For restaurants, the holiday season can be the most hectic time of the year. While focused on the day-to-day it’s easy to have other important tasks fall by the wayside. Whether it’s having less time for marketing or not enough staff to meet demand, restaurants face extra challenges for any big holiday throughout the year. On a recent webinar, Popmenu’s COO and Co-founder Tony Roy chatted with Deanna Byam, the General Manager of Giorgio’s Ristorante and Bar, about the best ways to use technology to succeed during the holidays. 

Online ordering for restaurant events

Ordering events are a great way to boost revenue that many restaurants often overlook. While a traditional catering menu can deliver large holiday-themed meals to a selection of clients, ordering events provide a smaller selection of options so restaurants that don’t specialize in catering can easily scale their offerings to a large volume of guests. Think of it as a pre-selected prix-fixe meal sold through online ordering with a designated pick-up window.  

For a restaurant, ordering events are an effective way to promote and manage high-traffic holidays. The designated pick-up windows mean easier inventory planning and higher check averages–and you can create marketing messages around them. For example, Giorgio’s offered full Thanksgiving meals to their customers, earning them over $5,900 in additional sales in 2024. 

“One of the things we noticed the most is how much one of our emails would generate actual sales. It’s really easy, and it’s really effective” Deanna Byam, General Manager of Giorgio’s Ristorante & Bar

Check out this blog post for more examples on how to use online ordering systems for restaurant events.

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Influencer marketing for restaurants

Partnering with local influencers is an effective way to drive customers to your business any time of year. Guests are constantly browsing social media for recommendations, and utilizing creators that are located in or around your community increases the chance local guests will visit your restaurant after viewing a post.

Popmenu’s Creator Partnerships leverage a network of local influencers to make it easy for operators to get started with influencer marketing. The restaurants who started with Creator Partnerships saw a:

• 38% increase in traffic from Google search
• 53% increase in catering inquiries
• 26% increase in order volume

Taking advantage of influencer marketing just before the holidays to show of your festive decorations and seasonal dishes is the perfect way to reach your restaurant’s holiday goals.

Use AI for restaurant marketing

Whether through email, social media, or text messaging, consumers want to hear from their favorite restaurants for events and holiday celebrations. But, busy restaurant operators often struggle to find time to plan, write, edit, and publish communications consistently. As a result, many restaurants are using AI in their creative process.

AI marketing tools generate a month’s worth of content in seconds, allowing operators to promote their business consistently in a fraction of the time. Popmenu’s AI Marketing even considers details from a restaurant’s website, online ordering, and events calendar to create content that’s unique to their business. As a result, operators only spend a few minutes reviewing content every month and can instead focus on the things that really matter—like providing great hospitality.

Save time with AI phone answering system

During the holiday season, restaurants often receive a surge of calls from customers eager to place online orders or secure reservations. However, when staff members are too busy serving guests in person, many of those incoming calls go unanswered, resulting in lost revenue. To combat this problem, many restaurants are turning to AI phone answering systems this holiday season.

Since September 2023, Giorgio’s has been using Popmenu’s AI Answering to handle guest inquiries by drawing on their own website information and sending text links for reservations or online orders—ultimately increasing revenue. Since its launch, the service has fielded over 24,000 calls, saving the staff more than 160 hours in phone time. It also allows for custom responses, ensuring that every guest receives a branded reply.

“We’re not open for lunch most days, so we don’t have anyone in the building. There are still people calling looking for private events, they want to order something, they want to know our hours, or they want to make a reservation. [With AI Answering] we’re not missing that.”

Interested in how you can use all of these restaurant technology hacks to grow holiday sales at your business? Schedule a demo with Popmenu today!