Many restaurant managers anecdotally know when their business is slower or busier and use that knowledge to staff and order food, but what if you could translate those anecdotes into tangible benchmarks and metrics for success? Avero restaurant sales software gives you insight into performance over several like days, weeks, months, seasons, and even years so that you can be prepared for the future.
Here are just a few ways to leverage sales performance information to create a restaurant revenue forecast:
- Look at Weather & Events: Everyone knows that weather and events impact restaurant business, but with Avero you can use data to prove that rain decreases bar business by 20% or Happy Hour increases taco orders by 15%. If that’s the case in your restaurant, you know that if tomorrow is going to be a rainy Wednesday then you need to call in an extra bartender, or if Happy Hour starts at 5:00 p.m. then you need to prep 100 more taco orders than usual before the rush. You can even look at historic Logbook entries for other specific events and read what your managers wrote about what happened on the floor during those events to help you forecast.
- Track Historical Sales: Keep track of what items and what categories of items are selling by which server and when, all the way down to hour of the day, so that you can accurately order food, set a schedule, and predict sales. For example, Avero shows you that Server A consistently sells Cabernet Sauvignon whenever they’re on the floor, so you know to include increased wine sales in your restaurant sales report. Having menu item cost information right next to sales shows you what’s actually profitable for your business, so if you see steak selling more on Mondays compared to any other weekday then you know you don’t have to spend money ordering extra steak throughout the rest of the week.
- Create a Contest: So you’ve figured out which menu items or categories of items aren’t selling, and which items don’t turn around a huge profit. Now you can set up a server incentive contest to push extra sales of those items. Avero can automate that contest and run it on one single item, a whole category of items, or even a basket of items from multiple categories, all through item/cover percentage to make it as fair as possible. Automated emails can deliver regular contest updates directly to restaurant managers. (Avero users have done this to drive exponential revenue in a matter of minutes!)
- Don’t Forget about Seasonality: Restaurant sales forecasting can be thrown off by catering, delivery, patio, and other seasonal factors because they don’t come in on a regular basis. Within Avero, you can assign a specific Meal Period, Revenue Center, or Category to any of these factors to track exactly how they impact your performance.
Let Avero help you unlock the powerful information found inside your restaurant point of sale – learn more and get started today.
