Last week I talked about how you can go counter to the flow by reducing portions rather than raising prices and couponing your way to oblivion. (Have you looked at samples of smaller plates yet?)

This week I want to share another amazing statistic that came from the book, Mindless Eating. Again, it is something which can be applied to your current dilemma.

I have long advocated increasing the party size as an overlooked way to build sales. However, I always approached it from the idea of increasing occupancy (filling all the seats around the table) or delegated marketing (encouraging those who know and love you to invite their friends and family).

The research at the Cornell University Food Lab turned up another interesting reason to increase the average size of your dining parties: the more people there are in the group, the more everyone will eat and drink.

Let's call the baseline that amount you would eat and drink if you went out to eat by yourself. Dine with one other friend and your consumption would go up by 37%. Add a third person to the group and you will eat 42% more. Make the party a four-top and everyone would eat 58% more. Turn it into a party of six and your per person consumption will go up by 65% over the baseline.

And here is the real mind-blower: when you dine with seven or more friends, you will tend to eat and drink 98% more than you would if you were dining alone! Got to love those eight-tops!

My guess is that you can pretty easily validate that from your own experience of eating with a group. Appetizers? Why not? Another bottle of wine? Sure, we can handle it! OK, who's up for dessert?

The coolest thing about this phenomenon is that it is human nature -- you really don't need a lot in the way of sales skills to make it happen. However, knowing that this is the tendency can give the server a real insight into how to keep the ball rolling and increase the check without the risk of alienating your guests.

So here is the big question for your next management meeting ... or better yet, your next staff meeting: "What can we do to encourage the people who already know and love us to invite their friends ... particularly those friends of theirs who are not already dining here?"

This series of recession-fighting strategies will continue ... but as of next week, you will only find it in the EHC Special Edition. I was going to start doing that this week but this tidbit about consumption was too cool not to share! I'm over it now.

 

Service Secrets

Which comes first, the service or the sales? Building sales volume is always on the top of most operators minds, but ...

• guests only come back because they WANT to,
• there is nothing worst than a successful promotion for a bad experience, and
• the need to differentiate yourself will be increasingly important as the economy slows down.

This month we explore what you are doing to create and sustain a level of service that accomplishes these three goals.

As usual, I will send copies of the survey results to everyone who participates. In the meantime, you can download copies of all past EHC surveys -- including the massive WOW Ideas collections.

Click here to add your thoughts to this month's survey.

• Standing Out From The Herd - how to grow your business the old-fashioned way
• Service America - a pair of case studies on common service lapses ... and how (and how not) to talk with your staff about them
  
• Q&A - some thoughts on how to lighten your work load and get your staff to feel more connected to your operation
  
• What Did You Learn From Your Staff Today? - an insight into how the most important lessons you learn from your staff ... are about yourself!
  
• Special Offers on management resources and services.
  

Solve the problem of what to talk about in your next staff meeting. Upgrade to the EHC Special Edition and get it all!