Revel Blog

5 Ways Having A Full Bar Can Drive Profits For Your Restaurant

Revel | July 27, 2017 |

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5 Ways Having A Full Bar Can Drive Profits For Your Restaurant

Raise the bar with a full bar. From signature cocktails to classic wine pairings – a full suite of alcoholic beverages can delight your customers and improve your bottom line. But when liquor licenses for restaurants can range anywhere from $12,000 to $400,000, it is important to invest in a Restaurant POS Systems that can drive down operational costs, open up new revenue streams, and help you upsell your customers.

1. Attract New Customers

Attract new customers by advertising the bar as a separate experience to your restaurant. By profiling your current customers through dedicated CRM tools, and outlining where you would like to see your customer base expand – you can market your bar to achieve this growth. If you have trouble attracting young adults to your restaurant, brand your bar to attract this customer group. By highlighting fun, personalized drinks, showcasing a bevy of choices, and promoting specials and happy hours you can attract new customers to your bar and restaurant. And customers are delighted by choice, according to the Alcoholic Beverage DemandTracker, 33% of alcohol drinkers who visit restaurants regularly report that they are more likely to order beer when offered a large selection of beer brands.

2. Retain Existing Customers

The engagement doesn’t have to end when the customers leave. Make sure to get down your customers’ information so you can deploy email marketing and encourage customers to follow your social media pages for special discounts. Enter new followers in a monthly draw, or run competitions with special offers that are only available online. Invest in your customers’ experience by having multiple touch points. Increased communication pays off, a study by Avaya and BT Research found that 82% of consumers were spending more with companies that invested in customer experience.

3. Upsell Customers

We’ve all heard of wine pairings, offering a curated pairing menu is a great way for the customer to experience a new types of wine and for the restaurant to upsell. The same methodology can be used for beer and cocktails. With the advent of culinary focused drinks, consumers are more enthusiastic than ever for traditional and exotic pairings. Update your menu and educate your staff to be able to pair each dish with a delicious wine, beer, or cocktail.

On the flip side, if your customers are coming specifically for happy hour or just for drinks, use this opportunity to upsell them on your food menu items.

4. Combat Slow Times

Happy hours and drink specials are a surefire way to attract customers during your slow times.

With Revel, you can easily group products to be discounted by the same amount across the board (e.g., all beers $2 off) or program alternative prices for individual items during a given window.

5. Profit on Alcohol

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, most restaurants try to make alcohol sales account for around 30 percent of their revenue. And because of strong alcohol sales, often resilient to economic shifts, you can be aggressive in pricing.

Since alcohol sales have higher gross margins than food, you can improve your bottom line with a full bar. Be sure to have an infrastructure in place to control pour costs, and with Ingredient Level Inventory Management, keep an eye on your beverage levels and ensure your staff are pouring accurately.