Many restaurant owners make the mistake of relying only on their savory and sweet menu items to drive sales and profits.
Because of this reason, they end up ignoring another crucial element on their menu: their beverages.
If you own a restaurant, food truck, or any dining establishment, remember that many customers often dine out to simply sip their favorite beverage. They want to enjoy a cup of freshly roasted coffee or a tall glass of Frappuccino or fruit juice that they can’t get at home.
A lot of customers won’t also hesitate to have their favorite beverages from cafes and dining establishments delivered to their home or office without ordering anything from the food menu.
Since your beverages also play important roles in driving sales and profits, you have to know how to maximize their potentials.
The most trusted beverage distributors in the UAE share below the best tips for boosting the sales of your restaurant’s drink offerings:
One of the latest dining trends that is unlikely to go away in the near future is beverage customization. Take advantage of this and include in your menu beverages that customers can have tailor-made to their liking.
Provide customers the option to customize their drinks. Add a menu of flavor shots they can add to beverages. Honey, caramel syrup, pumpkin spice, and vanilla extracts are excellent add-ons for hot and cold coffee and chocolate.
Recommend these options and other ingredients to your other beverages, including your teas, shakes, mocktails, and cocktails.
Also, instruct your waitstaff to suggest beverage add-ons your diners can choose from to increase your sales.
Plain drinking water is now one of the most popular beverage options. This is because more people are conscious about what they eat and drink.
Use this fact to your advantage and broaden your drinking water options.
Whether you offer free water or not, add drinking water with twists to your menu. Infusing fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables into a glass or pitcher of water is something you can consider.
Another option is to add fruit or herb-flavored ice cubes to a glass of water. This simple tip makes this beverage taste better and less boring.
Make sure you highlight your flavored water options as fresh, organic, and healthy to capture the attention of your diet and health-conscious diners. Also, price these beverages accordingly.
Additionally, sparkling water is another beverage that never goes out of style. Look for San Pellegrino suppliers and sell their products, since this brand is well known globally and a classic favorite.
Younger consumers, especially millennials, are huge fans of seasonal drinks.
A study even showed that many people who love these beverages would order them all year round, if possible.
This trend is something that you should not ignore.
If it’s your first time to offer this type of beverage, stick to established classic flavors. For instance, for fall drinks, go for apple, maple, and pumpkin-flavored options.
Ensure you also add tropical and sparkling cocktails and mocktails to your menu.
Offer all these items all year round to ensure your patrons can satisfy their cravings.
A lot of customers order desserts to cap off their meal, satisfy their sweet tooth, or simply to reward themselves. However, since more and more people are now health conscious, many try to stay away from these menu items.
Additionally, many diners tend to fill up on appetizers and main dishes that they won’t even think of ordering dessert anymore.
You can get more revenue from your beverage menu by combining your sweet courses and beverages to come up with drinkable desserts.
Making drinkable desserts simply means adding or combining desserts or some of their elements to your coffee, tea, and other beverages. Examples of these are apple pie and chocolate pumpkin shakes, fruity black tea smoothies, and bubble tea with cheesecake and pudding.
When created correctly, you can increase your beverage sales since you are offering something sweet and satisfying to your diners at the start of their meal, which will help them avoid feeling overstuffed that they won’t want to order dessert.
Whether you have completely changed your beverage menu or simply updated it, ensure you let people know about your offerings.
Use social media to promote your products. Take photos and videos of your beverages and add text that describes them accurately and will appeal to people.
Post these photos and videos on your social media accounts and they will soon gain interest online. Expect to get inquiries about your posts, too.
Make sure you engage with people who react or comment on your posts.
Additionally, host events where you can highlight your beverages. These events can come as weekly ladies’ night and weekend brunches.
During these events, offer discounts on your beverages to get more sales. If you offer set menus, add a glass or pitcher of your new drink offerings or bestsellers.
If you set the price right for the meals and beverages, you won’t lose any money, even if you serve plenty of drinks during the event.
Moreover, when promoted and managed well, you can ensure these events will attract both your loyal patrons and new customers.
If you want to get more from your drinks, follow these tips. And don’t hesitate to ask your supplier for suggestions, since they can offer recommendations that will allow you to turn your beverages into reliable income-generating products.
Get in touch with us to know more about our beverage offerings.
