Expand your restaurant past its four walls with online ordering and an improved online presence.
The internet and social media provide increased opportunities for venues to grow their audience by generating new and maintaining current customers. Apps such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok provide the opportunity for restaurants to showcase their delicious food offerings with ease. This can entice customer sales and help to increase restaurant profitability.
Find out how a strong digital presence can improve your business by increasing online ordering and improving customer experience.
1. Better customer experience
Provide your customers with what they want, when they want it with the added flexibility of at-table and online ordering. Every customer has different needs and with this added flexibility your staff can address the varying dynamics of each and every customer encounter.
Through maintaining a strong online presence, the customer experience is enhanced. Customer relationships are strengthened through being transparent and creating a space for open communication, where updates can be regularly shared. For example - keep your customers informed with your opening hours on public holidays when you might be operating extended or limited hours. Customers are more likely to return to your venue and recommend it if they experienced a great customer experience, which you can help improve through your social media platforms.
2. Online ordering & QR codes at-table
Online ordering and QR codes at-table provide customers with the added flexibility of allowing them to pay how they’d like.
In-venue QR codes speed up the ordering process by accepting at-table orders as well as for pickup and delivery. Integrate your POS system with HungryHungry to allow all online orders to be sent directly to your POS. This process allows customers to get their orders in faster by eliminating the lining up process, as well as the food coming out faster. This is made possible due to orders being sent directly to the kitchen, where chefs start working on it right away. As well as reducing wait time this process also ensures that customers have paid for their orders reducing the number of walk outs.
Customers are likely to spend more on their orders when they order through at-table ordering, unlocking an average of 35% more revenue per customer.
Let’s look at some tactics your venue can implement when it comes to increasing revenue per order via QR codes:
- Display images and high-revenue items at the top of your menu; some venues have seen a 98% increase in sales using this.
- Allow customers to input add on items like extra sauces etc.
- Advertise on socials that your venue offers at-table and online ordering.
3. Social media platforms
There are many social platforms your brand can be across, however you need to choose the platforms that resonate with your customer base and focus your efforts on them.
Think of your social media pages as communication channels and a free marketing tool that creates a place to engage with customers. Keep them informed and build a sense of community.
Customers love seeing behind the scenes in your venue. This can be captured through videos and images of processes customers normally wouldn’t get to see, like chefs assembling meals in the kitchen.
Have you ever looked at a restaurant's Insta account before visiting to see their offerings? Well, you're not alone. Many customers use restaurant images on Instagram to help them decide what to order when dining in. Therefore, keeping your Instagram posts up to date is important and make sure all your dishes are displayed.
Your social pages can also help drive traffic to your website. Adding online ordering links to all your social platforms is an easy way to direct customers to order online. These convenient links can help to increase the volume of online orders.
4. Build your brand
Customers can learn all about your brand; who you are and what you do via your online platforms. Build your brand online through developing a brand personality. You can develop your brand personality by consistently posting engaging content that reflects the desired personality. This helps to provide a human connection that assists in building your brands awareness and credibility.
- Sending regular emails helps to build up a loyal customer base. Build your brand by offering customers updated info or providing them with promo codes and discounts to encourage them to return to your venue.
- Increase credibility through reviews. Get on restaurant listings in your area such as Zomato and Google and request your customers to leave reviews. According to Capterra, 98% of Australians read online reviews before they make a purchase, and 94% believe them to be trustworthy. With increased positive reviews you are more likely to receive increased customer visits resulting in boosted profits.
5. Optimise your website
To bring in more website traffic and potential customers you want your website to be search engine optimised. Meaning when someone searches for a local restaurant near them, your page pops up. An optimised website results in increased sales and brand visibility.
Make the user experience a positive one by optimising your website with high quality images of your food and descriptions of your menu to help entice customers to visit or order online.
There are many ways to help improve your businesses search-ability on Google however, there is no exact methodology. Here are some points to consider for a higher ranking on Google.
- Incorporate keywords your customers might search for
- Include text description for images
- Check your page load time
- Make sure your website design is adaptative across multiple devices, making it easy to navigate on any device.
6. Boost revenue by selling gift cards through your website
Increasing your online presence can help lead more traffic to your website, so make the most of this by introducing the ability for customers to purchase gift cards right there and then. This is an easy way for your venue to boost revenue with minimal effort.
A POS integrated reservations system such as Now Book It can help you manage the functionality of providing customer gift cards and more.
How can OrderMate help?
Implementing these methods will help increase your online presence and boost your restaurants online orders.
OrderMate can help you manage the influx of new online orders coming in, by streamlining your operations. Through integrations OrderMate connects all your online ordering platforms to your POS. These orders are sent directly to the kitchen, increasing the speed you can get orders to your customers. OrderMate’s KTS displays can even replace dockets and printers to help you streamline your processes and reduce double handling.
If you are interested in hearing more about how the OrderMate POS system can boost your profits, contact our team today to find out how.
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