Concepts for Success: 4 Ways to increase revenue

Autumn means big business from teachers, students, and their families. As a bakery restaurant operator, you should take advantage of all these extra potential customers and reach out to moms with kids. So, let’s start thinking beyond how you typically sell — one client buying either one item or a box of baked goods.  There are higher purchasing habits for households with children and kids. 

Families with children and teens represent a lucrative demographic market. Children influence many parents’ choices of food products. Almost 60 per cent of parents buying snacks for their children say they are more likely to purchase snacks their children approve of. These families will choose to eat carefully to make their kids comfortable and avoid any troubles. With less time to cook and more time dedicated to a busy schedule, parents look for simple lunch or dinner solutions. 

Read on to get some fresh ideas about how you can create more traffic and inspire families with children to come to your bakery restaurant more frequently. Here are five ways to increase your revenue by making your bakery more family-friendly. 

1. Provide a warm welcome to your customers

I know that one of the first things that a family entering your bakery will notice is how your staff members welcome them. You must ask your team members to provide them with a warm welcome. A bright smile from your employee will be crucial in determining whether they will feel welcome and whether they will stay with their children. You should always make your customers feel comfortable and relaxed the moment they walk inside your bakery. 

2. Develop a child-friendly menu

Your menu should accommodate all members of the family, especially the children. A kids’ menu doesn’t have to be an afterthought. Small children have tendencies to be picky eaters, but remember that a child’s palette isn’t as sophisticated as an adult’s. Keep it simple. Generally, kids love meals explicitly catered to them, but remember to have child-size portions. You need to attract the parents’ attention by offering their children menus that are healthy, balanced, colourful, and presented in an original way. If parents see that the food you serve is both nutritious and attractive to their children, it’s a win-win. Animal- or flower-shaped pasta, chicken nuggets with colourful fruits or veggies, or mini pizzas will make it more exciting. Your team members should always be professional, fun and committed to providing children with nutritious and colourful meals as well as snacks.  

You can either add a children’s section to your menu or create an entirely separate children’s menu printed on the placemat or as a stand-alone folded menu. No matter what you choose, just remember that children love to play and you should have fun with your menu. Consider using creative and excellent names for each menu item, and use bright and cheerful colours. You may want to incorporate cartoon characters or colourful images of menu items so that your children have an easier time deciding. 

For additional revenue, you should consider selling ‘Bake At Home’ kits where parents could buy cookies, cinnamon rolls, or donuts by the dozen that they could take home and bake themselves. You could also sell ‘Decorating In A Box’ kits where they could buy a dozen muffins complete with icings and sprinkles that they could all do at home with their children.

Make it a parent’s day out and create a lunch special for parents to enjoy a little quiet time once the kids are back in school, or offer a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) lunch special for parents to enjoy a light lunch or dinner out together without the kids.

3. Shrink your portion and offer different portion sizes

As you know, the trend of minimalism has entered the food world too, and the high-end bakeries have started considering smaller portions. Customers and travelers coming to restaurants today prefer to taste different variety of food rather than just filling up their stomachs. Just remember that ‘small is elegant.’ Try to offer different sizes like Small, Regular and Large, for your most popular dishes. You could also make mini versions of your bestsellers.

As you know, bite-sized food products have become very popular, so don’t miss out on selling a 4-quarter, 4-ingredient finger sandwich, or a half-sandwich, or a tiny piece of cake. If your customers can buy a slice that is small enough for them to eat it, you will make them happy. The concept of a limited portion will certainly leave a long-lasting impression in your customer’s mind.

You should always offer take-away family-style meals specials during the autumn season and promote the time-saving convenience.

4. Offer fun activities and give out balloons

Perhaps you could create a calendar of events specifically for kids. You should schedule events to win over children.

Diane Chiasson, FCSI, president of Chiasson Consultants Inc., has been helping foodservice, hospitality and retail operators increase sales for over 35 years by providing innovative and revenue-increasing food service and retail merchandising programs, interior design, branding, menu engineering, marketing and promotional campaigns. Contact her at 416-926-1338, toll-free at 1-888-926-6655 or chiasson@chiassonconsultlants.com , or visit www.chiassonconsultants.com