4 Ways to Increase Your Restaurant Lunch Sales

The one constant in life is change, which extends to the restaurant industry. If your lunch sales are steadily declining, it’s a clear sign something is shifting, whether it be consumer behavior or new competition. 

Poor lunch sales take a big hit on restaurant profits. Therefore, finding a solution is essential for success and survival, especially when competition is fierce. 

Consider that most of the costs associated with preparing for the dinner rush in full-service restaurants happen during the daytime. Labor costs are spent throughout the day to ensure a successful dinner sift, but a valuable opportunity is missed. Since rent and utilities must be paid regardless of revenue, generating enough income to cover daytime expenses can significantly boost the profits of the following shift. 

However, this is easier said than done. COVID-19 affected lunchtime sales as work from home became the new normal. Toast’s 2023 Restaurant Trends Report shows lunch sales are improving but still haven’t fully recovered in larger commuter areas. 

It can be argued that lunch sales may never be the same post-pandemic due to various factors such as remote working and increased dining costs. However, takeout and delivery increased by 7% and 2%, respectively, since 2019, thus opening the doors to new revenue streams. 

So, how do local businesses use this information to increase restaurant sales now and for the foreseeable future? This guide will cover easy ways to embrace market trends and use them to your advantage by perfecting lunch menus, using innovative technology, and more.

Know Your Lunch Customers

It’s important to know who you’re serving at lunchtime. A customer or buyer persona is a profile of your most common customer. Create an overview using questions such as:

• Are they business people who only have an hour for lunch, meaning you must get them in and out of your restaurant within 30-45 minutes? 

• Are they stay-at-home parents looking for a longer, more social dining experience? 

• Are they millennials on a limited budget and looking for speed in a social environment?

When you first open a restaurant, you should know who your target audience is. This is key to knowing who you’re marketing for regarding menu items, atmosphere, cost, etc. You’ll miss out on a loyal consumer base without this valuable insight. 

By focusing on what people expect from your restaurant, you can market your business effectively and sustain financial success with repeat customers. With this strong foundation to rely on, you can take risks breaking into new markets later on while remaining committed to your target audience. 

Perfect Lunch Menus

Menus are the perfect opportunity to get creative and make your restaurant stand out. However, you must consider recent trends when designing your lunch specials. Lunch checks have increased by about 46% in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2019, so being cost-effective is important going forward. 

To have a leg up over the competition, price your menu accordingly to ensure you still make a good profit while attracting more customers. 

With price aside, we can’t forget about the food and drink. Toast’s Q2 Restaurant Trends Report looked at same-store sales in quick-service restaurants to understand which menu items rose or fell in popularity. Here’s what we found: 

Most expensive food items: Burgers, bowls, and noodles/ramen.

Cheapest menu items: Tacos, fries, and hot dogs.

Largest price increase (Q2 2024 vs. Q2 2023):

• Tacos (+5.9%)

• Sandwiches/wraps (+4.6%)

• Burgers (+4.6%)

• Bowls (+4.6%)

Smallest price increases (Q2 2024 vs. Q2 2023):

• Hot dogs (1.9%)

• Salads (+2.7%)

• Dumplings (+3.8%)

Sales trends (Q2 2024 vs. Q2 2023)

• Hot dog sales decreased by 9%

• Sales of bowls, chicken tenders, and burritos increased by 1%

Keeping up with recent trends lets you gauge what customers want on their menu and how much to charge. Even with more people working from home nowadays, these insights should be applied to online lunch menus, too. 

Having said this, it’s still important to focus on what makes your restaurant stand out in terms of lunch hours or what seasonal lunch special to attract people. 

Other considerations to make when designing a lunch restaurant menu include: 

• Speed: Most employees have only an hour to spare at lunch, so you have to act fast. If your fast-casual restaurant has wait times longer than 10 minutes, create a menu optimized for speed.

• Dietary restrictions: Dietary restrictions are becoming more common, with today’s diners looking for vegan, gluten-free, or low-carb options. It’s paramount that you label menu items accordingly and answer dietary questions with confidence. 

• Portions: Smaller portions help increase sales and accommodate those counting calories or having little time to spare on a larger lunch. You save ingredients, decrease waste, and customers leave feeling satisfied instead of uncomfortably full. 

Many restaurants overlook the lunch menu in favor of the breakfast or dinner menu, which reduces sales and leaves customers disappointed on their lunch breaks. Friday is particularly busy for lunch, so take advantage and create a solid lunch menu to start the weekend off right!

Deliver Exceptional Customer Service

In today’s competitive landscape, restaurant owners need to do more than deliver good, affordable food to their target audience. To make the experience memorable (in a good way), train staff to provide positive customer service every time. 

How is this done? The most important thing is to be attentive to their needs without being overbearing. If a restaurant is understaffed, lunch rushes even if most orders are takeout, wait times are long, and servers get overwhelmed and more likely to make a mistake. 

Have the appropriate number of team members on any given shift to ensure no tables or orders are missed; this allows the whole process to move smoothly. 

Next, think about your restaurant concept and how you want to present this through service style. For example, being friendly and bubbly is great if you’re a fast-casual spot catered toward remote workers ordering lunch to their homes or students taking food back to campus. However, fine-dining restaurants should prioritize elegant servers with a formal approach.

Just because a customer isn’t dining in doesn't mean servers can be blunt over the phone when taking orders. In just a few seconds, customers can tell whether they are valued or not. 

Use Technology to Improve Operations

You must accommodate new ways in which customers order takeout or dine in. As technology evolves, keeping up can be tough unless you kit your restaurant out with the best equipment. This network allows you to adjust and keep things moving. 

Some of the best technology to invest in are as follows: 

• Online ordering system: Neglecting to optimize restaurant operations for online ordering greatly limits your customer pool. Think of all the remote workers or single parents who can’t justify making the trip to your brick-and-mortar location for lunch. Whether you use your own delivery service or a third-party one like Uber Eats, online ordering is a must. 

• Contactless payments: Contactless works with cards, smartphones, and smartwatches and is the new favorite way to pay. Customers pay for their orders with just one tap and can get on with their day. 

• Point of Sale (POS) system: Equip servers with a POS system to improve order accuracy, reduce wait times, and instantly communicate with back-of-house staff. You can even organize inventory and track customer preferences to support future decisions. 

• Kitchen Display System (KDS): Get rid of paper tickets once and for all with a streamlined digital KDS. Kitchen and bar staff get orders straight away and improve efficiency during the lunchtime rush. 

The lunch crows like to have a personal, human approach to service, but not at the expense of speed and accuracy. Strike the perfect balance by equipping staff with cutting-edge technology so they can focus on delivering engaging interactions. 

Increase Lunch Sales With Toast

Despite being affected by COVID-19 and the rise of remote working, lunch sales are slowly recovering. If you cater to your target audience with affordable, delicious menus and deliver exceptional customer service using advanced technology, then lunch break will boom.

Adapting to 2024 and beyond means implementing new technologies such as online ordering. This ensures you don’t miss out on those who cannot come in and dine. Looking at the stats and applying appropriate changes avoids the midday slump and keeps revenue coming in for a spectacular dinner service. 

Hit the ground running with Toast’s free demo and tap into valuable equipment and resources that allow you to adapt to market trends instead of fighting against them. Take your restaurant to the next level with Toast today!

FAQs

How do you attract lunch crowds?

Make your lunch menu too good to pass up. The offer is irresistible and includes lunch specials served between 12 pm and 3 pm or other suitable lunch hours. Keep it cost-effective and offer a variety from big hearty dishes for hungry workers to healthy salad pots and quick bites for those on the go. 

How do you increase food sales in a restaurant?

Equipping your restaurant with the right technology will do wonders for boosting sales. Let customers pay online with an online ordering system and use a POS and KDS system to keep service fast and accurate. 

You can also increase restaurant sales at lunchtime with a loyalty program or limited discounts only valid during lunch hours. Creating a sense of urgency encourages both existing customers and new ones to choose your restaurant over competitors.

How do I get my restaurant noticed?

Social media is a powerful tool that is perfect for getting your brand out there. Attract more customers with an online menu showing all the delicious, affordable lunch items you offer. Make sure your restaurant is optimized for search engines and review sites so it pops up when someone types in keywords such as ‘lunch near me.’