Can you effectively increase bar sales?
A question that many pubs and bars askHow can you effectively increase bar sales? A question that many failing pubs and bars ask themselves. In fact bars and pubs are like any business in that when sales and profits start to dip you have to look around you to see where you can increase existing trade and where you can encourage new customers to increase sales. It may seem daunting but with some thought and good organisation you can easily increase bar sales to benefit your business. It’s not vital to have an EPoS system to set up or manage these ideas but it can help especially with encouraging staff and customers to embrace the changes involved.
Join an organisation that can help boost your marketing and can draw drinkers in with their recognised affiliation schemes such as Cask Marque or CAMRA. People recognise the marketing from these well known bodies and so are assured that your pub can offer some really excellent beers and could also draw in more customers.
You could organise a local beer festival or a food and beer matching event to tempt more sales of beers and food to increase bar sales. Your EPoS till can manage these offers quite easily with prompts for staff on the sales screen or by grouping mix and match items so they are sold at a set price on the till. You can even track the items on reports to see how successful certain promotions have been.
Adding more value to your bar menu can also help sell more effectively – have a look at any chain pub bar and they will have pie and pint special offers or a burger and a drink promotional items on menus. Even as a small trader you can use some of these effective ideas to increase sales and encourage more customers. Often these meals are smaller supper portions or tea time treats but the customer still feels as if they are getting a bargain. An EPoS till can show on the sales screen the options with each meal so making sure staff only sell what drinks are offered on promotional menus.
Another way to increase bar sales is to have special events year round so you may have a summer BBQ event with special meals and drinks deals. Or why not encourage a local charity event where a raffle or auction can be used to raise funds? Whilst you are thinking of events think of encouraging people to book before the event – make sure you take a deposit upfront this allows you to plan and have some money in the till before the event. Christmas is a great pre-plan opportunity – with special events or meals and party nights or even race nights. Taking deposits and final payments from people is easily handled by most EPoS systems these days and will ensure customers come back to you and not shop around looking for last minute nights out.
Beer Festival
Music Nights
Special Offers
Meal Deals
Customer loyalty is always a way to keep sales bobbing along – train all your staff to be polite and pleasant, give out cards with a loyalty incentive like get 1 pint free after buying 10 (recorded on a card). Give out Christmas cards with a discount or free offer to be taken in the New Year (when trade always seems to drop off). Again a loyalty scheme can be as simple as a card that gets stamped or it can involve a plastic loyalty card that is used with the EPoS till to manage marketing and offers to specific customers.
So to come back to the question – how can you effectively increase bar sales? Take a few hours out of your business (I know it’s not that easy) and look at what other businesses are doing and adapt to your pub or bar. Ask staff for ideas and run a reward scheme for positive input from staff – because lets face it they are at the sharp end and you need them online to make it work, too. Take a few ideas and expand on them as the success grows and if you need help ask your EPoS expert how the till can work to increase bar sales for you.
