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Three sustainable expansion strategies for hospitality

Want to grow your hospitality business despite rising costs? Discover three sustainable expansion strategies to scale efficiently, boost revenue, and thrive. 

In these financially challenging times, it’s no surprise that hospitality operators are focusing on cautious, sustainable growth over rapid expansion.

With numerous operators forced to cancel their growth plans due to increased operational costs, it’s important to maintain a positive outlook on how hospitality businesses can continue to grow and expand by implementing the right strategies.

Let’s dive into three sustainable expansion strategies for hospitality, and the steps your business can start taking today to thrive this year.

1) Use tech to boost revenue

One of the most important considerations operators need to address when scaling is the business’ revenue stream:

  • Do we have enough capital to comfortably execute an expansion?
  • Are our revenue streams scalable?

By using technology, you can maintain a strong bottom line and create more breathing room to scale your business with confidence.

Plus, implementing scalable revenue streams early on sets a solid foundation for seamless business growth in the future.

Expanding sales channels

Increase the number of ways your customers can interact with your brand, including third-party delivery partners, Click & Collect and online ordering.

Get the most out of peak periods by diversifying your revenue streams, maximising your exposure and capitalising on your offering.

Pay-at-table functionality

Balancing customer expectations with the realities of your bottom line can be tricky since fewer staff members are typically associated with a lower guest experience.

Pay-at-table functionality allows operators to speed up service, reduce turnover time, and still delight their guests with added convenience, all of which positively impact the bottom line.

Self-ordering Kiosks

Self-ordering kiosks boost revenue by driving higher average transaction value (ATV) with their smart upsells and basket recommendations and reducing waste by clearing short-dated stock.

We did a study about six to eight months ago and compared non-kiosk with kiosk restaurants, and found that when in restaurants that had kiosks, we had a higher ATVs and average transaction value. We’ve seen that we’re able to have a high penetration of shoulder categories and meal deal upsells. Digital ordering has had commercially positive impacts in multiple ways; it’s been fantastic.
Mariam French
Marketing Director

2) Transform efficiency

Successful hospitality operators are those who recognise technology as a growth enabler.

In order to sustainability scale, your tech stack should be able to streamline your processes and prevent operational bottlenecks.

You can have all the revenue streams in the world, but if your tech is inefficient and clunky, it will create unscalable chaos.

Automate repetitive tasks

Allocate your staff where they’ll add the most value to the customer, and automate everything else: ordering, making payments etc. By keeping repetitive tasks manual, you’re holding yourself back from scaling.

Use data-driven insights

In order to scale confidently, you need to be able to make data-driven decisions that improve your business’s efficiency.

By using technology and back-end reporting, you can identify peak periods, effectively forecast labour, minimise food waste, and capitalise on popular menu items.

3) Invest in a strong brand

A crucial, sustainable expansion strategy for hospitality operators is creating a future-proof brand that your customers will follow anywhere.

Ultimately, the bottom line of your business depends on the people you serve and their experiences with you.

Maintain brand identity

Your operation’s brand – its story, values and customer experience standards – should remain intact as you scale.

It’s worth considering growth strategies that align with your brand, such as collaborating with other local businesses or community-driven partnerships with suppliers.

Essentially, hospitality businesses can expand sustainably without losing the essence that made them successful in the first place.

Customer retention

Invest in marketing, personalised experiences and CRM tools to develop a loyal customer base.

By boosting guest loyalty and encouraging repeat custom, you’re not only generating more predictable revenue across your sites, but you’re also creating a loyal tribe of advocates who will follow you as you scale.

Conclusion

Sustainable scaling is a hot topic in the hospitality industry right now; increased operational costs are causing some operators to halt their growth plans altogether.

By maintaining a strong brand identity and prioritising your customers, using technology to boost your revenue streams, creating scalable systems, and improving your operation’s efficiency, you can still successfully scale your hospitality business this year.

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