How to plan happy hour and time-based campaigns: a guide for cafés and bars
Every venue has busy and quiet hours. A time-based campaign is the most measurable way to bring guests into quiet hours and spread out the rush. Planned badly, though, it only discounts guests who would have come anyway.
Find the quiet hours first
Look at sales hour by hour: on which days and at which times are tables empty? Aim the campaign there. Happy hour on a packed Friday night lowers profit; Tuesday 5–7 p.m. brings new guests.
Types of campaign
- Time-based discount: a percentage or amount off selected items or categories on certain days and hours.
- Buy X, pay for Y: such as buy two drinks, one free, within the same order.
- Item deals: dessert or a drink discounted with a main course.
- Card and bank campaigns: a discount for paying with a particular bank's card, with a budget and usage limit.
From campaign to measurement.
How much discount?
Set the discount from each item's cost. With recipe-based stock you know every item's real cost; make sure the discounted price stays above it. Aiming campaigns at high-margin items such as drinks is usually safer.
It should apply at the till by itself
A campaign applied by hand is either forgotten or keeps running after its time. Define it with days and a time window; the till applies it then and returns to the normal price afterwards. Campaigns the cashier picks should need permission and approval.
Before switching a campaign on.
How do you measure profit?
- Note sales for the same days and hours before the campaign.
- During the campaign, watch guest count, average bill and total discount.
- Compare the total discount with the extra sales the campaign brought.
- After two or three weeks, make it permanent or change it.
In ari adisyon, campaigns are defined by days and time window, items and categories, buy X pay Y, card or bank, budget and usage limit, and apply at the till automatically. For bars, see our bars and pubs page.