When diners walk into a hotpot restaurant, they’re usually looking for a joyful group dining experience. And since they’re usually with friends and family, they’re often willing to spend more to enjoy a memorable meal. Now, it’s up to you and your service staff to entice these diners to add more items to their order. These are some of our favourite add-ons that you can upsell to diners feasting on a delicious hotpot meal.
Drinks
The opportunity to upsell drinks is best done at the beginning of service. Train your service staff so they recommend drinks that match what diners are ordering (or matching the weather). Examples include suggesting cold teas with spicy hotpot soup bases, or ginger tea on rainy days. This Hot Ginger Lychee Tea is a sure-favourite among older folks, as well as diners who enjoy soothing, warm drinks.
Alternatively, your staff can promote drinks that are trending in popularity, like refreshing fruit teas. A few crowd favourites you could include in your menu are Cranberry Passion Fruit Tea, Lychee Coconut Fruit Tea, and Yellow Tropical Fruit Tea.
Appetisers
Most appetisers pack healthy profit margins, which is great for your restaurant. They also happen to be one of the easier items on the menu to upsell especially in a hotpot setting, where customers dine in groups and want a variety of dishes on their table.
There’s a good chance that guests will already be hungry when they arrive, so your front of house team can seize the opportunity to make these easy sales. Some tantalising and in-trend appetisers you can tempt diners with are the always-popular Salted Egg Fish Skin, the sinful “Gan Xiang” Crispy Fish, or a dish of Korean-inspired Beansprout Salad.
Desserts
Singaporeans love desserts. If a table seems hesitant to indulge after a huge hotpot feast, you can recommend that guests share a dessert, just to get a little taste.
Need some inspiration for a sweet, refreshing and cooling dessert that everyone will enjoy? Check out our Luo Han Guo Longan and Tamarind Jelly recipe.
Most Profitable Items
Your front-of-house team should be very aware of which menu items are most profitable, so they’ll know which items to promote first. For example, if servers know which food items (e.g. specific types of fish) bring in the most profits for the restaurant, they should recommend those particular dishes over other similar choices.
Usually when customers ask servers for a recommendation, there’s a good chance they’ll go with the recommended items.
Plan your upselling strategy
By keeping these categories in mind, you can design an upselling strategy that will bring in additional revenue, while improving customer satisfaction levels.
