According to a research by the National Restaurant Association, the predicted total value of restaurant industry sales in the US is a whopping $799 billion which is also expected to grow at a rate of 15 percent annually.
Online ordering has been a growing as a must have thing for the restaurant industry. Over the years, in our blog, we have discussed the importance of online ordering in today’s competitive restaurant business.
Online ordering has taken the food business by a storm and it would clearly make phone ordering obsolete in the future.
In this post we will look at the 25 key impacts that online ordering will have on your restaurant.
Customer Experience
- It is a fact, if your customers like your service, they will come back and also recommend you to their world. They will become your best advertisers. So, you need to commit to a service that keeps them coming back.
- It can be done by making the ordering process convenient for them. Eventually, this “convenience” will pay huge dividends for your restaurant. One thing is certain that people don’t like to order their food over the phone. Everyone wants to place their order without fuss and undoubtedly, asap.
- People don’t want to spend 5-6 minutes as they place their order over the phone by looking at the ordering catalogue and pausing whatever work they were doing.
- One thing online ordering will certainly do is “up your game” when it comes to providing a better service by making the ordering process convenient for your customers.
- When your customers pick up their smartphones to use your online ordering system, they will do it at their own convenience.
- Remember, this time they will look at your online menu more carefully and select items after reading descriptions from the menu. Your customers can order their favourite food by clicking on the screen a few times and they do it from the comfort of their homes.
- During the rush hour, they can place the order online and pick up their food from the restaurant at a set time. In this way, they don’t wait in long lines.
- By using online ordering you not only deliver food to your customers promptly but also forge an invaluable connection which adds value to your establishment.
Web Presence
- Managing a restaurant in these times means that you need to have a strategic online representation.
- Your business needs to maintain a competent presence at various search engines and social media platforms.
- When you have an online ordering system for your restaurant, you amplify your web presence because you can receive orders from your website/facebook page/mobile app directly to the kitchen. With the help of a website (that provides value to your customers) and a dedicated SEO strategy your restaurant can get some serious visibility boost in the ‘web locality’.
Productivity
- Instead of wasting time taking orders over the phone, orders can be received online, and the orders received from the customers directly have matchless accuracy.
- The online ordering software will receive the orders from the customers and directly relay it to the kitchen staff.
- This single feature will greatly boost your employee productivity and help to create a superior in-house experience for the customers in the restaurant. As your staff is not preoccupied with receiving orders over the phone. They can use this time in a much better way, by attending to the guests diligently.
- And during rush-hour/lunch-time, you don’t have to place a staff dedicated to receiving orders at the counter. By using online ordering you can shorten the queues at the counter, easily.
- You will reap maximum value by employing the data generated by your customers.Many online ordering portals (aggregators) don’t share this crucial data with you. This data will provide insights to develop a superior marketing plan.
- A good online ordering system will have an inbuilt analytics platform that will help you to track this data and channel it to sell better.
Sales
- When customers order online, there are fewer distractions. They don’t have to decide quickly on the items as there is no-one waiting to take the order.
- Usually, there is no pressure to order.Hence, your customers spend more time on the menu. And, this is good for your business.
- Online ordering platforms are inbuilt for cross-selling items. As they spend more time on the menu, they order appetizers that they wouldn’t order in the store. Add-On items in the menu see better sales, online.
- Customers read the descriptions, carefully. If done properly, your online menu with aptly used photographs can bring in larger orders. You will be surprised that items that don’t sell in the store sell better when paired with a selling item on the online menu.
Savings
- Your online ordering system also takes care of your margins. Since your restaurant’s orders don’t go through a third party platform, you will notice a change in your operating margins.
- Other available options don’t work in a similar way, to avail their services you have to use their portal which delays processing and also charges a commission on every processed order.
- Getting your own online ordering system will provide you a competitive edge.
- Think about the technology that you would be using, it will be similar to the technology that a large restaurant chain uses for itself. And, you would be accomplishing that without burning a hole in your pocket.
Conclusion
With online ordering on board you will enrichen your customer experience by making the process of ‘placing orders’ a lot easier. It will show that you value your customer’s time. Online ordering will guarantee a ‘level up’ to your web presence. And a good web presence will make you stand out in the search engine rankings and bring more customers to you.
Online ordering will boost your productivity by eliminating the inefficient process of taking orders. It will help you to plan and implement an adaptive marketing campaign.
Utilising the latest online ordering technology for your restaurant will also help you to tap into a massive customer base which is tech-savvy and believes in ‘online way’.
You can reach us at info@restolabs.com and we will set up a free trial for your online ordering system. With online ordering on board, you will become more competitive and you wouldn’t need to share a chunk of your profits with an aggregator.
