Don't Forget The Beverages
It's amazing what a busy pizza operator can overlook. Pizza Galaxy just signed up a client and received their newly designed printed take out menu. We created their online order menu from this, and I was doing a final check when it hit me. No beverages. We quickly checked the original printed menu. No beverages there either. So we called the client.
"What do you mean no beverages? Of course I have beverages," he said.
And so he did. Only not printed on his new menus. Somehow his printer left out the beverage section, he hadn't caught it and he now had a nice supply of takeout and delivery menus which didn't include beverages.
This isn't an isolated incident either. One of my earlier clients, who was fairly computer savvy, wanted to create his own online menus. He did a good job and had a nice variety of menu sections including regular and special pizzas, wings, and subs.
He did not include a beverages section. This oversight became evident almost immediately when one of his first online customers sent an email stating that he was unable to complete his order because he couldn't find any beverages and had to place his online order at Dominos instead. Not surprisingly, our client stayed up late that night to include a beverage section.
We did a quick analysis of three of our clients to see what percentage of their online sales included a beverage. Their percentage ranged from 11% to 50%. Customers seemed to prefer either the largest sizes or individual bottles or cans. The site with the lowest beverage sales offered only 64 oz or six packs.
It pays to pay attention to beverages, whether on your printed menu or your online menu. Having a nice selection of beverages in large and small sizes in front of your customer can add to your sales.
