[Smarter Takeout]

Hi,

Online ordering is a hot topic for restaurant-owners these days. Still however, many of them don’t have a good understanding of what this technology actually gives to customers, staff and owners. Probably, these are the questions that restaurant owners ask to themselves before implementing any cutting-edge technology into their business: What will it give to my customers? How will it help my employees? Finally, what ROI should I expect from this? So here I’ll try to give the answers and share some of my knowledge ( I have some experinece with online ordering as my company developed a takeout online ordering solution for restaurants).

As Internet has become an omnipresent factor in our lives, Americans use it at a large scale for their personal and professional tasks. So it’s not surprising that customers expect their favorite restaurants to provide them with fast, convenient and high-quality services affordable through Internet. In harsh economic climate many restaurants, both local restaurants and their chain competitors, start understanding the great opportunities of integration of Internet technologies into their business to improve relationships with customers.

Sure, when going to your favorite restaurant you pay both for food and experience you get. But the tendency is that more and more consumers today prefer to enjoy stay-at-home meals. Restaurant business-analysts find it unsurprising that more people are opting for takeout meals over eating at restaurants as economic conditions tighten. Then, since people are getting busier these days, they are turning more and more towards online takeout ordering.

Now let’s specify what restaurants’ customers actually get with up-to-date online ordering technologies:

- Customers can make an order directly from home or office

- They can easily find and select restaurant locations and choose the preferred time to pick-up their takeout order

- No waiting on hold, no standing in lines, no order mistakes as customers control the process

- Order history allows customers to select from past orders stored in the system

- Customers can easily customize their orders

- Integration with Google Maps allows them to have driving directions that customer get with order receipt

- No need to go into the restaurant with curbside takeout convenience

- Easy and fast promotions, including specials, coupons and discounts, information about locations, hours of operation, menus, nutritional info…etc.

Now let’s outline how online ordering helps your employees. Basically, it’s not difficult to define.

- Employees no longer have to spend time on the phone, thus they can devote more time to personal service to dine-in customers

- With up-to-date online ordering solutions many tasks performed by staff are automated. This results in reduced human errors and minimizes the time spent on corrections.

- Since customers control the payment process and this process is made automatically through POS system (in case when online ordering software is integrated into your POS, which is actually a common thing these days), there’s less human error in all phases of ordering and payment processes

Now there I would like to give some statistics supported by National Restaurant Association Survey. I hope it will be interesting:

-60% of adults between the ages 18 – 34 claim to be more interested in home delivery than dining in the restaurant

- Half of the consumers said they would take advantage of a delivery service from their preferred restaurants if it were available

- 35% of people said they have or would order online from their favorite restaurant if they offered the service

- Nearly 20% of customers have already placed online orders and made online reservation

- Nearly 70% of operators regard online ordering as an up-and-coming order innovation

- Nearly 40% of customers say that they would like to receive an e-mail daily from their favorite local restaurant to know what the specials are for that day

- Nearly 20% of quick-service restaurants provide their clients with an online ordering option

- Most popular restaurant chains get about 25% of their orders through online and mobile ordering

Now, let’s turn to ROI. ROI is the bottom-line, sure. Innovations in business demand wise investments. With that said, I would like to submit a link here that may be helpful for you. It will help you see approximate figures of the profit increase you can obtain with takeout online ordering integration.


I really hope this information is helpful!