Suggestive Selling

[Source: http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/954587/top-10-restaurant-dos-and-donts]

Do you know that 70% of the customers do not know what they will order when they come to the restaurant? Therefore, the restaurant servers play an important role to help the guests to make the choices as well as to help boosting up the sales for the restaurant. Let’s know more about what will the restaurant servers do to achieves the above tasks in the following article!

​​Suggestive selling, also known as 'add-on selling', is a sales technique where the employee recommends a product to clients according to their needs and preferences and further encourages an additional purchase with the recommended items. The goal behind suggestive selling is to increase the purchase amount of customers and boost business sales and profit so it has been an important sales technique in retail industry, especially in the restaurant business.

[Source: https://www.mimeo.com/blog/tips-in-teaching-suggestive-selling/]

Suggestive selling is different from high pressure sales in which staff pressure customers into buying more. Instead, it is a non-threatening suggestion driven approach. In restaurant, servers have to undergo training so as to turn their roles to sellers or customer consultants. The servers should have the fully understanding of the restaurant menu and the detail of the food offered in order to help customers in menu selection based on personal attention to the guests.

[Source: http://www.superiorequipmentsupplies.com/restaurant-staff-wear-uniforms/]

Benefits

This sales technique results in a win-win situation as both customers and the restaurants can gain benefits. For customers, when they are open to the salesperson’s suggestion, they actually save much time and effort to make decisions. Also, as servers offer suggestion based on customer personal preference, customers may appreciate this kind of personal attention and gain satisfaction. With suggestive selling, it would be easier for customers to be pleased with their dining experience. On the other hand, suggestive selling provides an efficient way for the restaurants to boost sales because the time and cost involved in encouraging customer to place additional order is less than the cost of making the original sale. Moreover, as suggestive selling encourages servers to offer extra attention to customers, this would thus help raising customer retention, which forms the base of customer loyalty as well as repeated business in the future.

[Source: https://careertrend.com/about-6579784-head-waiter-job-description.html]

Major Techniques

1. Personalized Suggestions

Different customers may have different needs and preferences, making tailored suggestions that can cater their specific needs and demands may satisfy them. A personalized advice can make the customers feel warm and think that the server can provide customized care and service to them. This may make the suggestions more convincing and can better meet the customers’ demands. Although the servers may not exactly know the customers’ likes and dislikes, they can communicate more and chat with them in a casual way to know more about the customers’ wants. The restaurant may also segment the customers into different groups based on their age, gender or any other demographic factors. The server may provide corresponding recommendations to each segmentation. For example, the server can recommend a suitable wine for the specific dish. Thus, a customized suggestion may better satisfy the customers.

[Source: https://www.successperformancesolutions.com/employment-tests/industry-specific-tests/employment-tests-for-hospitality/]

2. Use of technologies

A tablet with a good POS system can reduce the handling time of each server and increase the efficiency of suggestive selling. POS can display all the menu items and can be used to track the charges of food & beverages. A fast and user-friendly system with an organized view of the menu can not only assist the servers with their operations, but also help them familiarize with the menu and provide better suggestions to customers. When the server is familiar with the menu, they can be more confident to recommend and give suggestions to guests. Conversely, if they forget or any important information about the, they can check with the POS system on their tablets. Therefore, restaurant should utilize technology in the operation.

[Source: http://rmagazine.com/why-restaurant-businesses-are-switching-to-tablet-based-pos-systems/]

3. Customer-Focused Employee

Customer happiness and employee helpfulness should come first when hiring and training staff. When servers interact with customers, they should show their willingness to help by some simple yet crucial gestures, for example, smiling. Refer to a survey done by National Restaurant Association, 95% of the customers believe that good service is key for choosing a table service restaurant. It reveals how employee’s interaction with customers affect their experience in a restaurant. Therefore, it is important for managers to employ the suitable people to serve, and sufficient trainings should be provided for them before work.

[Source: https://www.australieinfo.cz/prace-v-australii]

4. High-Profit Items

The menu items that help raise a restaurant’s revenue are not necessarily the most expensive ones, but those bring in the highest profits. The servers should know clearly about the cost and selling price of each menu item, as to determine which items are the profit drivers, thereby focusing on those when making suggestions to customers. Some of the expensive dishes, may be highly priced because of its noble ingredients or the complicated procedures involved. If servers make suggestions to customers solely according to the prices, by no means can the restaurant gain much from suggestive selling. Therefore, it is crucial for servers to acknowledge which items they should be pushing, and managers should brief the servers beforehand and make sure they know about it.

[Source: http://foreignpolicy.design/portfolio/branding/table-no-1/]

---

Learning Reflection

Sometimes when we take up a part-time job as a server in a restaurant, we often think that successful suggestive selling could only benefit customers and the company itself. Yet, as a server, when customers adopt our suggestions, this is a kind of appraisal towards our soft skills such as communication and presentation skills. We may gain a sense of recognition, thereby giving us satisfactions and work enjoyments. All in all, not only could suggestive selling be beneficial to the company as well as customers , but also employees themselves, which are the crucial elements in a restaurant.

[Source: http://www.bachelordegreefacts.com/the-best-jobs-for-college-students/]

---

References

[1] 6 Tips in Teaching Suggestive Selling to Your Retail Team. (2016, June 14). Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://www.mimeo.com/blog/tips-in-teaching-suggestive-selling/

[2] Testa, G. (n.d.). 3 Suggestive Selling Techniques for Restaurant Servers & Cashiers. Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/restaurant-suggestive-selling-techniques

[3] Ujwal D. Suggestive Selling Techniques That Deliver Amazing Results. Buzzle. (2016, Aug 25). Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://www.buzzle.com/articles/suggestive-selling-techniques.html

#restaurant #suggestiveselling