If you have not taken the time to calculate your business’s actual total sales per customer figure, you are not alone. Many business owners and managers will estimate this figure roughly, and they may attempt to boost the figure through various efforts, but in many cases, this estimation is far from accurate or complete. The figure for total sales per customer is crucial if you want to track and ultimately boost your income potential. After all, it may be more effective to boost your sales per customer than to attempt to get more customers through your door. If you want to boost your customer’s average spend, there are a few tips that you can follow to accomplish your goals.
Count Your Customers
The fact is that you simply cannot know your customer’s average spend figure if you do not know how many customers you are serving. There are numerous ways that you can accomplish this. For example, you can install a tracking feature that counts the number of people who pass into a building through the doorway. In a restaurant or bar, you can require your wait staff to input the number of people in a group or on a ticket into a field on the computer when entering orders and printing receipts. Keep in mind there is a difference between the number of tickets and the number of people served.
Track Sales During Different Times of the Day
If you want to know when your greatest opportunity is to boost sales, look at the sales broken up during different parts of the day. For example, consider if your morning, midday or evening traffic is higher. While you can look at the number of patrons served, also look at the average spend figure during this time of the day. Running specials or promotions during lagging time periods may yield great returns.
Consider What Is Being Purchased
The more detailed your data is, the better your analysis will be. For example, if you run a restaurant, determining if customers order more alcoholic beverages and desserts during dinner versus lunch can be important. Running drink and dessert specials at lunch can boost your customer spend during this period of the day.
Look at Sales in Different Areas of Your Venue
You may find that sales in different areas of your establishment are higher or lower during different parts of the day. In a retail store, sales may be higher in the most popular sections of the store throughout the day. In a restaurant, the bar area or take-out area may have higher sales during the evening hours. Localizing your sales data in this area can help you to make more informed decisions.
Analyse Product Changes
If you want to boost your customer average spend, you can also consider making some product changes. In a restaurant, this may mean altering your menu. In a retail store, it may mean adding some impulse buy displays at the checkout counter or adding a new but related product line. When you analyse the sales from your product changes, you can make a more informed decision about how effective your changes were.
Monitor Results of Specials
Likewise, consider monitoring the results of any specials or promotions that you offered. The goal of specials and promotions may be to get customers in the door, but you also want to see a return on your special or promotional offer. Did your special bring more customers in? Did the average spend per customer increase or decrease? Overall, was the result worth the cost associated with running the special?
Analyse Results Week By Week
As a final point, consider keeping a running tally of the results of your efforts. Pay attention to what you did differently each week, and consider how you can use the results to make intelligent changes going forward. Keep in mind that one week’s worth of numbers can be much less useful to you than several months of data.
Regardless of the type of business that you run, you want to do what you can to boost your sales numbers. Simply looking at your gross profits at the end of a day or week is not nearly as detailed as looking at the customer’s average spend. By following some of these tips, you can enjoy better results.