Getting guests to splurge on dessert may have less to do with the server and more to do with wine. Restaurant management software provider Upserve has found that more than 75% of checks that included dessert had alcohol orders as well.
Ordering beer or a cocktail won’t necessarily lead to dessert, but Upserve found that customers who ordered bottles of wine increased their chance of ordering dessert by 15%.
What’s more, red wine orders were 6% more likely to include dessert than white wine orders. And while just .42% of the checks in Upserve’s data include red wine, 42% of people who order red wine also order dessert. In fact, 42% of checks that included red wine orders also included dessert. That’s compared to 9.4 percent of total checks in Upserve’s sample that included dessert.
Providence, RI-based Upserve uncovered the correlation between red wine and dessert after reviewing more than 29,000 checks, excluding takeout and delivery, from some 3,200 restaurants that use its point-of-sale system. So how can operators capitalize on the findings?
Upserve advises having servers mention wine/dessert-pairing opportunities when the guests order the wine. For instance, the server might say something like, “that particular cabernet goes great with our chocolate brownie.”