Finding the right happy hour menu ideas takes work for restaurant owners, as this marketing strategy comes with unique challenges.
A few include long queues leading to overcrowding, serving drinks efficiently, and collecting accurate data on sales, which may be complex to manage.
Fortunately, the use of QR code menu software is helping restaurant owners overcome these issues as its services offer ways to streamline restaurants’ happy hour operations.
With a QR menu, customers can simply scan a code and instantly browse through your food and drink offers, reducing waiting time and encouraging more purchases.
In addition, these digital menus allow owners to collect data about the type and quantity of drinks purchased and the price point.
This means you can easily track your happy hour performance and adjust as necessary to maximize profitability.
Read further to learn how to run happy hours more efficiently with a smart digital menu and discover different happy hour foods.
Happy Hour: A surefire way to boost profit
Happy hour is a promotional period where food businesses—mostly restaurants and bars— offer discounted prices on their drinks and selected foods to entice and attract customers.
But how does offering happy hour help restaurants increase their profitability?
During this period, customers can take advantage of your restaurant marketing statistics, which then benefits businesses through the surge in sales.
In addition, customers tend to stay longer during happy hour, thus giving restaurants a chance to upsell additional items and drinks.
Lastly, it brings in more guests who may be unaware of the restaurant’s regular menu or prices and can potentially become regular customers.
Happy hour foods: What to include on your menu
You can use your happy hour to showcase different menu entries or offer exclusive discounts on select dishes and drinks.
That’s why it is a must to plan your menu carefully, for a great happy hour menu is critical to making the most of your promotional period.
To help you get started, here are some ideas for happy hour food menu items:
Appetizers
Small snack-sized appetizers such as sliders, potato skins, mini tarts, potato bites, and flavored fries will entice diners to come and stay.
You can also opt for no-cook happy hour snacks, which will be easier and faster to prepare. Customers won’t have to wait long to enjoy these bite-sized treats.
Flatbreads and pizzas
Flatbreads and pizzas are ideal for sharing and are much less expensive than a full entrée. Let your diners customize their meal by allowing them to choose their toppings.
Sandwiches
Sandwich is a classic food everyone loves, and it can be perfect for your happy hour menu.
It is easy to make and quick to serve. From vegetable sandwiches to grilled meat with cheese, there are plenty of ways to create mouth-watering sandwiches that your customers will love.
You can appeal to various customers since you can have different fillings. You can have chicken and bacon for meat lovers, tuna for those who love seafood, and lettuce for vegans.
Salads
Salads are light on the stomach and are always popular, especially during the summer. Let your guests top their salad with grilled chicken, steak, or shrimp.
You can also offer different dressing options like honey mustard, blue cheese, and ranch.
Food platters
When thinking about menu special ideas for your happy hour menu, platters can pass the vibe check.
These may comprise several small servings of foods, such as meat slices, veggies, pizzas, tacos, and more. However, it can help you promote your food items through sample foods.
Platters allow guests to sample various foods without ordering a whole meal.
Gin and tonic
This simple yet sophisticated drink has been popular for many years and is still a favorite among drinkers today.
It uses only a few inexpensive ingredients. This means you can offer the drink at a lower price while maintaining a good profit margin.
Rum and coke
Rum and Coke is a simple yet satisfying drink that is easy to make, making it an excellent choice for bartenders with limited time during happy hour.
The sweetness of the Coke perfectly balances the bite of the rum, making it a drink that appeals to a broad range of customers.
Tequila sunrise
In case you don’t know, this isn’t just a song by the Eagles—it’s a classic cocktail invented in the 1970s. You’ll only need tequila, grenadine, and orange juice to make this.
One way to boost your happy hour ideas for bars is to offer diverse tequila drinks to your customers. Bartenders don’t mix the three ingredients but simply pour one after the other so the colors won’t combine. As a result, it resembles the sunrise.
The tropical flavors of orange juice and grenadine fuse harmoniously with the sharp taste of tequila, making it a perfectly balanced and refreshing beverage.
Martini
Martini is among the most popular drinks offered during happy hour.
It’s one of the easiest to prepare: you’ll only stir or shake gin and dry vermouth together, pour it on a chilled martini glass, and serve it with olives on a cocktail stick or a lemon peel.
Its simple yet elegant appearance and colorful taste make it an easy favorite and a go-to drink for many customers.
Beer
Happy hour ideas for bars won’t be complete without the old and classic beers on your menu! Beer is perfect for your restaurant’s happy hour menu. It has a wide range of flavors and lower alcohol content, pairs well with snacks, and increases customer satisfaction.
Adding beer to your happy hour menu will attract more customers and enhance their dining experience.
QR code menu: A clever way to streamline your happy hour menu
Restaurants must adapt to the constantly changing consumer needs. And as such, owners need to stay ahead of the curve and introduce features to draw in customers. You need to come up with great ideas for happy hour food and drink items, themed gimmicks, and other promotional events.
One way to do this is to offer an engaging and interactive happy hour menu.
With the help of a smart QR menu, you can easily streamline your happy hour menu and give your guests quick and smooth service.
And so we offer MENU TIGER, a leading QR code menu that can streamline restaurant owners’ and customers’ happy hour menu experience.
This software allows restaurants to offer customers happy hour deals in a much safer and more efficient environment.
Restaurant owners won’t have to print and distribute paper menus, which are hard to update, prone to errors, and pricey.
All a customer needs to do is scan the QR code and select whatever item they wish to order. They can even pay digitally for a more convenient ordering process.
Here are a few ways that smart digital menus can help simplify your happy hour process:
Faster and smoother ordering process
With a QR menu, customers can instantly view your restaurant’s happy hour specials by scanning the code.
Your staff won’t have to spend time explaining your happy hour menu items to your customers, leading to a quicker ordering process and less time wasted for your customers and your staff.
Further, since QR code digital menus can integrate various payment options, not just ordering but payment processes are streamlined.
This means no more waiting for the bill or trying to call the waitstaff for payment. Your customers can quickly pay and go, leading to a smoother and more efficient dining experience.
Streamlined discounts
QR menus allow you to create and store discounts in one organized system.
You can easily create and update discounts that stay active for your customers. This way, any update on your menu board won’t be a problem.
MENU TIGER allows you to select promo deal types useful during your restaurant’s happy hour by tailoring discounts according to your happy hour deals.
Customizable marketing
QR digital menus let you customize your discounts and promotions, giving customers something unique and memorable.
With MENU TIGER’s easy-to-edit promotions, you can easily update discounts and place deals that your customers can enjoy to increase your orders or widen your customer base.
Plus, they simplify tracking customer and market insights, giving you a better understanding of which marketing strategies work best.
Make happy hour easier with fun QR code menu ideas. Our intuitive platform makes it easy to manage your happy hour discount needs quickly and efficiently, so you can maximize your profits and create a better customer experience.
Track customer analytics
One of the most important benefits of a QR code digital menu is the ability to provide revenue analysis.
By tracking orders and sales through the software, you can identify which items are your top sellers and which are underperforming.
This will help you make informed decisions about menu changes and promotions to increase revenue.
But it’s not just about the numbers; a QR menu can also provide customers’ order history, which can help you strategize how to cross-sell your menu items.
By analyzing what customers have ordered in the past, you can offer complementary items or specials that will enhance their dining experience and increase sales.
And all of these greatly benefit your restaurant’s happy hour operations.
Promote your social media pages
Aside from displaying the dishes and prices, a QR code digital menu can also include links to your restaurant’s social media accounts.
Why is this important? Once customers follow your restaurant, they can easily tag and mention you in their social media posts, which means free promotions and reaching more potential customers.
Gather customer feedback
With the digital menu software, you can encourage customers to leave comments or reviews about your happy hour promotion.
This feature can help you improve your offerings and cater to your customers’ needs.
By collecting feedback through the digital menu software, you can address concerns and make changes to keep your customers happy.
With MENU TIGER, restaurant owners can customize their surveys using the software.
This makes it easier for restaurateurs to gather detailed customer feedback that can help improve further your happy hour operations and your restaurant’s overall services.
Time-saving promotions
QR menus allow customers to take advantage of happy hour promotions quickly.
Customers only have to scan the code, get the details of any special pricing, and redeem the promotion when they purchase.
It’s much easier for them to access your offers and choose discount deals that fit their orders. This method helps reduce wait times and improves customer satisfaction.
You can also schedule your menu items for a specific period to quickly and wisely manage your time and menu.
MENU TIGER QR code menu dayparts: To simplify your happy hour promotion
Now that you know what you can serve during happy hour, it’s time to learn how to run this promotion. With a QR code digital menu, you can do this seamlessly.
MENU TIGER offers dayparts: a convenient way to schedule your food items, set their availability time, and even change their visibility.
With this handy feature, it becomes much easier to schedule promotions for specific times.
This allows restaurants to focus on different customer groups by changing the menu selection for different dayparts.
In addition, restaurant owners can easily adjust the menu items to ensure that they offer their guests the best selection and keep their happy hour experience running smoothly.
Furthermore, you can help your staff manage your promotion smoothly by scheduling different sets of happy hour menu items, making it easier for them to prepare and present food items to customers.
To boost your happy hour menu through MENU TIGER, first, create your menu QR code and proceed to make use of the software’s daypart feature.
Once you have your account, check out this guide to learn how to do it:
Time scheduling your store
Click Stores and proceed to Opening Hours. You can then set your store schedule by clicking the plus (+) button.
Tip: If you want a more organized Happy Hour schedule, click New under Stores and create a new branch. You can name it “HAPPY HOUR + store’s name” and start setting Opening Hours under it.
Note: You can only do this if you upgrade your subscription. Visit MENU TIGER QR menu pricing for more information.
Setting happy hour menu item availability
1. Proceed to the Food section under Menu. You can change the visibility of your item or even the whole Category by clicking the three dots.
2. Choose whether you want an item hidden from the menu until you change it back, hide it within a specific period, or show an item only on a specific day and time.
MENU TIGER: Best digital menu software for your happy hour menu promotion
From simplifying service and increasing efficiency to collecting accurate data, MENU TIGER services offer invaluable benefits to restaurant owners managing their happy hour operations.
Its flexible technology makes setting up and maintaining an effective digital menu for your happy hour easier.
Furthermore, this QR code menu software provides dayparts as a more convenient and efficient way to help restaurant owners create an effective timeboxing and easier way to manage their happy hour promotions.
By using MENU TIGER, restaurant owners can take advantage of the scheduling and item visibility features and easily customize their menu for the dayparts they set.
Drive profits into your restaurant by creating a sense of customer urgency through your happy hour menu ideas.
Sign up with MENU TIGER now and get the best happy hour experience for you and your customer.
