15 Ways to Increase Restaurant Sales and Customer Retention

1. Leverage menu engineering to maximize sales

It’s likely that a handful of particular items make up the bulk of your sales. Leverage sales data and customer feedback to determine your strongest menu offerings and draw attention to those with menu engineering.

Research shows that menu engineering can increase restaurant sales by 15%.

Use design elements like strategic font choices, tantalizing photos, color boxes, arrows, great food sketches, and other art to influence eye movement as customers read your menu. Use the same strategy to highlight specials, new items, sides, add-ons, and your flagship cocktails.

2. Add the right soundtrack 

Our study revealed that 79% of customers listen to background music played in a business location, and customers in a leisure establishment such a restaurant are even more likely to pay attention to the music.

However, playing the wrong music can harm your business.

One global restaurant chain analyzed 1.8 million purchases across 16 locations over five months, and they discovered that sales decreased 4.3% when they played random popular songs, versus when they played no music at all.

However, sales skyrocketed 9.1% when their restaurants played a mix of hits and music that wasn’t as well known but fit their brand. And that variety is key—restaurants that played a mix of popular artists and less famous ones in a playlist that fit their brand saw sales increase 3.6% over restaurants that played only brand fit hits.

Dessert sales alone climbed 15.6% with that effective formula.

For your restaurant, “brand fit” will vary, depending on the type of restaurant, location, atmosphere, and target customers.

For example, a late-night eatery that attracts college students may want to curate a playlist of upbeat alternative or indie music to encourage the crowd to linger and keep the night going strong. Meanwhile, a nostalgic diner will want a soundtrack that fits a throwback vibe.

Soundtrack Your Brand can help you secure the correct licenses for the music you play in your restaurant.

3. Optimize Food and Drink Offerings

Once you’ve identified your best-selling and most popular menu items, focus on those. Cut menu items that don’t elicit positive customer feedback or don’t sell enough to be worth the costs of ingredients and preparation.

This will give you a starting point to explore new and exciting offerings. Take a data-driven approach to adding food and drink options that your customers are likely to love.

Curating your best food and drink options for your restaurant will help cut overhead costs for unneeded ingredients, reduce food wastage, and help boost online reviews and positive word of mouth.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful and inexpensive way to reach new customers.

Find what works and allow that to dictate your promotional campaigns. Optimize the selections, offer limited time deals, and promote special menu items to bring in new customers and keep existing customers coming back.

4. Ensure Restaurant Staff Are at the Top of their Game

First impressions have a significant impact on dining patterns, including purchasing behavior. This is particularly true for high-end dining establishments, but any restaurant should make sure every customer’s first impression is positive and memorable.

Hosts, servers, and bartenders should be friendly and upbeat. Consider training staff to welcome new arrivals at the door. Successful social interactions are among the most rewarding stimuli for human beings, so positive interactions with restaurant staff are key for potential and returning customers.

Food should be prepared correctly and delivered in a timely manner. Approximately 39% of restaurant customers said they would not return if staff handled food without gloves. Meanwhile, 50% would not return if a restaurant has poor service (this percentage goes up to 63% for baby boomers), and long wait times would deter 25% of customers from returning.

Cultivating a quality restaurant staff is a top-down initiative, and it’s the responsibility of the restaurant owner and managers to lead the effort. Customers have a nose for an unhappy work environment. If restaurants create a positive work environment for staff, this will translate to the customer experience.

Customers who have a positive experience will be more likely to become repeat customers and spread positive word of mouth.

According to the Harvard Business Review, employee recognition boosts morale and improves productivity. Simply acknowledging the efforts of staff can go a long way, but listening to employee concerns and taking action to correct issues can show employees that they are valued. In addition, consider offering rewards like bonuses or gifts, and establishing a customer-of-the-week program.

5. Maintain a Clean Space for Every Customer 

Roughly 90% of Americans say cleanliness of a business is an important factor when deciding whether to come back. Further, 25% of survey respondents say they’ve left an online review after eating in a restaurant with poor hygienic conditions, meaning cleanliness issues can hurt a restaurant’s reputation.

Here’s a breakdown of the top reasons customers would refuse to return to a restaurant, with both overall percentages and segmented by generation.

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Notice how many of these are related to cleanliness. Approximately 82% of customers would not return to a restaurant if they saw rodents or insects, 45% would be deterred by unpleasant odors, 44% would avoid coming back if plates or utensils were unclean, and 31% would skip a return trip if the bathrooms were dirty.

Contaminated food and unhygienic food handling practices are also high on the list.

Train staff to maintain a clean space both in the front of the house and the kitchen. Here’s a sample checklist:

• Remove clutter, stains, and visible dirt.

• Replace furniture if necessary.

• Sweep parking spaces in front of the building to remove leaves, nails, and debris.

• Regularly clean windows and food display cases. Ensure there are no flies on the food under the glass.

• Thoroughly clean glasses, plates, and cutlery. There should be no water streaks, lipstick stains, or leftover food on these items.

• Regularly clean the bathrooms, and ensure soap and paper towel dispensers are continually refilled (or that paperless hand dryers are in good working order) so customers can feel clean when they sit down to eat.

A clean environment helps ensure restaurant customers feel comfortable and want to return with their friends and family.

6. Run Ads with Specials or Coupons

A solid marketing strategy is a necessity to stay competitive. Target your desired customer base with ad campaigns. Consider where they’re most likely to see your ad. If your target customer spends much of their day on TikTok or Instagram, focus your marketing efforts on those platforms.

Collecting and maintaining a list of email addresses gives you access to a pool of customers to target through future event promotions or special menu item deals.

Combining discounts with a time-oriented component can have a strong impact on sales. These can include seasonal or daily specials, or discounts on specific items during certain hours of the day.

Consider establishing deals for first-time customers and a customer loyalty program that offers regular customers special perks, such as a free drink or appetizer. Create a check-in system to acknowledge program members as soon as they walk in the door.

Introducing cross-selling and up-selling into employee training can significantly boost sales. Train employees to incorporate suggestive selling techniques into their process, highlighting new menu items and promotional deals.

7. Offer Happy Hour and Brunch Specials

Leverage time-specific menus for happy hour or brunch to target customers with a particular pattern of behavior, such as the after-work crowd or those who enjoy leisurely Saturday afternoon meals with plenty of mimosas.

One report found that happy hour sales account for 60.5% of revenue for bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. Even with discounts, the average bill during happy hour is $68.99, which is approximately $8 higher than a typical bill.

From Q2 2022 to the same quarter the following year, casual dining restaurants saw a 9% increase in customer traffic on weekdays during the 4 to 7 p.m. time slot, and a 13% increase during that time slot on weekends.

Meanwhile, limited-service concepts saw a 20% increase on weekdays and a massive 25% increase on weekends.

8. Maintain a Strong Social Media Presence

Half of diners surveyed say social media affects their restaurant choices, and 22% are influenced to revisit a restaurant due to its social media presence.

Using social media the right way can boost revenue, customer engagement, and brand recall. 

People like to follow businesses and brands that regularly post useful or entertaining content. If a customer likes your restaurant, they may search for it on social media platforms or choose to follow when they see a sponsored ad that provides value.

Post information about specials and events like trivia night, bingo, or karaoke. Post relevant photos of food and drinks, such as special daily menu items, frosty cocktails on a sunny patio table, or a steaming plate of comfort food on a cold day. Be sure images of food and drinks are high-quality and appetizing.

If you don’t post regularly, and if social media users don’t see value in your content, they will have no reason to follow. If they follow but don’t engage with your posts (like, share, comment) the algorithms will bury your content and they’ll stop seeing it. Either way, you’ll miss out on a powerful marketing channel.

However, maintaining a strong social media presence on every platform requires a significant commitment of time and resources that many restaurants cannot afford. Focus your social media efforts on platforms your target customers are likely to use.

Here’s a breakdown of how different generations are using social media. For example, the baby boomer generation are most likely to use Facebook even though millennials still say it’s their favorite (they also love Instagram and YouTube). Here’s a graph of where Gen Z spends their time on social media.

9. Feature Live Performances and Special Events

Restaurants can boost sales by hosting live music and special events to create unique dining experiences. Themed nights, bands, art openings, or chef’s table dinners can attract new customers and be an exciting reason for old customers to return.

One survey found that 75% of people are likely to stay at a restaurant longer if they enjoy the live music being played there.

Here are more results from the survey, comparing things respondents said they are “very” or “somewhat likely” to do if they enjoy the live or background music in a restaurant:

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Consider featuring up-and-coming local musicians and artists that fit your brand to engage with your community on a deeper level.

10. Invite Customer Feedback at Every Opportunity 

Details matter when it comes to customer satisfaction. Whether it’s the cleanliness of the space or the quality of the food, service, atmosphere, music playlist, or other criteria, it’s important for restaurant owners to understand how their business is perceived and how they can improve it.

Approximately 94% of diners check reviews online before visiting a restaurant, and a one-star increase in a restaurant’s online rating can improve revenue 5-9%.

To elicit customer feedback and encourage them to leave reviews online, implement surveys, feedback cards, and ask them to leave a review if they enjoyed their visit. To ensure high engagement, encourage reviews through promotional campaigns such as discount offers and email-based outreach strategies.

11. Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is your internet storefront, so ensure it’s accurate and up-to-date.

Confirm that your address, open and close times, phone number, website address, and link to make reservations (if applicable) are correct. When checking your hours of operation, pay special attention to a.m. and p.m. to ensure customers don’t think you’re closed when you’re open for business.

Use this space to post updates like food and drink specials or announce events, link to your socials, upload high quality photos, and maintain your Google Reviews.

Publicly respond to all reviews—especially the negative ones. Always be polite and professional in your responses, and offer the reviewer compensation in the form of discounts or free menu items if they give you another chance.

While this may not win over the unhappy customer, it shows potential customers reading the reviews that you take customer complaints seriously and do all you can to resolve issues.

In situations where the reviewer is hostile, responding in a rational and level-headed manner defuses some of the power of the negative review in the eyes of third parties.

Report all spammy reviews to Google. These may be left by bots, trolls, or competitors looking to “review-bomb” you. Irrelevant statements, nonfactual claims, and unlikely scenarios are red flags, and so are reviews left by new accounts or accounts that haven’t reviewed many other businesses.

12. Update Your Website

Approximately 77% of potential customers say they are likely to visit a restaurant’s website before they decide to eat there. An outdated, confusing, buggy, or unintuitive website can have a direct negative impact on restaurant sales.

Here’s how potential customers say their decision to eat a restaurant has been affected by a bad website:

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Of survey respondents, 68% said a bad website has discouraged them from visiting a restaurant, and 62% said it discouraged them from ordering delivery or takeout.

The quality of the food photos on the website, readability of the menus, mobile-friendliness, and the currentness of the web design all impact a potential customer’s decision to patronize a restaurant.

Further, a restaurant’s website can influence a customer’s decision to dine in or order delivery.

13. Offer Incentives to Stick Around

Encouraging customers to stay at a restaurant longer is one of the most straightforward ways to improve sales. Customers who have a reason to stay will often order more drinks, desserts, and other menu items.

Cultivate a welcoming, engaging atmosphere with comfortable seating, soft lighting, intentional decor, and a brand-fit playlist. Offer free Wi-Fi and ensure wait staff frequently refills water glasses and soft drinks. A welcoming ambiance and exceptional service can promote a sense of belonging, increasing the time a customer wants to spend in a restaurant.

14. Embrace Technology

Modern technology has provided numerous tools to improve sales and restaurant customer retention rates. Mobile and online ordering functionality, new digital payment options, and restaurant analytics are driving sales, improving customer experience, streamlining restaurant operations, and maximizing efficiency.

Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions can assist restaurants with tracking and maintaining valuable customer data. This data enables restaurants to offer rewards programs for repeat visits and track customer birthdays for special offers and targeted marketing campaigns, potentially increasing the lifetime value of the customer.

Today’s improved point of sale (POS) systems make payment easy for customers and staff, 

Tap to Pay is replacing the credit card swipe, and some restaurants offer tablets at the tables for a convenient ordering system and to facilitate the payment process.

Technological solutions that monitor table turnover and staff performance can help optimize efficiency and improve sales. Further, analyzing sales trends, customer preferences, and inventory levels enables precise menu planning and pricing strategies.

15. Ensure You Have a High-Quality Sound System

Nobody wants to hear crackling or rattling music while they’re eating their meal or having a conversation. Investing in a high-quality sound system for your restaurant can improve the dining experience and ensure a restaurant doesn’t miss out on the boosts in sales and customer retention that playing the right music can provide.

No matter how well you curate your playlist or your atmosphere, poor sound equipment can damage the vibe and diminish the positive effects.

To Improve Restaurant Customer Retention and Sales, Focus on What Works for Best for Your Business

The right sales and customer retention strategies are different for every restaurant, but implementing the steps we’ve included in this article will help improve chances of long-term success in the competitive restaurant industry.

As you determine the right way forward for your restaurant, you’ll be able to boost revenue, increase profitability, and cultivate a loyal customer base that keeps coming back for more.

Central to all of these steps is customer experience. As we’ve covered, music plays a crucial role in the way a customer perceives a restaurant and affects buying decisions. However, public performance licenses are required to legally play music in a business establishment.

Soundtrack Your Brand offers over 100 million fully licensed tracks and 1,300 customizable playlists. It’s the only service that truly allows you to play what you want, when you want, and its AI Playlist Creator allows you to generate brand-fit playlists from simple text prompts.

Most importantly, the service gives you peace of mind that all the music you play in your restaurant is properly licensed and that you’re protected from lawsuits.