Digital Restaurant Orders Increased 23 Percent Last Year – How Can You Take Advantage?

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Increasingly, consumers are turning to technology to take care of basic daily tasks. If you want your restaurant to be part of this technological revolution, you must make it easy for your customers to order meals from computers or mobile phones. It’s also essential that you keep them informed on what you have to offer.

Website

Update your website to ensure it is fully responsive on mobile devices. Many restaurants post their menus on their website, often as a PDF, which is not ideal for mobile phones. Consider instead how popular restaurants such as Panera or Chipotle list their menu items. Typically, they are listed with check boxes where you can select and customized your preferred meal choices. This is especially popular with diners with specific dietary needs or preferences because it gives them a place to detail their needs and a paper trail to refer to. Better yet if they can save their preferences, it will encourage repeat business.

Mobile Options

While some orders are placed on the desktop, most ordering will be done via mobile. It’s important to make it quick and easy for customers. Younger diners in particular have little patience for glitchy apps, so thoroughly test any app your restaurant develops or uses though partnership. The app should make it easy for diners to order through their phones for pickup and delivery. Any number of partners, such as GrubHub, offer options to order and pay using PayPal or credit cards. The availability of this kind of service can also broaden your reach beyond the parameters of your physical restaurant space.

Marketing Your Digital Options

Most diners are aware they can order online from chain restaurants, but they may not know the same options are available at their local favorite. Get the word out through advertising. Add it to your website or include it in your social media and on marketing materials such as placemats and coasters or door stickers.

Loyalty Programs

Make digital ordering part of your loyalty program. You can allow members to accumulate points for ordering via the app or make it easy to manage through the app. For example, the Starbucks app which allows you to accumulate rewards points that can be exchanged for free drinks.

Trust the Restaurant Recruiters at Horizon Hospitality

As industry experts, Horizon Hospitality is committed to staying ahead of the restaurant technology curve. If you need help recruiting restaurant managers and executives, contact a leading restaurant recruiter today to start your search.

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