With a whopping 45% of Americans eating out twice a week and 40% treating restaurants as part of their lifestyle according to recent restaurant industry statistics, many restaurant owners are looking to maximize this trend and increase overall profits.
The pandemic of 2020 had some serious consequences for the hospitality industry, but the encouraging news is that profits from the restaurant industry are set to rise by 15% as restrictions are lifted according to experts.
So for those who own a restaurant, how do you increase customer spend to enjoy the best rewards, and more importantly how do you serve lots of wine?
Let’s start with the mini takeaway so you can get organized straight away and make this year, the year of great wine sales!
How to serve lots of wine at a restaurant? To serve more wine. It’s essential to understand your target market and have a marketing plan. Knowledgeable waiters will make suggestions a customer may not have thought of. Use larger glasses and buy state-of-the-art wine dispensers so customers can serve themselves.
Ok so with the summary in mind, before we can understand more fully about how your restaurant can increase its wine sales, let’s start straight away and find out how to serve lots of wine at a restaurant!
Marketing plan
One of the first things to get underway is a stellar marketing plan for your restaurant. In order to ‘serve’ more of anything, it relies on a watertight marketing plan if you are looking to sell more of any product whether it’s wine or more covers.
Know your customer
In order to serve more wine to your customers, first and foremost it’s vital you know who your customers are and who your target market is.
For instance, are you trying to attract the big wine spending baby boomers who consumed 34.9 percent of wine in 2020 – according to recent studies.
Maybe you’re trying to get the interest of up-and-coming millennials who enjoyed 20 percent of the market share in the same year.
Whichever customer your restaurant targets, keep your promotions and advertising messages fresh and relevant.
If however, you’d rather outsource your marketing in order to sell more wine, then read on.
“In order to serve more wine to your customers, first and foremost it’s vital you know who your customers are and who your target market is.”
Restaurant marketing agencies
With the explosion of internet traffic, apps, social sharing, and other ways of drumming up business, if you are looking for companies who understand the restaurant business, then there are some around who are perfectly placed to help you serve not only more wine, but more of your whole offering.
Restaurant agencies can:
- Create expansive press campaigns
- Design dynamic and interesting content,
- Build direct relationships with local customers
- Develop a digital marketing strategy
Here are a few to get you started:
Now that we understand that in order to serve more wine restaurants need to be on top of their game with marketing strategies.
let’s turn our attention to how to serve your customers more wine when they have come through the doors!
Give your guests some time
Although some of your customers will be regulars, some may be newbies so rather than pouncing on them as soon as they hit the seat, give them some time to get the measure of your place.
This will not only make sure they don’t just order a more familiar lower-priced wine and will give them a better chance of studying your wine menu.
Letting them relax and become more familiar with their surroundings will help them to feel more comfortable and more likely to investigate the menu more fully instead of making the usual 2nd on the list’ obvious choice.
Knowledgeable waiters
It’s a fine line between waiters who blow the minds of customers making them feel less than inadequate, and having a friendly knowledgeable waiter!
A good waiter is always going to serve more wine. He might gently point the customer to a dessert wine they may not have thought of or if it’s a celebration he may suggest a good prosecco champagne to kick the evening off with a sparkle.
Make sure your staff have a thorough knowledge of food and wine pairings and keep them up to speed with any promotions or ‘wines of the week’.
“A good waiter is always going to serve more wine. He might gently point the customer to a dessert wine they may not have thought of”
Sell wine by the glass
According to industry experts restaurantowner.com, most people prefer wine by the glass.
This complements perfectly the fact that selling wine by the glass is the best way of increasing profit margins and encouraging the serving of more wine in your restaurant.
According to other experts, a good wind by the glass delivery will often lead to more BTB sales (by the bottle).
This leads us on smartly to the size of the glass. Did you know glass size has become the new kid on the block in the quest for serving lots more wine in your restaurant?
Use larger glasses
Interesting new research has uncovered that people buy more wine if it’s served in larger glasses.
Bigger wine glasses in restaurants make us drink more alcohol, according to a UK government-backed study undertaken by researchers at Cambridge University.
Interestingly, it was found the volume of wine sold in restaurants in England was found to be seven percent more when larger 370ml / 13oz glasses were used, as compared with the smaller 300ml / 10oz glasses.
The reason for this could be that the size of the glass slightly distorts the customer’s perception of a ‘reasonable’ sized glass of wine, according to scientists.
“Bigger wine glasses in restaurants make us drink more alcohol”
Use a wine dispenser
A wine dispenser can help to improve how much wine is served in your restaurant, by allowing a better selection of wine!
Customers can be trying out new wines or their favorites and every guest can have their own selection to enjoy during the dining experience!
These fabulous wine dispensers work with a smart card where each waiter can manage his table directly.
For the best in wine dispensers, the Enoline ELITE 8-bottle wine dispenser is a fabulous state-of-the-art unit with all the latest technology in a jaw-dropping stainless-steel design!
It will preserve opened bottles of wine for over 30 days, cutting down on wine wastage which can be a very real money pit for those who want to serve lots of wine in a restaurant.
It miraculously serves white, red, and rose at the perfect temperature too!
It’s recently been given a brand new look and comes with a raft of new enhanced features such as glass protected touch screens, drain-free refrigeration system, pneumatic pistons to lift the bottles, and importantly POS integration.
“A wine dispenser can help to improve how much wine is served in your restaurant, by allowing a better selection of wine!”
And finally…
We hope this has given you some ways of significantly increasing how much wine you serve in your restaurant.
If you would like any information on our wine preservation and serving systems, get in touch with our friendly and expert staff to book a virtual demo and see how Enomatic wine servers can help your restaurant serve more wine.
