore all the other tasty options on your page. These can transform into actual revenue, and fans of your restaurant.

As you can see, Pinterest has advantages for restaurants looking to promote their business on social media.

Now, you may ask, “How do I actually use Pinterest to generate leads?”

Well, subscribe to our blog, and next time we’ll talk about what steps your restaurant can take to promote content on Pinterest.

St Paul MN Restaurant: Should You Buy or Rent a POS System?

It’s an old question, Shakespearean even, “To be, or not to be?” Only with a POS system, the question becomes “To buy, or not to buy?” Er, rather, to buy, or rent.

There is not a for sure yes or no answer to this question, and it will depend on your individual situation. Some restaurant or bar owners will have the finances to pay for a system all upfront, but that’s not a reality for everyone.

Fortunately, there are still options for owners who need an expensive point-of-sale system, but can’t afford to out a loan for it.

Some POS providers offer rental or leasing programs.

There are many POS companies who will do a rental program, where you will not own the equipment, but instead pay a monthly fee to use the POS system.

This can be a great option if you don’t want to drop tons of cash upfront, or just don’t want to own one.

There are some factors to be aware of when renting a POS.

When you rent a POS, you will have to sign a contract, because you are leasing an expensive piece of equipment. Read the contract over carefully to make sure there are no hidden fees, or that you are obligated to pay for any faulty equipment.

Usually with POS rental programs they come with a monthly support fee, where you will have your POS service bundled in with credit card processing fees. This can be pretty sweet because it combines the two components and lets you deal with only one provider, making your life easier.

Here’s where it can get a little tricky. It’s perfectly fine to have your POS rental fee and payment processing wrapped up together, but make sure you’re not being overcharged for processing fees, or that your rates are not going to be raised dramatically every single month without explanation.

How do you know if this will happen to you?

Well, here are some situations we have seen over the years with merchants we’ve worked with.

***Disclaimer, these numbers may be higher depending on what type of POS system you rent, along with how many service stations you need.

Look and see how much the monthly fee is for renting. A fair price, should be between $300-$500. That usually covers the fees, one service station, and support. If your contract only gives you an $80 fee for renting, you can expect to see around $1,000 processing fees, along with possible additional fees for customer support, and cheap equipment.

Some take away thoughts.

If you do decide to rent, try and get a list of clients who are currently in the rental program, and talk directly to them. Finding out how satisfied the current clients are with the company’s rental program will let you know if you’re getting a fair deal.

Interested in a renting a POS, but unsure of what it entails? Contact Us.