4 tips to help make 2020 the best year ever

2020 is going to be an interesting year for the UK with some huge political changes, leaving the EU and the food sector having to adopt to a changing customer profile.

At App4 we think there is a massive opportunity for food businesses to make 2020 their best year ever, and we don’t think it has to be difficult or expensive.  We have put together 4 simple tips that we think all businesses could easily adopt and should help kick off 2020 on the right track.

1) Minimise your costs

We are encouraged as consumers to hunt around for the best energy prices, car insurance, mortgages and mobile phone deals but do you do this with your business as well? 

Are you on the best phone and broadband deal, when was the last time you changed energy suppliers? Have you reviewed your card terminal fees in the last 12 months? How much are you spending on online orders and food delivery portals?

There are plenty of comparison sites out there for business services and for the sake of 30 minutes, you could be saving yourself £100’s a month.  When it comes to online orders, we think is it time to ditch the commissions, get your own App and keep more of your profits

2) Check your menu and prices

When did you last do a price review? Have you changed your delivery price in line with the increase in fuel prices and insurance? Are some of your products just not selling? Is your menu too big?

We know that increasing your prices can mean reprinting menus or updating your website etc, but the cost of your raw materials, staff, utilities etc, have all gone up, so your prices need to reflect this.

Understanding what products, you do and don’t sell is critical these days, as having a big menu may seem like a good idea, but if you’re only selling 20% of the products then why waste time and money on listing and catering for the rest.  Don’t be afraid to have a smaller takeaway menu than your dine in menu, some dishes just don’t transport very well, and a smaller menu can enable you to maintain a higher standards for delivery times and quality.

3) Start marketing your business smartly

The old tradition is advertising in the local paper, do a menu drop or even have an ad on the local radio! But do they work? How many orders do they generate? How many new customers did you get in the last month from them?  NO IDEA is the usual answer to these questions.

Today you can be smart with your advertising, and track how many people see it, how many engage with it and how many orders it actually generates.  Advertising on Facebook and Instagram can be a great way to reach people local to your business, of the right demographic, and you can clearly see how much it benefits your business.

If you put the same amount of money in to a Facebook and Instagram advert, as it would cost for a half page in your local paper, you could probably reach a similar number of people as the papers readership, but instead of having a 0.00001% response, you could get 100-150 new orders and 50-75 loyal repeat customers.

4) Upsell at the right time

Upselling is a great way to increase your order values but doing it at the right time can make a huge difference to the likelihood of the customer taking something extra.

A recent study done by a well known ice cream company, showed that by offering customers a dessert as an added extra with a Meal Deal or Combo meal, showed that the customer was 72% more likely to purchase the ice cream than if they were offered it separately or with a single item.

The idea is to offer them the right upsell, with the right item, at the right time.  Another example of this is offering your customer chips and a sauce when they are ordering their fish or battered sausage.  By doing this people are more likely to buy a portion of chips and sauce per main, rather than getting one large chips and sauce and sharing it.

These tips may all seem like really obvious things but many business owners are too busy working in the business, that they just don’t have the time to work on it.

At App4 we try to help our clients as much as we can, including looking after all their menu input, price updates, Facebook marketing and setting up new promotions and meal deals.  We charge a flat fee, which is fixed for the life of the contract, and we do not charge any commissions, so you can make some significant savings on your online orders.

For more information on how App4 could help you make 2020 the best year ever call us on 01332 742514 or click here to arrange a call back.