How to Generate More Orders on Your Restaurant’s Website?

Did you know that ordering online isn’t just a luxury but a necessity nowadays? The goal of setting up your restaurant website is not only for increasing brand awareness, but also for your restaurant to generate more orders. Why? This is to convert traffic and audience into paying customers when they learn about your latest offering or be intrigued by your technology – say, an online ordering system.

Establishing your restaurant’s online presence is one thing, but generating additional revenue from this stream is another. Wouldn’t if be awesome to get the best of both worlds? Check out these key factors that contribute to generating more orders from your website:

Engaging website

Remember, you’re trying to offer a great ordering experience even online. Traffic is generated by how your website looks. Is it visually appealing? Is it engaging? The way your website looks speaks loudly of your brand, your product, and services. So, your website will do well to look professional, but not boring. Therefore, your customers have to get a feel of what dining at your place, or trying out your menu, is like.  They should feel the need to satiate their hunger with your offering.

Below are three things to consider when planning your website:

  • Design

First impressions last, they say. And to drive traffic to your website, your ideal customers must be attracted to it. Why? For the simple reason that the way, your website intrigues your customers will most likely depend on what they see on your website. The way your website is arranged and feels as they browse will matter.

So make your website stand out from the rest.

Your website design must be user-friendly and the experience it gives to your customer is superior. You can consult or hire a User Interface and User Experience Designer to help you in attaining this goal. It’s very important that your design will show your unique brand image. It needs also to have a tone that’s conversational and is functional. Functional means that all your plug-in have content on it. Avoid putting plug-ins without any content. It will leave a bad impression on your customers, and ultimately, their ordering behavior.

  • Content

Images or videos alone cannot fully engage your customers. You also need to create content that’s conversational, informational and engaging. Provide your customers with new ideas about your restaurant. You can allocate a blog to discuss your thoughts. An example is discussing some dining etiquettes to follow in a restaurant. Other related information on the restaurant industry is welcome to be written in your blog.

The content of your site – like your company profile, menu, or investment opportunities (if any), must be written in a conversational tone, and informative. Not in an academic style or similar to a business plan. Your services like your online ordering system must also have a short content. You can choose to have an infographic about your system. This is to show to the customers how it works and the steps they should take to place their orders.

Choose your content wisely and with relevance. Unrelated content should never find its place on your website. It will confuse your customers and they might leave your website.

You would not want this to happen, right?

  • Interactive Tools

You know how boring it is to stare on black content and watch videos without any tools that will let you do some related stuff.  Don’t let your customers feel the same too on your website.  If you are aiming for more orders, you need to put interactive tools together with your content or videos.  Some of these tools are a calculator. You can let your customers compute for themselves the discount they will get if they will order your bundled menu. Also, you can embed a calculator or a cost estimator that instantly produces a quote for bulk orders or party packages. Therefore, your customers can plan on their budget more efficiently.

Another interactive tool is a short quiz that you’ll give to your customers after they read your blogs. Customized puzzles that relate say for example to your new menu offering content or videos is another interactive tool. The key here is that your customers will be busy with stuff while reading or viewing your website contents. Letting them have fun while at your website is awesome way to connect with them.

If you can give them some small treats (pastries, discounts, loyalty points) after engaging with your interactive tools the better. It will not provide you more orders in your online ordering system but your dining segment as well.

Sounds very good, right?

Customer orders feedback system

This is another interactive tool but because of its importance, we separated it for you. Always let your customers feel that very important people’s status or royalty treatment is a rule of staying in the business. This rule does not exempt your digital presence. Your website should have a separate customer feedback form.

Your customer feedback form is not only used in resolving customer complaints. This is probably one of the most important parts of your website. This is so you can learn what’s going on in the mind of your customers while experiencing your website. You can learn on their feedback on the level of satisfaction they had with you. And why they chose to order from your restaurant. In this way, you can generate more orders from them.

Structure your customer feedback form based on the information you need from your customers. Say, for example, to get a good grip of what your customers think of your offering – include a feedback form within your contact page.

Another rule is that make your customer feedback form short, direct to the point and simple.

Menu presentation

The way you will be presenting your menu on your website will determine if your customers will place their orders with you. Make sure that your menu is presented in a palatable but professional way. Remember that the way your menu is printed in your menu cards is different in how it looks in your digital presence.  Choose your menu photographs well; put those menu photographs that will entice your customer’s appetite. The idea is that upon looking at your menu they will feel hunger. They would want to order to you.

Another tip on your menu presentation put your menu in order starting from your appetizers, main course, side dishes, and desserts. Your beverages must also be presented in order from your sodas, juices, and wines.

 Locator app

Let your customers easily know where your locations are. On your website, place a locator app that’s easily seen so your customers know which location is accessible should they prefer to reserve a table and dine in. This is also helpful for your online delivery orders because your nearest branch to your customer’s location is identifiable.

Your next step – online ordering system

After learning some of the things you need to do to make your website generate more orders, what’s next? Tip: list down the above as action items on your next planning session. Consequently, evaluate and discuss this list with your team.

Check out how we can help you with all of this!

If your restaurant is looking for an online ordering system

contact us now.

Restaurant Online Ordering System: A Beginner’s Guide

Planning to have your own restaurant online ordering system is a great way to expand your business and provide superior customer experience. Let’s start the process and put together the system in your restaurant.

If you’re a beginner, you’re in luck. We put together a quick guide to setting up a restaurant online ordering system for busy entrepreneurs who like to get their restaurants online:

Check Your Market

In checking your market, consider the following:

  • Your goals

First, you need to identify your goals in setting up your restaurant online ordering system. Is it to drive more sales to your restaurant or offer another option for your loyal customers? Choosing your goals will determine the actions you will take. It will guide you to the right path leading up to your priorities and evaluation later on.

  • Restaurant location

Your location will help you to identify the kind of customers you currently have and who you’ll be targeting in your online ordering system. Your customer demographics are very important so that you can personalize your system to suit their needs. Remember, an effective online ordering system should, first and foremost, answer the needs and even wants of your customers.

Your location will also determine the hit rate you will target for your team. Your hit rate is the measurement of the time you’re able to deliver your customer’s order from the time you received orders

  • Competition

Check your competition. How many restaurants are there in your area that already have an online ordering system? What app or platform are they using? How long have they been in operation? Consider researching out to your target market as well. Conduct surveys or interviews with a few people. After you get all the data, examine them and include them as your reference to your next course of action.

  • Engagement

Assess your current engagement with your customers. Check on how many customers dine in your restaurant on a daily, weekly, or monthly average. Compare this with your competitor data (those who already have established their presence online). From there, you can project your reach when you set up your online ordering system. Your current engagement rate will give you an idea about the improvements you need to make in order to get more customer engagements. Remember your customer engagement is critical to the success of your online ordering system.

Choose a Great Provider

After considering your market you need to look for a great provider to help you set up your restaurant online ordering system. You should choose a provider that offers an affordable yet reliable technology. The app should also suit your type of restaurant and can be flexible. It should be flexible that you can add some features later on like a waitlist or a loyalty program.  A great provider that also has a reliable customer service hotline that you can contact should there be any issues as you implement your system.

Great news for you!

 Taker is one of these great providers that can help you in your online ordering system.

Prepare Your Restaurant Profile

You need to complete your restaurant profile. Why? It will help you to see areas where you have to improve and your strengths over your competitors. It will also tell you if you’re ready to have your online ordering system.

Your restaurant profile consists of the following:

  • Restaurant category

Are you a portion of fast food, casual dining, family dining or a fine dining restaurant? Your restaurant category will determine your approach to your online ordering system. For example, if your restaurant is fast food your hit rate should be less than 30 minutes for orders made near your location. If your category is casual dining you need to add more minutes. Likewise, the looks of your system will also follow your category. If you’re a family dining restaurant your app should show it.

  • Management team

You must consider the members of your management team and that includes you.  Put the profile of your Restaurant Manager and Assistant Restaurant Managers as well as Supervisors (if any). This will help you determine their skills and the involvement they must take in the success of your system. If one of your Assistant Managers is a graduate in information technology he can help you in understanding the basics of your system. He can also collaborate with your provider development team.

  • Sales performance

You need a quick analysis of your sales performance for the past year and months. This is to project your sales target to your team once your system is in place. Your sales should increase after implementing your online ordering system. Project your sales target on a monthly basis, quarterly and yearly. In this mode, you also need to make a review and take action.

Your online ordering system will be a great help in increasing your sales performance.

There are other things to consider under your restaurant profile. You can add them as you see fit we just provided the major things you need to consider.

Menu Planning

Accept the fact that before putting your online ordering system you need to review your menu. Put your best and trademark menu in your system and add more if you can. Quality menu and being able to improve it will help in your success. You need to collaborate with your research and development department so that you can suggest new menu offerings.

A tip on menu planning is that you need to arrange your menu based on your restaurant category.

Check Your Logistics and Supplies

You will be expecting that you will have additional orders once you launched your online ordering system. Check your logistics and supplies. For your delivery orders, make sure that your motorcycles are in good running condition. A motorcycle checklist will help in checking the condition of your motorcycles. Check your supplies inventory, you should add and order your stocks before launching your system.

Train Your Team

Not every one of your team is knowledgeable in your online ordering system. You need to conduct a quick training to your team about it. You can request help from your provider on your training. This is important so that once your system is implemented, everybody can execute well.

Take a Dry Run

In order to validate if your team understand well your training, a dry run needs to be done.  A dry run is implementing your system in your restaurant in a controlled environment. This is done to check the level of understanding and correct mistakes of your team before full implementation. You can make a dry run 1 day before the implementation of your online ordering system.

Your next step

Take advantage of an online ordering system with every benefit it has to offer.

Begin your journey today!

If your restaurant is looking for an online ordering system

contact us now.

Restaurant Technology: A 5-Point Checklist for Your Business

Imagine your customers who keep coming back to your restaurant not only because of your awesome menu but also because, they look forward to experiencing your latest restaurant technology. Imagine your customers are comfortable placing their orders through a modern ordering kiosk.

Sounds great, does it?

Compared to your traditional operations where customers line up to your restaurant counter to place orders. While waiting, they may get bored and may have nothing to do before their orders are delivered.

Did you know that this traditional approach in your restaurant has the potential to be evaluated and improve? Since technology is now being adopted by a lot of restaurants,  it helps to consider revisiting your system with the intention of updating them and adapting a modern approach for more efficient systems.

Below are 5 factors worth considering before adopting the latest technology in your restaurant operations.

Improve Brand Awareness

Branding is important in your restaurant and the more cutting-edge your restaurant technology is, the better. Why? It’s what sets you apart from your competitors. Letting your customers experience top-notch service by using state of the art technology will help you become a top choice for customers who are delighted by the level of service offered at your restaurant.

With the advancement of technology, don’t let your restaurant get far behind. The future of improving brand awareness is no longer be limited to marketing your brand to users through published web content and digital marketing campaigns.

With the development of artificial intelligence, chatbots, and conversational interfaces,  the trend will continuously evolve.

Restaurant technology improves your brand by giving you reach and leads beyond your markets. You can use it to leverage your presence and make your customers want you.

Provide Great Dining Experience

Customers enter your restaurant with one ultimate goal- that’s to feast! Customers are hungry, exhausted, and they need refreshments. The best you can do is provide a great dining experience for them.

In a nutshell, a great dining experience means that the overall experience of your customers while eating in your restaurant is great. You can measure your success by how your customers are able to enjoy your spot, the menu, and last but not least, the service.

By using restaurant technology, you’re able to let them enjoy a great dining experience. For example, instead of letting them fall in line and manually take their orders – you can choose to have a kiosk-type of ordering machine in your restaurant.

You can also use an interactive and user-friendly menu. Another way is to use waitlists technology for your table management. Taker has the technology to help you with this.

Remember that a great dining experience promotes repeat business and customer loyalty. And you know what repeat business means right? More sales for you!

Faster Service Delivery

Hungry customers will expect prompt and fast service from you. Attention span becomes shorter – from the moment customers enter your restaurant until their food is served. Restaurant technology – like a bump system technology, can help you with achieving this.

What’s a bump system technology? This is a technology where your customers are assigned an order number after their orders are taken. It will then help the kitchen staff manage the fulfillment of orders (like preparing the order of customer #1 before preparing customer #2’s) through the order numbering system.

Your kitchen personnel can see the order numbers arranged on a first in, first out system in their monitors. So, the monitors are distributed on the different kitchen stations where the menu is prepared. A central monitor usually located at your dispatching area is the one that consolidates the orders. When a certain order is already late the order will blink in red color. This will help your kitchen personnel to prioritize the order and your dining staff to talk with the customers.

Restaurant technology will allow you a faster service hit rate and saves you time.

Efficient Turn-Around Time

What’s your turn-around time? Your turn-around time determines how many people have dined in your restaurant at a given time. The faster it is the better because it means that you’re able to maximize your space for your customers. This directly translates to your restaurant sales.

By using restaurant technology you’re able to make your turn-around time faster which means for an hour you’re able to feed a hundred people given your limited space. Sounds fun right? It does not stop there.

You can also measure your turn-around time by using online delivery technology. It tracks the time from the moment your customers placed their orders until they receive it.  

By using technology, you are able to track the performance of your team in an objective way.

Establish Customer Ownership

The end-users of restaurant technology are not only you but also your customers. So, if you got awesome and easy to use technology, your customers will appreciate it.  They will look forward to using your technology. They will establish ownership to it and this builds loyalty.

For example, they’re comfortable in using your kiosk ordering machine they will not go to other restaurants using a different technology. Choose your technology well, not all can satisfy and establish customer ownership.

Great Takeaway From Us

Restaurant technology is a broad topic of conversation and there a lot to discuss when it comes to infusing technology to your food business.

Having a reliable, accurate, and knowledge of technology can give you an advantage knowing that your operation is taken care of. Traditional restaurants need not completely lose touch of their humble beginnings but can do well with using technology as a leverage to set the bar higher and improve operations. It also helps teams perform well across all facets of the restaurant operations.

Don’t be the last on the technology race, join the bandwagon and start charting your success.

If your restaurant is looking for an online ordering system

contact us now.

Geofencing Updates & More – September 2019

We’re bringing you new cool features and improvements in the August release. We believe that you’re going to enjoy them very much. Here is what we’ve done: 

Areas with Geofencing 

Previously you only were able to add your delivery area based on Google Maps areas which have some limitations. Now you can add your custom areas with your own geofencing. 

User Profile Points

If you have Loyalty Points enabled, now you can manually add points to the user straight from his profile. 

Item Sales Report Filtering

We’ve added a Category filter to help you get to the item sales quickly. 

Improvements on the Subscription Management

We’ve introduced a few improvements to the subscription add-on which are going to help you manage them. Here is what’s new:

  • Delivery/Pickup Time: now your customers can select the time to get their food daily.
  • Deactivated Status: if subscription ends, it goes deactivated.
  • Next Status column: on the subscription list, we’ve added this column to tell you when the subscription status is going to change and to which status. 
  • Orders Details Export: in the Subscription Orders tab, you can export all of todays orders in Excel and PDF with the details of the items to be prepared. 
  • Subscription Orders Export: this feature is to export customers invoices with everyday subscription.

Waitlist

What we’ve done with the Waitlist add-on is that the customers now can view their reservations on their account. Also, the branch staff member can now view and manage his branch’s waitlist only. 

How is Technology Transforming the Restaurant Industry?

Technology has made the development of many innovative ideas in almost all major fields of human endeavors possible; including the restaurant industry.

Innovation in technology has made our lives easier in such a way that some things that were virtually impossible to accomplish before, are now possible – thanks to the latest developments in digital transformation. So, how do these affect the way the foodservice industry does business and deal with customers? Below, we rounded up the7 ways technology is reshaping the restaurant industry.

Drives Sales and Growth

How? Gone are the days where newspaper, print, and tv ads are the only marketing platform available to reach your customers. Today, not only did technology make marketers’ lives easier, it made marketing campaigns cheaper, too. With just a few clicks of a button on social media channels and emails, you are able to reach out to an even wider market.

Everybody uses smartphones now. Businesses use this fact to take advantage of marketing, sales and growth opportunities. Buying decisions are made almost instantly when potential customers are presented with the information that they need to make a purchase. Attention span is shorter than ever – and competition is tougher as businesses use all avenues to try and buy in customers with their ideas, latest offerings, and whatnot.

To get tips on how you can drive more sales to your restaurant, read this post.

Automation of Restaurant Systems

Your customers’ dining experience tells a lot about your restaurant’s service level. If you’re averaging 4.5 stars on customer feedback and reviews, then you surely would like to keep it this way. How do you up the ante and keep delivering a great dining experience for every customer that enters your restaurant?

With the use of restaurant systems management apps to automate some of your restaurant systems, you’re on your way to having more time to focus on developing your menu specials and even improve on operation efficacy. Which means more chances of getting those 5-star ratings and excellent service feedback.

Tip: one of the first things you can consider automating is your ordering system. You can put in place an ordering kiosk at your restaurant instead of the usual practice of service staff manually taking orders.

Taker can take care of your ordering system automation. More info here.

Increase Customer Service Efficiency

Technology also helps take innovation to your restaurant customer service. The way in which you respond to your customer inquiries, concerns and issues is critical for business success.  Your response must be quick to offer resolutions for your customers’ issues. Customer complaints are inevitable. But poor customer service is the last thing you want your restaurant to have.

Also, when you use a customer service software where you can set up canned responses and chatbots to direct common customer inquiries to a resource center somewhere on your website it allows for better management of customer issues and inquiries without breaking the bank. You won’t have to hire more employees to man your customer service hotline or live chat round the clock. Doing so is also a nice way to let your customers feel that you’re serious in improving their dining experience.

Reach A Wider Market Segment

Using technology allows your restaurant to tap a wider market segment as compared to simply relying on your current restaurant location. Adapting to the latest trend of online food delivery services This is an opportunity for more brand exposure and a higher chance for growth since you’re no longer restricted by location.

When you are readily available with a simple tap of the “Place Order” button, you are offering your products to a wider audience – who are potential repeat customers (yes, that market segment where a good percentage of restaurant business profits come from).

A Convergence of New Ideas and Existing Methods

This may surprise you but technology is key to bringing new ideas to life – most of which sprung from current methods that are already being implemented in a business. Technology enhances these existing methods to create better results. An example is the preparation of financial statements which usually takes time and effort from your finance department – you can now easily accomplish this by downloading a nifty software off the internet.

Another example is the birth of virtual restaurants that are fully operating online. You can learn more about virtual restaurants here.

Develops Good Corporate Governance

One of the key functions of corporate governance is transparency. With the help of technology, you can now publish company news and performance reports in real-time on your website. Engage your stakeholders, potential investors, and customers by sharing your brand’s story and advocacies.  It humanizes your business and makes your audience feel involved in your brand.

Encourages Customer Loyalty

The best thing your restaurant can get from your customers is their loyalty. When you’re able to establish a good network of loyal customers, your business will thrive. Take advantage of technology to build your customer and fan base – it’s your ticket to business growth. Taker helps restaurants grow by setting up their own loyalty program in their ordering app.

How to delight your customers and keep them coming back for more? Read this post.

Takeaway

Knowing the importance of technology in the restaurant industry isn’t rocket science. But what we laid out above is somewhat just the tip of the iceberg. Technology plays a big part in every industry, but those can be discussed on a different blog post. We do hope that we are able to shed some light on lingering questions you might have if you are currently on the fence about integrating technology into your food business.

By understanding how even the simplest of technology works, you can embrace change, adapt the use of technology to your business, and blend it with the current systems in your restaurant to make your systems and day-to-day operations more efficient, if not better.

If your restaurant is looking for an online ordering system

contact us now.