Best sellers, busy hours, repeat customers: the 3 numbers every restaurant owner should track
Most restaurant systems show total sales. That's useful for the books but tells you little about what to change. Three simple numbers do far more for day-to-day decisions.
1. Best sellers
Which items do customers order most, and which barely sell? Sort your menu by units sold and by how much each item earns you.
- Promote your winners. Put them at the top of the menu and in your photos.
- Fix or drop the laggards. If an item hasn't moved in a month, it's taking up shelf space, prep time and menu clutter.
- Check your stock. Best sellers should never run out; see inventory habits that stop stock-outs.
2. Busy hours
When does your shop get busiest, and when is it quiet? Look at orders by hour and by day of the week.
- Staff to the rush. Put your best people, and enough of them, where the orders are.
- Prep to demand. Less over-prep on slow afternoons means less waste.
- Fill the gaps. A slow window is a good place to try an offer, such as a discount between 3 and 5 pm.
3. Repeat customers
Who keeps coming back, and who has stopped? Repeat customers are the cheapest sales you'll ever make, because you don't have to pay to attract them.
- Know your regulars. Recognising them, or rewarding them, builds loyalty.
- Win back lapsed customers. Someone who ordered every week and then disappeared is worth a message with a small offer, for example over WhatsApp.
- Watch the trend. If repeat customers are shrinking, food, service or delivery time is usually the reason.
Make it a habit
Ten minutes each week is enough: check the best sellers, look at the busiest hours and skim the repeat-customer list, then change one thing. The catch is that these reports must be available without exporting spreadsheets. If they are built into your POS and online ordering (see our POS checklist), you'll actually look at them.
Bisserv's business analytics show best sellers, busy hours and repeat customers, built into both the Ecosystem and the Online Store. Most systems show you what sold; Bisserv is built to show you why. Book a demo to see the dashboard.