Posted on: Monday, August 6, 2001

60 Seconds on Business
Employee incentives could increase yield

By Dr. Drake Beil
President, Solutions Inc.

A key to increasing your sales per customer, or yield, is how you reward your employees.

It's important to step up both fair and exciting performance-based incentives to reward employees for hitting targets of your yield program. In a restaurant like Hy's or Aaron's, for example, we could target high-margin items such as beverage sales, appetizers, desserts, after-dinner drinks, and so on. You could reward individuals, groups, teams, managers, and back-of-the-house help, and designing a program that is perceived as fair is important for morale.

Next, if you believe people get better at things the more they practice, then you have to ensure they are trying with every appropriate customer, and trying the right way. The best way to accomplish that is with good supervision and regular meetings, which go over the results and experiences of the team.

As part of the meeting agenda, measure and talk about conversion rates. Out of every 10 customers asked if they wanted a drink with their meal, how many said yes? How much was that worth per attempt, and per acceptance? How many said no? What were the typical reasons customers mentioned?

People get reinforced for success, but rejection is a major part of the process. And even if only two out of every ten customers say yes, you have a huge profit.

Reach Dr. Drake Beil at drake@60secondsonbusiness.