The financial health of your restaurant depends on a variety of restaurant metrics, with the average spend per customer being a crucial one. While the industry average for this metric differs based on geography and restaurant type, focusing on strategies to increase average spend per customer can significantly impact your bottom line.
Every time a guest leaves without dessert, a beverage, or a side dish, you’re leaving money on the table. The average restaurant can miss out on 10–20% of potential revenue per cover because they don’t use upselling techniques.
Industry observers suggest that even a modest 1% lift in average check size can improve restaurant margins. That’s because these incremental gains compound across hundreds or thousands of covers.
In this article, we’ll explore effective strategies to increase average spend per customer in your restaurant, ultimately boosting profitability without sounding pushy or transactional.
What is average spend per customer in a restaurant?
Average guest spend, known as average spend per head, is a simple yet crucial restaurant metric. It’s closely related to the average check size metric.
Average spend per customer is the total revenue divided by the total number of covers in a given period.
Here’s what the formula looks like:
Average Spend = Total Revenue ÷ Total Number of Covers
The result gives you a clear picture of how much each customer contributes to your overall sales.
For example, if you make $1,000 in revenue from 50 guests in a single day, your average spend is $20. By focusing on strategies to increase average spend, you can boost profitability, without the need to attract more guests.
Now imagine increasing that by just $5 per cover. That’s:
+$250 extra per night (at 50 covers)
+$7,800 per month (30 nights)
+$91,000 per year
The impact is massive, without adding more guests or tables.
Research shows fine dining guests in the US can spend between $50 and $1,000 per visit. The figure varies depending on the location, use of rare or premium ingredients, and if wine pairings are involved.
Why average spend per customer metric matters for restaurants
This metric is the difference between making a profit and breaking even. It can determine whether a guest is profitable or simply covers your costs.
If the guest is profitable, this metric can unlock higher profit margins for your restaurant.
Boosts the bottom line: A small increase in what each customer spends goes directly to your restaurant's profit. This allows you to generate more revenue from the same number of guests and improve your return on existing costs like rent and labor.
Improves operational efficiency: By focusing on increasing the value of each table, you can eliminate front-of-house (FOH) bottlenecks. This allows you to serve the same number of customers more profitably without needing to speed up service or attract more foot traffic.
Enhances guest experiences and retention: Upselling isn't just about money. It's about making thoughtful suggestions that elevate the dining experience. Recommending a perfect wine pairing or a popular side dish can make a meal more memorable, which encourages repeat visits and builds customer loyalty for your restaurant.
Practical strategies for increasing average spend per customer in F&B
Staff-driven strategies: Team training for smart upselling
Your front-of-house team is your best asset for boosting revenue. When done naturally, upselling increases your customer’s average spend and total check.
Research suggests that active upselling, without sounding pushy, can increase average basket size or the total check by 19%.
That’s why you need to train your staff to:
Recommend add-ons: Waiters or hosts can make recommendations for popular pairings, desserts, side dishes, or premium beverages that complement a guest's order.
Master timing and phrasing: Teach staff to suggest items at the right moment. For example, instead of asking "Do you want anything else?", they can say, "Would you like to start with our house-favorite calamari?" or "The chef's special risotto pairs perfectly with a glass of Pinot Grigio."
Menu engineering tactics for higher spend
Part of boosting your profit margin is having an effective menu. While it may sound counterintuitive, optimizing your menu to highlight your top-selling dishes and items helps you increase profitability and guest spend.
Here are a few tips:
Use placement and psychology: Use menu engineering to place your most profitable items in high-visibility areas, such as the top-right corner or in a prominent box. Do the same for add-ons so guests can customize their dishes easily. Research suggests that using a single high-quality photo per item can increase sales of that item by up to 30%.
Offer bundles: Create meal bundles or combos that feel like a great value to the customer but actually increase the average spend. For example, a "Family Meal Deal" that includes an entree, sides, and drinks can increase a group's total spend while providing a sense of value.
Boost beverage sales
Beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, are a goldmine for increasing a restaurant’s profit.
Beverages often yield profit margins of 70–80%, compared to 25–35% for food.
Here’s what you can do:
Pairing and promotion: Train staff to suggest beverage pairings for meals, such as wine with a steak or a specific craft beer with a burger. If you don’t offer alcoholic drinks, staff can recommend special signature beverages that go well with dishes ordered.
High-margin beverages: Highlight profitable upsells like signature cocktails, seasonal mocktails, or coffees and teas.
Use CRM data: Review previous buyer behavior and let staff make recommendations based on this behavior, especially regarding beverages.
Boost Dessert sales
Desserts offer a final, high-margin opportunity to increase guest spend.
Verbal descriptions: Instead of handing over a menu, have servers verbally describe a few desserts. An authentic, enticing description often works better than a written one.
Visual prompts: Use a dessert cart or display case to visually entice guests.
Make sure you also add visually appealing images of your desserts to your menu. This can entice guests to consider having a dessert while they are still ordering their main course.
Boost guest spend with loyalty programs
A well-designed restaurant loyalty program not only encourages repeat visits, but also higher spending.
Make sure you have a clear points system and highlight the benefits customers get when joining your loyalty program.
Here are a few ideas:
Use a tiered-rewards system: Create tiers that incentivize guests to spend more to get better rewards. For example, "reach $200 in a month and get a free appetizer."
Points for spend: Offer a point system where a certain number of points can be redeemed for a specific item, encouraging guests to add an extra dish to reach a new point threshold.
Offer a birthday reward: Let your guests look forward to their birthday gift or voucher when their birthday is around the corner. This can be a 25% off everything voucher, with a discount cap, or a freebie. For example, “Celebrate your birthday with a free dessert.” Or “Grab your friends for a delightful birthday at [restaurant name] and get 25% off everything. Capped at $50/AED 100.
Further reading: From First-Timer to Regular: A Loyalty Playbook for Restaurants
Add a prix-fixe menu
A prix-fixe, or fixed-price, menu is an effective way to increase average customer spend while offering guests a sense of value.
This method simplifies the ordering process and guarantees a minimum spend per customer, making it ideal for special occasions or holidays.
These menus often include multiple courses or combinations, such as desserts and beverages, or appetizers, salads, and drinks, with or without a main course. For instance, guests can choose their main course and benefit from a discounted prix-fixe menu, encouraging them to spend more than they might on individual items.
Drive spend with data and tech
Using a modern restaurant tech stack can help you automate tasks and personalize your marketing and upselling efforts.
Your restaurant’s CRM software is central to achieving growth and taking your personalization to a whole new level.
Digital menus: Digital menus can prompt guests to add sides or drinks as they order.
Restaurant POS: A smart restaurant point-of-sale (POS) system can suggest profitable upsells to staff based on a customer's previous orders. That’s why we recommend using F&B-focused POS systems.
Data and CRM: Platforms like Servme help you build a robust restaurant CRM with detailed guest profiles so you can personalize the experience. You can use a guest's order history and preferences from your CRM to send personalized promotions.
Reporting: Restaurants using table and seating management software like Servme can generate a host of reports to enhance profitability and upselling efforts. For example, Servme provides you with a host of restaurant reports, including the daily sales report, top clients report, guest live spend report, among others.
Further reading: How Personalization Begins with Restaurant CRM Software [Checklist]
Mistakes to Avoid When Upselling
Besides the tips for increasing average spend per customer, you also need to know the don’ts. These can hurt your restaurant’s reputation and drive people away.
Here are the 3 most common mistakes that can sabotage your efforts and hard work:
Aggressive upselling
The most common mistake is being too pushy. Aggressive upselling can make guests feel pressured and uncomfortable, leading to a negative experience. Or worse a negative review of your restaurant.
It’s similar to salespeople in retail, who are constantly hovering while you’re trying to shop peacefully.
Instead of boosting spend, it can damage your brand reputation and discourage guests from returning. The goal is to make natural, authentic suggestions that genuinely enhance the guest’s meal, not to force an item on them.
Ignoring staff training and feedback
The success of your upselling techniques relies on well-trained staff.
Without proper training, staff might not know the menu well enough to make recommendations. Furthermore, ignoring guest feedback on upselling tactics means you can't improve your approach.
Pay attention to what guests are saying, whether through online reviews or direct comments to your guest surveys, to refine your strategies.
Relying solely on discounts instead of value
While discounts can attract customers, they can also devalue your product in the long run. Relying too heavily on price cuts to encourage higher spending is a mistake.
Discounts are effective for discount seekers but they are not good for long-term retention.
A better approach is to focus on adding value. Instead of offering a cheap dessert, suggest a premium one that feels worth the price. Or combine it with a beverage that improves your offering.
This builds a perception of quality and helps maintain your profit margins.
Further reading: How to Reply to Positive & Negative Restaurant Reviews [with Templates]
Boost Spend Without Being Pushy
Boosting spend in your restaurant relies on smart upselling and cross-selling strategies and team training. It should blend an exceptional guest experience with insightful data.
Remember, even small increases can have a profound impact on your profitability. A modest $5 increase in average spend per customer, multiplied across 2,000 monthly diners, can tally up to $10,000 per month, or $120,000 annually. That’s the power of compounding.
Ready to optimize your operations and increase guest spend? See how Servme helps.
Nada Sobhi
Marketing
