More revenue per table: seven methods 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 risky to every business owner. The third is the only one you can influence starting tomorrow.

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

Where the room is

Do the math for your own business. Take the number of tables per evening, and assume that one in three tables orders one extra four-dollar drink. With forty tables, that's over fifty dollars a night, and over fifteen hundred dollars a month. Without changing a single price on the menu.

One extra drink at one in three tables is already more than a thousand dollars a 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 is already mentally done with that drink. Teach your staff to look at half, not empty.

2. Make dessert a choice, not a question

"Would you like dessert?" is easy to answer with no. "We have crème brûlée and chocolate mousse today, 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 fun

The period between clearing the main course and paying 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 discount

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. A free coffee for the winning table costs you fifty cents and gives them a reason to stay another half hour.

6. Make the menu easier, not bigger

A guest with 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 fun

This doesn't directly generate revenue, but it does bring the next guest. Ask for a review 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 there, the sooner the second comes up.

During the meal

This is where most of the revenue is and the least room. A guest who's eating orders on their own timing and won't be steered. The only thing that helps is being available 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 money on the table. The plates are gone, the conversation slows down, and the guest starts weighing: something else, or shall we ask for the bill. Every minute you delay that decision increases the chance of the former.

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

What you can measure

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

1. Average spend per table, per day of the week.
2. Share of tables that order 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, check 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 nobody sees, like an offer only shown on a small sign at the entrance.

Curious what this costs for your number of tables? That's covered at the pricing.