The formula for Average Customer Spend is easy: if your weekly sales are $20,000 and you serve 1000 customers, then ACS is Sales/Customers = $20 per person. It’s one of the five key numbers we focus on at Foodie Coaches as we help people dramatically increase their profits (the others are Sales, Overheads, Cost of Goods Sold and Labour Cost).
Average Customer Spend (ACS) is also called Per Head Spend, Average Check or Ticket Size, Average Order Value (AOV), Guest Spend, Revenue Per Guest or Per-Customer Spend.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to increasing your ACS, with links to relevant resources. Boosting Average Customer Spend can often be more effective than hunting for new customers when it comes to increasing total sales… especially in the short term!
1. Understand Customer Behaviour
Identify customer preferences and spending potential. Which groups in your target market are the most open to suggestive selling and have the budget to afford higher spending without pushback?
Read body language and verbal cues – More experienced staff can guide new team members on what to look for and listen to.
Recognise upsell opportunities based on customer mood or occasion – a birthday, anniversary, win at the races, or business success.
2. Menu Knowledge and Suggestions
All the front-of-house team should know the menu inside out, including specials, high-margin items, and beverages. When staff are confident with the menu, they can’t help but recommend it with confidence and sell more.
Design simple menu quizzes using a copy of the menu text and ChatGPT – ask it to ‘design a 20-question quiz about this menu, with a choice of 4 answers for each question, and indicate the correct answer’. This will get the ball rolling – ask 4 or 5 questions before each shift. See 10-Minute Training for Restaurant & Cafe Staff.
Recommend add-ons like sides, drinks, and desserts.
3. Design a Menu That Encourages Upselling and Add-Ons
Good menu engineering can significantly affect customers’ purchases, including the item choices and the number of courses. This is the sales boost that happens automatically, regardless of the skill of your team…
Menu Layout: Position high-margin items in prominent areas (e.g., top right corner or highlighted sections) to attract attention.
Descriptive Language: Use enticing descriptions (e.g., ‘tender grilled steak with truffle butter’) can make premium items more appealing.
Add-On Opportunities: Include natural add-on suggestions within item descriptions, such as sides, sauces, or extras. For example, suggest adding bacon or avocado to a burger or recommending premium sides like truffle fries.
Highlighting Pairings: Offer food and drink pairings within the menu. For instance, recommend a particular wine or cocktail with a specific dish.
Active Price Endings: Individual prices should be expressed with a 50c or .80c ending where possible – e.g., $12.80, not $12.00. To the customer, this looks basically the same, but for your revenue, this can make a significant difference. For example, selling 1000 items, all with an .80c ending instead of .00 means an additional $800 in sales. That’s equal to the wages for one or more people!
Pricing Tiers: Offer multiple price levels for the same item, such as small/medium/large portions or basic/premium ingredients, giving customers a reason to upgrade.
Engage with customers in a friendly and natural way. Young staff may need coaching on this to build confidence in dealing with older customers or those from different cultures.
Use positive language to promote higher-priced items.
Build rapport to increase customer trust and spending.
Using Inflection in Suggestive Selling: Inflection involves subtle changes in tone or emphasis to make suggestions feel more natural and persuasive. The key is emphasising certain words to make them stand out, encouraging the customer to consider an upgrade or add-on without feeling pressured.
Key Techniques:
Rising Tone for Upsell: A rising tone on the final word can make the offer feel open and inviting. Example: ‘A cocktail?’ or when ordering takeaway coffee: ‘Large?’
Emphasising Value: Highlight the keyword of an offer to make it sound more enticing. Example: ‘The Cellar Selection?’
Lowering Tone for Assurance: A lower tone signals confidence in your suggestion. Example: ‘The seafood special?’
These quick, inflection-based adjustments help the suggestion come across naturally, increasing the chance of a positive response.
5. Promote Add-ons and Upselling
Suggest additional items without being pushy – staff will need coaching with this, as they can easily regard this as being ‘like McDonalds – fries with that?’
Teach them to time the upsell after the customer has made their initial order or when an option is available for that item on the menu.
Bundle items, such as pairing wine with a dish, or suggesting ‘make it a meal?’ when ordering a burger, so they add a drink and fries.
Add prompts to the POS screen if ordering is done at the counter – this ensures staff don’t forget to offer relevant extras.
6. Improve Beverage Selling Skills
Train your team to upsell alcoholic beverages, such as premium spirits or cocktails.
Promote second drinks, refills, or upsized beverages—‘Can I freshen that drink for you?’ It’s important to teach staff how to sell additional drinks within the guidelines for responsible alcohol service.
Offer relevant pairings with food items (e.g., wine with steak, beer with burgers).
Have a larger wine by the glass option available – more than 40% of customers will choose it eg 150ml pour and 250ml pour, plus a whole bottle. This is an easy win!
Promote seasonal items, special menus, or event-based packages – this may be done through verbal selling, information on the menu, or signs in strategic locations.
Use table-talkers to promote special deals and change the offer regularly.
Emphasise exclusivity or limited availability to encourage quick decisions – FOMO is a powerful motivator.
Overcome objections in a subtle, non-confrontational way – practice this in short staff training sessions. Ask the team to prepare a list of ‘20 difficult customer questions’ they are often asked and work with these to give everyone confidence in handling them.
Train staff to offer alternatives if a customer seems unsure. Staff should have a comeback suggestion for every menu item. For example, ‘I like seafood, but I don’t like bones – what can I have?’ or ‘I really love dessert but I’m on a diet – what do you suggest?’
Use humour or gentle persuasion to make recommendations seem less sales-driven.
9. Maximise Group Spending
Encourage shared dishes like appetisers or desserts – these could be promoted on the menu, e.g., ‘available for 4 or more people, served family style’.
Offer group deals or share platters for larger parties – sometimes, this may be required for groups beyond a certain size.
Suggest rounds of drinks or cocktails for group enjoyment – having these available by the jug encourages the perception of value.
Practice sales techniques through role-playing exercises.
Provide staff with regular feedback and coaching, plus feedback on their own ACS score – who does it best, and what do they do that’s different?
Keep staff motivated to improve through incentives and competitions – Sales Bingo is a technique that many Foodie Coaches members find very successful.
Strategic Prompts: During the app ordering process, set up automatic prompts for add-ons (e.g., ‘Would you like to add a dessert?’ or ‘Try our premium cocktail for only $5 extra?’)
Modifiers: Every menu item should have the option to add something else eg a burger has the option to add an extra beef patty, onion rings or double cheese. This works: app orders have been shown to generate significantly higher ACS because the customer has more time to consider their choice and will not feel ‘judged’ if they order something larger or different to the usual.
Combo Deals and Bundles: Create combo options that encourage customers to order more (e.g., a main dish plus a drink for a discount or a larger meal at a small extra cost).
Visual Cues: Use eye-catching images of premium or high-margin items to entice customers to click and order. Many app companies (eg UberEats) provide complimentary or low-cost photography services to help with this.
Upsell on Checkout: During the checkout process, include suggestions for additional items customers may have overlooked, like side dishes, sauces, or drinks.
Ask your app company account manager for assistance and examples – it’s in their interest to help you sell more with every transaction.
Measure the impact of sales techniques on ACS – divide the sales total into starter, main course, dessert and beverage categories in a restaurant and see how each separate part performs. Your POS may need some reprogramming to make this tracking easier.
Don’t be afraid to lead in your area with higher prices if your quality justifies it – sometimes, that’s the easiest way to get an immediate jump in spending. You may also find that your competitors follow soon after!
Use customer feedback to adjust and improve.
Update the guide regularly to reflect seasonal or menu changes.
Increasing the Average Customer Spend is all about small, thoughtful changes and upsells that enhance the customer experience. Train your staff to understand customer behaviour. Show them how to suggest add-ons like sides or drinks and to offer premium upgrades for beverages like wine or cocktails. Use menu design to guide customers towards higher-value items, and don’t forget to apply the same techniques with online and app ordering. With regular training and tracking, you will see a solid boost in sales while keeping customers happy!
The formula for Average Customer Spend is easy: if your weekly sales are $20,000 and you serve 1000 customers, then ACS is Sales/Customers = $20 per person. It’s one of the five key numbers we focus on at Foodie Coaches as we help people dramatically increase their profits (the others are Sales, Overheads, Cost of Goods Sold and Labour Cost).
Average Customer Spend (ACS) is also called Per Head Spend, Average Check or Ticket Size, Average Order Value (AOV), Guest Spend, Revenue Per Guest or Per-Customer Spend.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to increasing your ACS, with links to relevant resources. Boosting Average Customer Spend can often be more effective than hunting for new customers when it comes to increasing total sales… especially in the short term!
1. Understand Customer Behaviour
2. Menu Knowledge and Suggestions
3. Design a Menu That Encourages Upselling and Add-Ons
Good menu engineering can significantly affect customers’ purchases, including the item choices and the number of courses. This is the sales boost that happens automatically, regardless of the skill of your team…
See also: How to Raise Cafe Prices without Negative Pushback
How to Find Big Profit Opportunities with Cafe & Restaurant Dessert Sales
4. Effective Communication With Customers
Using Inflection in Suggestive Selling: Inflection involves subtle changes in tone or emphasis to make suggestions feel more natural and persuasive. The key is emphasising certain words to make them stand out, encouraging the customer to consider an upgrade or add-on without feeling pressured.
Key Techniques:
These quick, inflection-based adjustments help the suggestion come across naturally, increasing the chance of a positive response.
5. Promote Add-ons and Upselling
6. Improve Beverage Selling Skills
See also: How to Measure and Dramatically Improve Your Bar Profits
7. Sell Special Deals and Limited-Time Offers
See also: Fresh Ideas for Father’s Day Restaurant Marketing
Energise Your Mother’s Day Restaurant Marketing
Valentine’s Week: Fresh Ideas, Upsells and Activities for All
8. Handle Objections and Hesitations
9. Maximise Group Spending
See also: How to Attract and Sell More Group and Party Bookings
10. Training and Role-Playing Scenarios
See also: How to Build Restaurant Service Skills With Role-Play Training
11. Upselling with Online and App Ordering
See also: Dozens of Great Ways to Use Photos & Video to Promote Your Venue
12. Track Success and Improve Techniques
See also: How to Measure Average Customer Spend and Boost Total Sales
Increasing the Average Customer Spend is all about small, thoughtful changes and upsells that enhance the customer experience. Train your staff to understand customer behaviour. Show them how to suggest add-ons like sides or drinks and to offer premium upgrades for beverages like wine or cocktails. Use menu design to guide customers towards higher-value items, and don’t forget to apply the same techniques with online and app ordering. With regular training and tracking, you will see a solid boost in sales while keeping customers happy!
Check the other useful blog posts on the Foodie Coaches website…
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