1. Wait ! Are you really not online yet

In the post pandemic world, it’s rare to have a business model that does not include online sales. Here are some easy steps to get your restaurant taking online orders, fast!

With other restaurants in your area taking online orders, allowing their customers to easily browse their menus and place their orders, now is the time to add this sales avenue. Most online ordering solutions provide customers with a history of their orders, as well as allow them to place orders using facebook or instagram stores. The following are important areas to think about to ensure that your online store runs efficiently for you, your staff, and customers.

2. Keep your menu simple & expressive

Complex online menus can be confusing and frustrating for customers to navigate, especially those with complex modifier and sub modifier options.  A limited selection of items, a couple of 3 course meal choices and a family pack that represent your top selling items is a great approach. 

Pictures, pictures and pictures; look at pictures that your customers have posted on Yelp or Instagram and use them (with appropriate permission, if needed) – pictures are a great way to give your customer an idea of what to expect.

Include relevant details regarding ingredients, allergies and any other information that will help customers make informed decisions.

3. Set expectations

Make sure your online system allows you to manage your pick up times, delivery areas, delivery and service fees. With different types of products and customers from different places there is no one size fit for all orders. Getting these details right is important to setting reasonable expectations for customers and making it manageable for you.

Here are a few recommendations:

a)    Providing various fulfillment options is one of the most important steps. While eCommerce and Online ordering have traditionally operated on shipping only, that has all changed in 2020. Most effective options may be Curbside Pickup, Instore Pickup or even have your own crew do the local delivery. This adds options that work well in today’s environment. 

b)    Defining various shipping rules are very important, as well. It is a known fact that customers prefer to have free shipping options. While it may not be cost effective to provide free shipping for every single order, custom shipping rules come in handy in those situations. Free Shipping based on a certain threshold, Custom Shipping Rules based on Weight and specific products are very commonly used to balance business and customer satisfaction.  Local businesses should be able to set up a nominal fee for local delivery based on delivery zones and rules.  

c)    When an order is placed it is important to keep the customer appraised of the progress. When a customer shops in store they already have the products in hand and customers are anxious to get what they bought as soon as possible. Disclosing delivery windows and lead fulfillment times can help to set these expectations realistically. Email Alerts or notification also improve the communication regarding the order.  

4. Engage your customer

Many email marketing solutions have social media engagement tools including those that allow your customers and potential customers to get to know you across all channels.  Have cross promotions between your website and your social channels, tied in with a targeted ad campaign to always stay in front of your customers. They love your brand, they want to support you during the downturn – give them opportunities to do that by purchasing from you.

5. Open a gift shop

Convert your restaurant space into a gift shop – sell wines from your wine list at a discounted price – package food in serving dishes like Staub, for an upscale heat and serve option – maybe a take out meal combined with fun reusable products like those from Aplat.  Offer meal subscription plans so your customers never have to worry about what to cook up for Wednesday night dinner, they just swing by and pick it up every week. Other interesting products like Repour or glasses for wine drinkers, or kitchen tools from GIR for the in home chef. Fun ways to add revenue and add excitement for your customers.

6. Streamline Order Processing

With orders coming in online, via the phone and walkin orders, it is important to streamline the business. From the time you accept the order, keep track of inventory all the way to fulfillment and delivery are key steps in streamlining order processing. Having the proper tools at each stage is important. 

a)    A system which can track the inventory from the time an order is placed or processed is important. Most small and medium size businesses use one of their locations with a shared inventory pool for the fulfillment. 

b)    Solutions such as Orderup app allow you to manage the fulfillment lifecycle, to see all your orders, notify customers of the status and process even without investing in a Point of Sale or using a browser. Orderup can print delivery receipts and even send notifications to customers as you manage your order.  

c)     When you offer curbside delivery options, tools should be automated to support the option of payment at pickup. Orderup offers payment acceptance using handheld devices with contactless checkout and print or email receipt 

d)    Last, but not least, look at automating using available tools to ensure that orders are processed smoothly and efficiently. Whether it is automatically printing your picklist of orders on your kitchen printer or automatically creating shipping labels and using shipstation, it is important to understand where efficiencies can be improved and automate wherever possible.   

Steps taken now, will help your restaurant success during these challenging times and prosper in the future, as customers will demand these new approaches to ordering and restaurant services beyond the near term situation. Embrace the changes in customer expectations to improve and success for years to come.

Checkout retailcloud’s Online Ordering System for Restaurants – Click Here!

Checkout retailcloud’s Fulfillment Solution app – Click Here!

Checkout retailcloud’s eCommerce Solution – Click Here!

 

It’s time to refocus your online ordering efforts – back in March when you first rolled it out it was a stop gap measure for a few months and then outdoor dining happened and things settled back to normal – the hurdles you experienced when you set up your online store were minimized as customers returned to your restaurant and enjoyed all the benefits of outdoor dining.

Now as many states are calling for shutdowns and prohibiting outdoor dining or where the weather is just not conducive to it – it’s time to get back to online ordering and curbside delivery. Except now, you need to be more exact about how you do it – your customers continue to be loyal and supportive, but they are expecting a more efficient process from you. So how do you do that?

You need a multi-tiered strategy that allows you to draw customers using third party delivery apps but then convert them to your no commission ordering system.  There are three challenges in developing your online ordering system

a)       How do you draw customers?

b)      How to manage orders and deliveries?

c)       How do you engage customers on reorders and other promotions?

Third party providers eat up a significant part of your revenue in fees, although they do cast a wide net for you in terms of reaching customers. It’s not unusual to see fees of 20-25% from these services, and while it may make sense to pay that for delivering the customer the first time, it’s not feasible for operators to continue to pay that high a percentage all the time.

Operators must incorporate their own online technologies that will allow them to move customers from these third parties to “direct” orders thus eliminating these fees. These online systems are flat fee with no commissions, no server and hosting fees which means more money in your pocket as an operator; which is key in today’s environment. These online ordering sites can be up and running in less than 24-48 hours in most cases and have nominal startup fees, if any.

Having your own online site allows you to manage the offers, the brand experience and ultimately control your costs and margin; and while third party sites perform an important role in driving new customers; your online ordering system will provide you with key data on your customers allowing you to manage the relationship moving forward. So use a third party system; but then move that customer to your online ordering system.

The next area to focus on is order processing. Your online system should allow you to centrally manage your orders and update customers as the order gets processed and ready for pickup; keeping customers notified in real time greatly improves your customers experience and creates a very favorable impression of your brand. Updates create transparency in the whole ordering process and removes the mystery of will my order be ready, how long do I have to wait to pick it up etc. Having a way of clearly labeling and organizing the orders at the point of pickup with marketing and promotional information (such as a napkin or tag with a coupon code on your OLO site) also allows you to start the migration from a third party delivery service to your online ordering. Another way of doing this is by raising your prices on third party sites, but including a discounted price on your direct site; many restaurants find this the single most successful tool in encouraging customers to use their direct sites.

Lastly, use your POS or Online Ordering CRM to start building your customer data; create facebook and Instagram links to your OLO page for multi channel reach; promote your online ordering page in your restaurant, on your web page and through email campaigns,  offer a loyalty program that’s tied into your online site that’s tied into experiences and services, rather than just free product; it’s clear that customers want to support local restaurants and are open to engaging with them as brands – you can’t do that if you are not willing to protect your brand and the relationship with your customers.


Checkout retailcloud’s Online Ordering System for Restaurants – Click Here!