Good waiters and waitresses work hard to upsell dine-in customers - to gently suggest they add items to their order, whether it’s a side of sautéed mushrooms with their filet mignon or an order of breadsticks with their pizza.

Does this same upselling occur with phone-in orders?  Probably not.

Why?  The employee taking the order is multi-tasking three other jobs simultaneously and the customer placing the order is more concerned that the employee get it right, rather than add more items.

NetWaiter, however, guarantees each customer ordering online from your restaurant will be properly upsold, netting larger orders and greater profits. This upselling happens in two phases.  The best thing – both are done in an unobtrusive way to generate larger orders, without slowing down the customer’s ordering process.

The first phase allows a customer to select additional options while customizing an item.  This can be done with any item.  If someone is ordering a sandwich, you may need to ask which type of bread they want (along with their topping choices).  You can also upsell the sandwich with additional suggestions, such as adding “Extra Turkey” for $1.50 or a “Bag of Chips” for $1.25.

The second phase tracks which categories a customer has ordered from and prompts them to add items from categories that haven’t been selected.  NetWaiter highlights the three or four most popular items from a suggested category and allows a customer to make a selection after adding any item to their order.  The specific categories are set based on a hierarchy configured by the restaurant. 

As mentioned in a recent blog post, appetizers, desserts, and beverages are the most overlooked items for takeout.  The hierarchy of categories for upselling can be set with this in mind.  You should set appetizers and desserts towards the top of the hierarchy.  Other categories at the top should include those with high profit-margin items and items with price points that make them an easy add-on to any order. 

The next time you update your online menu, make sure the categories in your upselling hierarchy are optimized to maximize online sales.  If needed, a NetWaiter Success Specialist can help you with your configurations.

Ask any independent restaurateur what brings in the most new customers and they will likely tell you word-of-mouth.  People telling other people about your restaurant, by most estimates, brings in seven to eight out of every ten customers.

What they don’t say, because many haven’t thought about it, is that word-of-mouth conversations don’t just start out of thin air.  They happen because of the things you do to wow customers and catch their attention.  You have to give them something to talk about.  Here are a few examples:

Special Events – We know a Spanish restaurant that regularly holds special events focusing on specific aspects of their cuisine – tamale making, menudo sampling, etc.  The events normally have a nominal charge.  For instance, their tequila tastings are $30/person and they are regularly sold out.  The word-of-mouth these events create is priceless.

Team Sponsorships – Is sponsoring a local Little League team worth it?  You only reach maybe a dozen or so families?  Think again.  You’re reaching many more when you consider the larger organization includes hundreds of kids and their families – all in your area.

Outstanding Online Ordering – Yep, that’s another word-of-mouth builder.  With NetWaiter, the simple act of using Facebook when ordering online can help generate word-of-mouth activity for your restaurant.  After logging in with their Facebook account on NetWaiter, the customer’s friends are automatically notified (with permission) that they just ordered from your restaurant.  The average number of friends someone has on Facebook is now 338.  If only 10 people used Facebook to login, an additional 3,380 people could potentially learn about your restaurant (and even click to place an order for themselves).

Word-of-mouth is not a random thing that happens.  What are you doing at your restaurant to spark a conversation?