Good afternoon to all you wonderful people. Today’s post is the next one in the pipeline of how to increase tips. This is a tip which before I knew about it didn’t really think it was a gateway for me to increase the money I made because I thought it was something that wasn’t a big deal if it didn’t happen.
Today’s topic on how to increase tips is:
Selling more desserts
There’s more to it than asking your table “Do you want dessert?” after you have cleared their mains away and given them a minute to digest and appreciate their meal. There are a few tactics you can use to help you sell more dessert without sounding like a salesperson or making your guests feel like your pushing them to buy one.
The three points of attack are:
- Get the dessert menu in their hand or on the table
- Offer it to go
- Up-selling on top of a dessert
Get the dessert menu in their hand or on the table
Have you walked into a department store or a supermarket and you’re greeted by an employee who holds out a flyer and tries to hand it to you? This is because if you physically have something in your hand your more likely going to look at it and may see something that you might not have gone into the store to specifically buy, but now your thinking about buying it (it could be because it’s a good price or on sale or you remembered that you have run out of that item and need to grab another).
This works also for dessert at a restaurant. I never find myself asking if a table would like dessert, instead, I like to approach the table and either hand it directly to my guests or rest the menu’s on the center of the table and say:
“I’ll give you a moment to check out our desserts”
Now they may not have wanted dessert but if they have the menu and you haven’t given them a chance to say “no” because you didn’t ask “Do you want dessert?” you have a better chance. Say you’re serving a table of 4 people and 1 of them say they are going to have dessert then the other 3 are more likely to order one.
Offer it to go
If a table says something like “We don’t have time for dessert” you can always offer to give it to them to go while you organize the bill for them. Also if throughout your dealings with your table you hear them talk about someone who couldn’t come because they are at home sick or the kids are at home with the babysitter you can ask if they would like to take something home for them.
Up-selling on top of a dessert
If your table orders dessert at this point you can ask them if they would like to have some tea or coffee to go with it. If it’s a coffee you can also offer a specialty coffee (with a shot of something like Baileys, Frangelico, Kahlua, Brandy, Whisky, Drambuie, Amaretto and a lot more).
As I mentioned, in the beginning, I didn’t think at first that this was a big deal if I didn’t sell dessert to a table, but when you look at the number of tables you serve in a standard shift the dollars add up at the end of your day.
Plus who doesn’t like dessert? 🙂
Thanks and enjoy your day.