Menu item placement is PARAMOUNT to upselling items - even when your servers don't know the menu that well (in the case of trainees, etc.)
When a person walks in your restaurant, they already know what they'd like to eat because they've been there before and liked a specific dish, or because you're offering a special on something that they like from somewhere else.
But, when they receive their menu, it's going to TELL them what they want! - And it's all due to placement, font, color, etc.
The first 2 and last item in any given category should be your highest profit items, because most people will remember the first 2 and last one. Also, (going into psychology) the first place a person looks when they open up a menu, is on the right-hand page, about half way down...this is the 'Hot Spot' for items that you really want to sell!
Another thing to note which is probably the most common problem with menus - is drawing a line out to a price, keeping them all in margin, allowing the customer to 'price shop' - even though they want a BLT, they'll get a grilled cheese because you've made it easy to see that it's a buck fifty less!
Make your menus easy to read, centered and simple fonts with easy-on-the-eyes colors. Also ensure that there are no grammar or spelling mistakes!
All this is *not* to say that training isn't necessary - this information should be in addition to proper training!
And, of course, when raising prices just isn't an option, decreasing portion sizes of some things, even by only a quarter ounce on sandwich meats or simply less spring mix in your salads, can help to reduce the profit-gobbling cost increases that we're all experiencing...as long as it's not a noticeable decrease in any portion, your customers won't even know. I got this idea because of our local bread company - instead of increasing their prices, they began either slicing their bread a little thinner and/or decreasing how many slices we receive in a loaf - this keeps them from raising their prices without actually sacrificing quality.
You can always decrease the quality of your food, or replace fresh-made ingredients with already-prepared ingredients, but I absolutely *refuse* to do so (they're MY degrees on the wall!), so the only alternative for me is to slightly decrease how many french fries we put on each plate, decrease our sandwich meats from 5.5oz to 5.25oz, etc. - leaving all of our steaks/seafood/etc. alone (because sometimes even a 1/4oz is not only noticeable, it's purely wrong to advertize a 12oz Ribeye and only cook an 11.5oz Ribeye (obviously pre-cooked weight)
Anyway, that's my input. I do want you all to know that my restaurant is struggling just as much as everyone elses - especially all the mom-and-pops out there...I believe that this too will pass, and maybe we can get on with our lives and run successful businesses in the near future!
Psychlone
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