Episode 184 - Your Menu Is Programming Your Guests

Speaker A: If you're listening to this podcast, it means you're ready to break free from your restaurant running your life. You're tired of working so hard for so little. It's time you get the restaurant you desire and deserve to do that. You'll have to learn how to make more while working less in your restaurant. So how do you do that? It starts when you book a complimentary profit rescue call with the Restaurant Coach. That's right, a completely free one on one session with Donald Burns, the Restaurant Coach. This is a $500 value that he is giving to listeners of this podcast. During your session, Donald is going to help you get crystal clear about where your restaurant is leaking profit now. And he'll even give you a three step plan to get started. You just need to take action. Every day you wait, you lose more and more profit. Just go to therestaurantcoach.com to book your profit rescue call now.

Speaker B: Loading in 3, 2, 1. Welcome to the Restaurant Coach podcast. It's the cure for the common restaurant. Expert interviews, tools and tips to get you the restaurant you know it can be. Now here is your host, Donald Burns, the Restaurant Coach.

Speaker C: Welcome to the Restaurant Coach podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. Okay, I want you to picture something. A guest walks into your restaurant. They sit down, they open the menu, and before they take one bite, before they speak to a server, before they taste a cocktail, before they decide whether the food is worth coming back for, they have already started making decisions about how much they are willing to spend. That is the part most restaurant owners miss. They think spending begins when the guest orders. It does not. Spending begins the moment the guest forms a perception of value. And perception starts long before the plate hits the table. It starts with the building, the lighting, the music, the host stand, the smell, the menu design, the language, the pacing, the confidence of the server, the way the restaurant makes the guest feel. All of those things are either raising the guest's willingness to spend or it's quietly lowering it. Most restaurant owners think price is the biggest factor in what a guest orders. It's not. Perceived value is. Guests do not ask themselves, is this entree priced correctly based on food cost? They ask themselves, does this feel worth it? That is a completely different question. And the answer has very little to do with the raw ingredients. It has everything to do with the story you have built around them. Here's the problem I want to name today, clearly and directly. Most restaurants do not have a pricing problem. They have a perception problem. They are trying to charge premium Prices inside an average experience. They are trying to sell higher margin items without making those items feel desirable. They are placing products on the menu and and hoping guests notice them. They are asking servers to upsell without teaching them how human beings actually make decisions. And then they wonder why the average check is flat, why the premium entree does not move, why nobody orders dessert, why the second drink never happens, why guests keep choosing the safest, cheapest option on the menu. The answer is not that your guests are cheap. The answer is that you have not given them enough confidence to spend more. Guests spend when they feel safe. Guests spend when they feel guided. Guests spend when the value is clear. Guests spend when the choice feels easy. Guests spend when the experience gives them permission. That word matters. Permission. Because many guests walk into your restaurant wanting to spend. They want the cocktail. They want the appetizer. They want the better bottle of wine. They want dessert. They want to celebrate. They want to indulge. They want to be taken care of. But they are waiting for your restaurant to tell them that it is okay. And most restaurants do the opposite. They create hesitation. They create confusion. They create friction. And hesitation kills, uh, spending. Confusion kills spending. Friction kills spending. So today we are going to break down the psychology of why guests spend more or less and how the decisions you made before the guest ever walked in are either opening their wallet or closing it. Let's get into it. I want to start with one of the most important ideas in behavioral psychology. People rarely make decisions based on absolute value. They make decisions based on comparison. Your guest does not know what your salmon is worth in isolation. They decide what it is worth compared to the other things around it. That means every item on your menu is influencing the how every other item is perceived. Nothing stands alone. A $29 entree might feel expensive next to a $19 entree. But that same $29 entree can feel reasonable next to a $48 entree. The item did not change. The comparison changed. And when the comparison changes, the perception changes. This is called anchoring. The first strong reference point a guest sees is influences how they interpret everything that follows. That is why the order of your menu matters. The placement matters. The pricing ladder matters. The language matters. The visual emphasis matters. Most restaurant owners build menus by category. Appetizers here, salads here, entrees here, desserts at the end. And they think the job is done. But a menu is not a list. It is a decision making environment. And every decision making environment needs structure. Your menu should guide the guest from uncertainty to confidence. It should Help them understand what is special, what is popular, what is indulgent, what is a good value, what is worth trading up for? If the guest has to do all the work, they will usually default to the safest choice. And the safest choice is rarely the most profitable one. This is why menus with too many options often underperform More choice feels like freedom, but too much choice creates anxiety. The guest starts comparing everything. They second guess themselves. They worry about choosing wrong. And when people are overwhelmed, they simplify. They order what they recognize. They order what they have had before. They order the middle priced item. They order less. That is the paradox. You gave them more options and they spent less. Most restaurant owners are terrified to reduce a menu. They think every item represents revenue. It doesn't. Every item represents a decision. And every additional decision creates cognitive load. The question is not how many items can we offer? The question is how easily can a guest identify the right item for them? Clarity increases confidence. Confidence increases spending. That is the chain. Now let's talk about price. Most restaurant owners treat price like a mathematical problem. Food costs, labor margin, competition, all important. But guests do not experience price mathematically. They experience it emotionally. A price can feel fair. A price can feel cheap. A price can feel suspicious. A price can feel insulting. A price can feel like a treatment. A price can feel like a reward. The number itself is only one part of the experience. The meaning attached to the number is what drives the decision. This is why a $12 burger can feel expensive in one restaurant and a $24 burger can feel completely reasonable in another. The guest is not paying for the burger. They are paying for the context. They are paying for the environment, the ingredients, the presentation, the service, the confidence, the identity, the the feeling of being in that place. Price becomes believable when everything around it supports it. This is where many restaurants sabotage themselves. They raise prices, but do not raise the experience. They change the number, but keep the old menu description, the old plateware, the old lighting, the old service language, the old photos, the old worn out menus, the old casual explanation from the server. Then they blame the guest for pushing back. The guest is not rejecting the number. They are rejecting the gap between the number and the experience. You cannot charge premium prices while communicating average value. That gap creates distrust. And distrust makes guests cautious. Cautious guests do not explore. They do not trade up. They do not order the second drink. They do not add dessert. They protect themselves. This is why the first job of your menu is not to sell. It is to build trust. Trust that the food will be good. Trust that the item will be worth the price. Trust that the restaurant knows what it is doing. Trust that the guest will not regret the decision. Regret is one of the biggest hidden forces in menu choice. Guests are constantly asking, what if I order the wrong thing? What if I spend more and it is not worth it? What if everyone else gets something better? What if the portion is too small? What if the cocktail is too sweet? What if the steak is not cooked right? Your restaurant's job is to reduce perceived risk. That is what good menu descriptions do. That is what confident recommendations do. That is what strong photography can do in the right concept. That is what social proof does. That is what signature items do. They reduce uncertainty. A, uh, guest is much more likely to spend when the choice feels proven. This is why words like signature, house favorite, most popular, chef's choice, limited release, and guest favorite can influence decisions. Not because guests are gullible, because human beings look for signals. We want evidence that other people have chosen well before us. We want reassurance. We want to know we are not making a mistake. That is social proof. And your restaurant is either using it intentionally or ignoring it. Let's say you have two entrees. One is labeled grilled salmon. The other is labeled house favorite Cedar roasted salmon with with charred lemon butter, crispy fingerling potatoes and market vegetables. The food might be almost identical, but the second one gives the guest more information, more imagery, more confidence, more emotional value. The first one names the product. The second one frames the experience. Words create expectation. Expectation creates perceived value. Perceived value influences spending. This does not mean you write a paragraph under every menu item. More words are not always better. The goal is not description. The goal is desire. Every word needs to earn its place. You want language that helps the guest imagine the experience. Tender, crisp, fire roasted, slow braised, hand cut, housemade, barrel aged, warm, silky, smoked, caramelized. Those words are not decoration. They are sensory cues. They let the guest taste before the food arrives. And when the guest can mentally experience the product, the decision becomes easier. Now let's talk about the menu mistake almost everyone makes. They focus on what the item is instead of why the guest should care. You know the ingredients. The guest wants the outcome. You say 8 ounce center cut filet with red wine demi glace. The guest is thinking, will this make tonight feel special? You say house made chocolate cake. The guest is thinking, is this worth breaking the diet for? You say premium tequila margarita. The guest is thinking, is this going to feel better than the regular one? The best menu language connects the product to the emotional Payoff, celebration, comfort, indulgence, discovery, status, nostalgia, convenience, escape. Those are the real products restaurants sell. Food is the delivery system. And that brings us to another major driver of spending. Identity. People buy things that reinforce how they see themselves or how they want to see themselves. A guest might order the locally sourced entree because they see themselves as thoughtful. They might order the dry aged steak because they want to feel successful. They might order the craft cocktail because they want something interesting. They might. They might choose the lighter dish because they want to feel disciplined. They might order the giant dessert because tonight they want to be the fun one at the table. The choice is not just about hunger. It is about identity. Your menu should give guests multiple ways to say, this is me. That does not mean adding more items. It means making the existing items more meaningful. One item can feel adventurous, one can feel comforting, one can. One can feel elevated, one can feel responsible, one can feel indulgent. When those roles are clear, the guests can find themselves faster. And faster decisions often lead to higher spending. Now, let's talk about the server. Because the menu creates the environment, but the server creates momentum. Most restaurant owners tell servers to upsell. That word alone creates the wrong behavior. Upselling sounds like pushing. It sounds like convincing someone to buy something they do not want. That is why servers hate it. Guests feel it, and it usually comes out awkward. Would you like to add bacon? Would you like another drink? Would you like dessert? Those are not recommendations. Those are yes or no traps. And when you ask a tired, full, distracted guest a, uh, yes or no question? No is the easiest answer. Great service does not push. It guides. There is a difference. Guidance sounds like confidence. If you like bourbon, the smoked old fashioned is the one I would start with. The short rib is what we are known for. If you are sharing, add the crispy potatoes. Because the sauce on the short rib is too good to leave behind. Save room for the butter cake. It takes a few extra minutes so I can put it in before the entrees land this. That is not pressure. That is leadership. Guests want someone who knows. They want someone to remove uncertainty. They want someone to help them make a better decision. The server who sounds unsure lowers spending. The server who lists everything equally lowers spending. The server who says everything is good lowers spending. If everything is good, nothing is special. A confident point of view creates value. This is why menu knowledge is not enough. Your team needs recommendation language. They need to know how to identify what the guest values. Celebration, speed, comfort, adventure, budget, sharing, dietary needs. Then guide the guest toward the best experience. The best servers do not sell the most expensive item. They sell the best next choice. That is a crucial distinction, because when the guest feels understood, trust increases. And. And when trust increases, spending usually follows. Now let's talk about timing. Timing is one of the biggest hidden drivers of check average. The second drink does not happen because the server asked too late. The appetizer does not happen because the guest already ordered the entree. Dessert does not happen because the check was dropped before the craving was created. You cannot sell a decision after the emotional window has closed. Every purchase has a moment. Miss the moment and the sale disappears. A cocktail is easiest to sell before the guest starts studying the menu. An appetizer is easiest to sell while the table is settling in and hunger is high. A second drink is easiest to sell before the first glass is empty. Dessert is easiest to sell before the guest feels completely full. This is not manipulation. It is sequencing. Restaurants are experiences built in stages. And each stage should naturally open the door to the next. But most restaurants leave the sequence to chance. The host seats the guest, the server rushes over. The guest orders quickly. The entrees hit, nobody checks back. The plates are cleared. Then somebody asks, any dessert? Of course, the answer is no. The restaurant never built desire. It asked for a decision without creating a reason. That is the mistake. Spending does not increase because you ask more. If it increases because you build better momentum. Now let's talk about environment. The guest is constantly reading signals. Cleanliness signals, care, lighting signals, mood music signals, energy. Plate wear signals, quality, uniform signal, professionalism. Menu condition signals, attention to detail. The bathroom signals. What happens when nobody is watching. All of these things shape perceived value. You can serve the exact same glass of wine in two different environments, and the guest will experience it differently. That is not theory. That is human perception. We taste with context. We judge with context. We spend with context. This is why a cluttered dining room can lower perceived value. Why harsh lighting can make premium pricing feel less believable. Why A dirty menu can make a guest question the kitchen. Why? A weak host interaction can reduce confidence before the guest even sits down. Everything communicates. The question is whether it communicates the value you are charging for. Most restaurant owners focus on the food because the food feels tangible. But the guest pays for the total experience. The food might be excellent, but if the environment says average, the guest prices the entire experience as average. That is why the first impression matters so much. The first impression creates the frame. Once the guest decides what kind of restaurant they are in, they interpret everything through that lens. If the entrance feels disorganized, the guest expects mistakes. If the menu feels cheap, the guest expects lower value. If the server seems uncertain, the guest becomes cautious. If the restaurant feels intentional, the guest relaxes and relax. Guest explorer. They ask questions. They try things. They spend. That is what you are trying to create, not pressure. Permission. Now let's get practical. I want to give you a framework for looking at your menu and your guest experience. I call it the Value Path. It has four stages. Frame, Guide, Reassure. Expand. Frame. Establish what kind of experience this is and what it is worth. Guide. Help the guest identify the best choices. Reassure. Reduce the fear of making the wrong decision. Expand. Create natural opportunities for the guest to enhance the experience. Let's go through each one. Frame. Your restaurant has to tell the guests what kind of experience they are entering. Casual, Celebratory, Fast, Indulgent. Craft driven. Family centered. High energy, Refined, Comforting. The problem is that many restaurants send mixed signals. Premium menu prices with cheap design. Upscale food with sloppy uniforms. Craft cocktails served with no story. A polished dining room with a chaotic host stand. Mixed signals create uncertainty and uncertainty lowers perceived value. The frame needs to be consistent. The website, the entrance, the menu, the lighting, the language, the uniforms, the service, the plate. They should all tell the same story. When the story is clear, the price makes more sense. Guide. Do not make the guest decode your menu. Show them where to look. Use intentional placement. Use categories that make sense. Use strategic emphasis. Use servers who know how to recommend. Use signature items. Use limited choices where possible. The guest should never have to ask what are you known for? Your menu and your team should already be answering that. Reassure. Reduce risk. Tell the guest what is popular. Describe the item clearly. Train servers to explain portion, flavor and preparation. Use confident language. Fix inconsistency. Nothing destroys willingness to spend. Like a guest who has been disappointed before. Consistency is part of value. When the guest trusts the outcome, they are more willing to trade up. Expand. Once the guest feels confident, give them natural ways to make the experience better. A pairing, a side, A premium spirit. A shared starter, A second round, A dessert worth waiting for. But the expansion has to make sense. Do not throw add ons at people. Connect the next choice to the experience they already said they wanted. You are not increasing the check. You are increasing the completeness of the experience. The check follows. Now here's a question I want you to ask about every major item on your menu. What is helping this item sell? Not is the food good? What is helping it sell? The name, the placement, the description. The photograph. The server recommendation. The price comparison. The story, the presentation. The social Proof. The answer should not be nothing. Yet. In most restaurants, that is exactly the answer. The item is just sitting there, waiting, hoping. Products do not sell themselves. Even great products need framing. Now ask the opposite question. What is making this item harder to buy? Maybe the description is vague. Maybe the price feels exposed. Maybe the portion is unclear. Maybe the name sounds generic. Maybe the menu has too many similar choices. But maybe the server cannot explain it. Maybe the photograph looks bad. Maybe the guest does not understand why it costs more. Maybe the item is buried in the wrong place. Maybe the restaurant has never created a reason to care. Every one of those things is friction. And every point of friction costs you money. This is why menu engineering cannot be just stars, plow horses, puzzles and dogs. That is a useful financial model. But financial performance does not explain human behavior. You need to understand why an item sells, why it does not, why a guest trades up, why they hesitate, why they ignore, why they choose the middle, why they stop after one drink. The numbers tell you what happened. Psychology helps explain why. And when you understand why, you can change the result. Here is another important point. Guests do not always want the cheapest option. They want the option that feels smartest. That is why the middle choice often performs well. It feels balanced, not excessive. Not cheap, safe. This is called the compromise effect. When people are given a low middle and high option, many choose the middle because it feels reasonable. That means your pricing ladder matters. If you only have two options, the guest compares them directly. Cheap versus expensive. But with three clear levels, the middle becomes easier to justify. This works with wine, cocktails, steaks, add ons, packages, experiences. But the options have to be meaningfully different. Do not create fake choices. Create clear value levels. Good, better, best. The guests should understand what they get by moving up. More quality, more uniqueness, more generosity, more. More experience, more status, more convenience. If the difference is not clear, the higher price feels arbitrary. And arbitrary pricing creates resistance. Now let's talk about one of the most underused spending drivers in restaurants. Scarcity. People value things more when access feels limited. A limited nightly feature. A seasonal cocktail. A small batch dessert. A chef's special. A rare bottle. A weekend only item. Scarcity creates urgency, but it has to be real. Fake scarcity destroys trust. Real scarcity makes the decision feel more meaningful. The guest thinks, I may not get another chance. That thought moves people. Not everyone, but enough. And it creates conversation. The server has something to talk about. The guest has something to discover. The experience feels alive. That matters. Static menus can become invisible. Guests stop seeing them. Regulars stop exploring. Your team Stops talking about them. A small amount of rotation creates attention. Attention creates opportunity. Now, here's the biggest mindset shift I want you to take from this episode. Stop thinking about average check as a sales number. Start thinking about it as a confidence score. When guests spend more, it usually means they trusted the experience. They trusted the recommendation. They understood the value. They felt comfortable exploring. They believed the product would deliver. When guests spend less, it does not always mean they lacked money. It can mean they lacked confidence. That is a leadership issue, because confidence is built through design, through training, through consistency, through standards, through intentional choices. That means your average check is is not just the server's responsibility. It is not just the menu's responsibility. It is not just marketing's responsibility. It is the result of the entire operation working together. The host creates the first frame. The environment establishes value. The menu organizes decisions. The server guides the experience. The kitchen delivers the promise. The manager protects the pace. The final impression determines whether the guest feels the money was well spent. Every department touches spending. That is why yelling at servers to upsell does not work. You're asking them to fix a system problem with a sales phrase. Build the system, then train the behavior. Here's what I want you to do this week. Sit in your restaurant like a guest. Not an owner, not a chef, not a manager. A, uh, guest. Start outside. Look at the building. Walk through the entrance. Stand at the host desk. Sit at the table. Pick up the menu. Notice what you see first. Notice what feels confusing. Notice what feels cheap. Notice what feels premium. Notice what items feel easy to choose. Notice what prices feel exposed. Notice where the menu creates desire. Notice where it creates work. Then listen to your team. How do they describe the food? Do they sound proud? Do they sound confident? Do they know what to recommend? Do they understand the difference between items? Do they know how to guide a guest based on what that guest wants? Or are they just taking orders? There is a massive difference between a server who takes an order and a professional who leads an experience. One records a transaction. The other creates value. Then review your menu. Ask what are the five items we most want guests to order? Can a guest identify them quickly? Does the language make them desirable? Does the placement support them? Can every server explain them? Do they feel worth the price? What are the natural pairings? What would make the experience more complete? If your team cannot answer those questions consistently, your guest cannot feel the value consistently. An inconsistent value creates inconsistent spending. Then look at your timing. When is the first drink offered? When is the appetizer introduced? When is the second round suggested? When Is dessert mentioned? When is the check dropped? Do not leave those moments to chance. Build a service rhythm that creates opportunities without making the guest feel managed. The guest should feel cared for, not sold to. That is the standard. One more thing. Do not confuse discounting with value. Discounting lowers price, value increases belief. Those are not the same. When a restaurant struggles to justify its pricing, the first instinct is often a discount. Happy hour. Coupons, bundles, promotions, deals. And sometimes those tools make sense. But if discounting becomes the main reason people choose you, you are training the guest to wait for a lower price. You are weakening your own value story. You are telling the market, our, uh, regular price may not be worth it. That is dangerous. The strongest restaurants do not win because they are the cheapest. They win because the guest understands why the experience is worth what it costs. That is your job. Not to apologize for price, to earn it, to communicate it, to deliver it, to make the guest feel smart for choosing it. Because spending more does not feel painful when the guest believes they received more, the pain comes when the value feels uncertain. So remove the uncertainty, clarify the choices, strengthen the story, train the team, improve the timing, protect the consistency, build the confidence, and watch what happens. Your guests will not suddenly become different people. Your market will not suddenly have more money. Your pricing will not magically feel cheaper. The experience will simply make more sense. And. And when the experience makes more sense, people spend with less resistance. That is the real opportunity. Sitting inside your restaurant right now. Not just, um, raising prices, not just pushing appetizers, not just telling servers to sell more. Creating an environment where the guest wants more, where the next drink feels natural, where the premium entree feels justified, where dessert feels like part of the night instead of an afterthought. Where the guest leaves thinking, that was worth it. That sentence is the whole game. Because when the guest says it was worth it, they come back. They tell people they explore more next time. They trust you faster. And trust is the foundation of every profitable restaurant. Look at your menu this week. Look at your environment. Look at your service. Ask yourself, where are we creating confidence. Where are we creating hesitation? Where are we making the guests work too hard? Where are we leaving value unexplained? Where are we asking for more money without creating more meaning? The money you are leaving on the table is not always sitting in your prices. It is sitting in the gap between what you offer and what the guest perceives. Close that gap. Next episode, we are going into systems. Not checklists, not binders, not procedures. Nobody reads the real reason your restaurant keeps depending on you and why. The way you built the operation may be the exact thing keeping you trapped inside it. If this episode was useful, share it with an owner who needs to hear it. Reviews keep this show reaching the people who need it most. Now go lead.

Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the Restaurant Coach Podcast with Donald Burns. Tune in next time as we serve up more ways to maximize your potential. Visit our website at www.therestaurantcoach.huh com or Downlo episodes at itunes Stitcher Radio and Spotify.