More revenue per table: seven ways that aren't a price increase

There are only three ways to get more revenue out of your establishment: more guests, higher prices, or more per guest. The first costs marketing and seats you don't have. The second feels like a risk to every business owner. The third is the only one you can influence from tomorrow onward.

And there's more room there than most businesses think, because the average table leaves with at least one order that could also have been placed.

Where the room is

Work it out for your own business. Take the number of tables per evening, and assume that one in three tables orders one extra four-euro drink. With forty tables, that's more than fifty euros per evening, and more than fifteen hundred euros per month. Without changing a single price on the menu.

One extra drink at one in three tables is already more than a thousand euros per month for an average business.

Seven ways, from easy to structural

1. Ask at the right moment

The question "anything else to drink?" lands differently when the glass is half empty than when it's empty. With an empty glass, the guest has already mentally finished with that drink. Teach your staff to look for half, not empty.

2. Make dessert a choice, not a question

"Would you like dessert?" is easy to answer with no. "Today we have a crème brûlée and a chocolate mousse, shall I show them to you?" is not. The difference in acceptance is big enough to notice in the till.

3. Shorten the time between ordering and ordering

The biggest brake on an extra order isn't the price but the waiting. A guest who has to raise their hand for five minutes won't order anything else. A button on the table that lets them order more without waiting removes that brake.

4. Keep the table occupied with something enjoyable

The period between clearing the main course and settling the bill is commercially the most valuable of the evening, and at the same time the quietest. A guest who has something to do there, stays. A guest who gets bored, asks for the bill. At TablePlay, that's exactly the moment when tables compete against each other; see the games.

5. Reward instead of giving discounts

A discount lowers your margin on something that would have been sold anyway. A reward for something the guest wouldn't otherwise have done doesn't do that. A free coffee for the winning table costs you fifty cents and provides a reason to stay another half hour.

6. Make the menu easier, not bigger

A guest who has choice stress picks the familiar and then stops. A menu with fewer lines and clear categories leads to more orders, not fewer.

7. Collect reviews while it's still enjoyable

This doesn't generate revenue directly, but it does bring the next guest. Ask for a review at the moment the experience is fresh, not by email three days later.

Where the money is in the evening

If you divide an evening into sections, revenue gathers into three blocks, and they're not equally easy to influence.

The first round

This happens automatically. Everyone who sits down orders something. There's little to gain here except speed: the sooner the first drink is served, the sooner the second one comes up.

During the meal

This is where most of the revenue is, and the least room. A guest who is eating orders at their own moment and can't be steered. The only thing that helps is being available at the moment the glass is half empty.

After the main course

This is the block where the difference is made, and where most businesses leave it on the table. The plates are gone, the conversation slows down, and the guest starts weighing up: something more, or shall we ask for the bill. Every minute you delay that decision increases the chance of the first option.

A table that stays seated for another twenty minutes after the main course orders something else in more than half of cases. A table that immediately asks for the bill, never.

What you can measure

What you don't measure doesn't change. These four figures are enough to know whether something works:

1. Average spend per table, per day of the week.
2. Share of tables that have a dessert or coffee.
3. Average time a table is occupied.
4. Number of reviews per week, and the average rating.

If something changes in your business, look at these four after two weeks. If nothing shifts, stop doing it.

What doesn't work

Two things that are often tried and rarely deliver anything. The first is pushing: a guest who has said no twice and is asked a third time doesn't order anyway but is less likely to come back. The second is a promotion that no one sees, such as an offer that's only on a sign by the entrance.

Curious what this costs for your number of tables? That's on the prices page.