In a sit-down restaurant, new menu items are sold through menu inserts, easels, and as part of the introduction given by the wait staff.  In an online environment such as NetWaiter there are also a number of ways you can promote new menu items and changes.  Here are a few tips:

Maintain an Interactive Online Menu.  Nothing makes a customer twitch more than outdated information on a website.  With an easy-to-use interactive web-based menu, you can also update your menu without calling a website designer.  It’s also easy to highlight changes or new additions.

High Quality Images.  We’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth repeating.  A quality photo of a new menu item says more than any description.  Post it on your interactive menu, but also get it on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.  You want those images shared.

Include Social Media Buttons.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - all of them.  Make it easy for people to spread the word about your new menu items.  Remember that certain social media sites are favored by different age groups.  Facebook is now considered an “old folks” platform.  Younger people tend to use Instagram and Twitter.  You may want to alter your message based on the platform.

Create Buzz with “Partnerships”.  Try naming a new item after someone popular in the community.  At the very least, they will promote the item and your restaurant for you.  You’ll make this person and all their family and friends advocates for your restaurant. Imagine the buzz.

Has your restaurant ever been blindsided by an online complaint?  It doesn’t matter if it’s about your online business, or an in-restaurant experience – it’s not a good feeling.  Whether it’s legitimate, or something totally unwarranted – you need to know how to respond. 

Often it’s based on a misunderstanding or a failure to respond early, when a complaint is fresh.  A recent webinar from the National Restaurant Association had some tips on how to respond to these online complaints.

• Don’t be the last person to find out about a problem at your restaurant, or with a takeout order. Get familiar with the tools.  Use Google Alerts, monitor Yelp.  Have systems in place. 

• This isn’t personal, so don’t get defensive.  Your goal is to neutralize these incidents. 

• Take responsibility online.  Denying that it happened is usually the wrong tactic.  If it’s a completely false or bogus complaint, contact the site (i.e. Yelp) and have them remove it. 

• Get the response public and prominent.  Don’t be the 75th person to comment.  Tell the complainant that you want make it right.  Make sure everyone sees it. 

• Treat your online communication as carefully and as thoughtfully as you would in-person.  You don’t want these things going viral.

• If you are posting online, keep everything positive.  If a customer persists with negativity, take the conversation offline by suggesting they call you. 

• Train employees with your approach to handling complaints so that your staff speaks in one voice. 

• If complaints are routine or happening in patterns, it can indicate a weakness in your operation.  Use that information to your benefit and correct the issues. 

Be persistent to make things right.  People tend to remember the last thing you did for them.  It could be a big problem or small dilemma, but if you bend over backwards to make things right, that’s what they will remember most. 

 

In a blog post earlier this month, we talked about how NetWaiter’s online ordering system can help you cater to increased demand for customization - requests for extra meat, double avocado, or other add-ons.

To help accommodate these requests, in addition to upselling the order, it’s important to include any paid option as a selection customers can click to add.  But what happens if a customer enters a separate request in the Special Instructions field that should incur an additional charge?

These special instructions, which restaurants are happy to fulfill, can cause a difficulty when an order is pre-paid. Do you honor the request for extra turkey, even though you haven’t been paid for it, or do you hold off and not include it?

To address this, NetWaiter has developed a Secondary Transaction Feature to allow a restaurant to run a separate charge on a customer’s card, after the initial transaction, to pay for that special request.

This is also a handy feature to add a tip.  A customer may not have thought about a tip when placing their online order, but the Secondary Transaction Feature allows delivery drivers to add a tip to an order, after the initial payment, if the customer tells them to.

Another new addition to NetWaiter is the Hidden Item list.  NetWaiter has always allowed restaurants to “hide” items on their menu, most often because the kitchen has run out of a key ingredient or the item was a limited special that may come back in the future.

This new feature shows “All Hidden Items” in one section of the Management Console for easy management.  Managers can see all items on their menu that are hidden, in one place, and then unhide those that they want to be available again.

 

What influences a customer when making a purchase online?  Although these stats* apply to all online purchases, they are very much applicable to restaurants and restaurant online ordering.


Site Speed and Visuals:
•    After waiting 3 seconds, 57% of visitors will abandon a site if it’s still loading.  80% of those people will never return.
•    Visitors will leave a site within 10 to 20 seconds if it doesn’t immediately resonate with them or provide value.

This is why it’s critical your online ordering site is fully branded to your restaurant.  Customers need to ‘connect’ with your brand immediately or you may lose their business.  If your website links to a portal – you’re most likely losing a lot of business.

•    92.6% say visuals are the top factor influencing a purchase decision.

Showing high quality images of items on your menu can really benefit online sales.

Checkout Process:
•    67.4% of shoppers across all types of sites will abandon the checkout process.  That means just over 30% of visitors complete a purchase they start.  

With NetWaiter, nearly 80% of visitors complete a transaction after they select their first item.  That’s a HUGE difference.

Top Reasons for Abandonment Include:
•    41% - Hidden charges at checkout.
•    10% - Lengthy checkout process.

NetWaiter’s goal is to get the customer through the ordering process in as few clicks as possible – hence our very high conversion rate.

Other Interesting Information on Abandonment:
•    Men are more likely to abandon a purchase.
•    25 to 44 year-olds are the worst offenders when it comes to giving up on a purchase.

Considering the importance of this age group to online ordering.  This is why it’s critical to make the online ordering experience quick and easy for customers.

*Credit to The Marketing Donut and other sources.

Millennials – adults 18 to 35 years old – are the ideal candidates for restaurant online ordering.  Many of them don’t remember a time before the Internet.  Most of them have a connected device within arm’s reach, day or night, whether it’s a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.  Restaurant online ordering is natural for them.

There are, however, some things you need to know about this group – things that can make a difference for your restaurant and your online ordering business…

20% Less.  Millennials, as a group, currently eat out 20% less than other demographic groups. The Great Recession affected them profoundly.  They aren’t afraid to cook for themselves; however, they don’t like to cook all of the time.

The Amazon Generation.  Millennials don’t remember a time when there was no Amazon.com.  The result: they expect a user-centric, friction-free experience with their business transactions.

Loyalty.  Millennials are loyal, so much so that they don’t need or care a lot about loyalty programs.  A friction-free experience is much more important.  As a group, millennials are the least likely to review sites such as Yelp when making decisions.  They know what they want.

Window of Opportunity.  More than 50% of millennials make their buying decision in the six-hour window before they eat, with 29% of that group admitting that the window is closer to one-hour.  17% of millennials don’t even plan that far in advance.  Getting your message to them when they are deciding is important.  Millennials also like businesses that communicate with technologies they prefer – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Key Lessons:
•    Millennials expect consistent and convenient service more than discounts and loyalty clubs.
•    Communicate frequently and with the right platforms to reach millennials.  Stay top-of-mind so they choose your restaurant whenever they decide to place an order.
•    Make your takeout and delivery as convenient as possible.  Millennials may dine at restaurants less, but they don’t always want to cook for themselves.  Your restaurant’s online ordering site is the key to their dilemma.

You may have noticed NetWaiter recently released some upgrades to its restaurant online ordering system.  So far, the customer feedback has been great and we hope you’re hearing good things too.  Here are a few of the upgrades:

More Attractive Site – NetWaiter has created a smoother, more attractive site for customers as they navigate their way through your online ordering site.  The general ordering process has not changed much, however, please feel free to evaluate your custom site design to determine if any ‘refreshing’ may be warranted.

Enhanced Mobile Ordering – Your site is now more user friendly on mobile devices.  Your previous mobile site has been upgraded for easier navigation and performance.  NetWaiter has also extended the Group Ordering feature to be available from mobile devices.  Previously, customers could only join a Group Order from their mobile device.  Now you can initiate a Group Order from any device/computer.

Stronger URL Branding – Previously, when a customer visited your NetWaiter online ordering site, the URL would be shown as www.netwaiter.com/Your_Restaurant. Now, your restaurant name is shown first, to better reflect your restaurant and brand: Your_Restaurant/netwaiter.com.  You do not need to make any changes to the links you have on your website – customers will automatically be redirected.

Making sure your restaurant attracts as many online customers as possible depends, in part, on understanding the “need states” of customers – the needs and key decision-making points of each customer segment.  This is the first of three articles looking at the various types of online customers and their specific needs.  Part 1 looks at Special Occasion Customers.  Part 2 will discuss Routine Customers, and Part 3 will address Impulse Customers.   

Special Occasion Customers.  These patrons want to celebrate a special event – i.e. a birthday or job promotion - with a special takeout meal they can enjoy at home or at some other special location.

• Reliable, dependable service.  Customers know they can depend on you to come through when it really counts.  Their online order is ready when they come in, and the food is always great.

• Attractive, leak-proof containers.  No one wants to mar the occasion by having to clean up a mess.  Also, make sure those containers allow for the best presentation of the meal.  Customers don’t want to open a container and be confronted with “takeout mush.”

• Special Offers.  You might be able to make an extra sale if you offer something special - like a pair of candles to complement their nice meal.  This customer can be easily upsold items because they are ordering for a “special” dinner.  The best way to capture that extra revenue is to cross-sell, like suggesting side orders with entrees.

• What type of special occasion?  You can ask the customer as part of the checkout process: Is this a special occasion? If so, what type?  Based on their answer, you may be able to provide them something special to recognize their celebration.

Fall is a triple witching time for a restaurant’s takeout and delivery business.  Summer travel schedules are mostly done, allowing for more routine dining.  Takeout and delivery gets a boost in business from the double punch of college and professional football games. Then add October for playoff baseball and the World Series.  Some people love ordering in and enjoying the game at home, rather than visiting their local watering hole.

What sells during game time?  Wings see a 45% increase in takeout orders during football season, while orders for beef and broccoli see a 26% jump in the Chinese food category.  Pizza, of course, is off the charts during sporting events.

What can you do to draw that online takeout business to your restaurant?  Here are some tips:

•    Promote specials to customers ordering online.  Order an appetizer for a game and get 50% off a second appetizer.
•    Craft entree and combos that are particularly applicable because they work well for takeout.  These online combos should be “guy-oriented” – like pizza, wings, sandwiches, chips and guacamole - things that go well with sporting events and groups of enthusiastic spectators.

NetWaiter is often asked, “How can my restaurant’s online ordering sales skyrocket immediately?”

First and foremost, every restaurant is different.  We know - that line is never fun to hear, but it’s true.  If people don’t like your restaurant’s food, they aren’t going to like it any better because of the way they ordered it.  Thankfully, restaurant owners using NetWaiter are smart, sell great food, and their customers love ordering online.

There are many traits that successful restaurants have in common.  After speaking with a lot of owners and managers, we’ve compiled a list of the most important factors needed to launch your online ordering sales into orbit and some tips to assist:

Embrace Online Ordering and “Take Ownership” of It. Get everyone at your restaurant to embrace one of the most powerful sales tools you have.  “Take ownership” of your online business.  Few parts in any business are autonomous and require little to no strategy or thought.  Give it some attention and thought and it will reward you significantly.

Get The Word Out.  Like anything, people need to know you offer something if you expect them to take advantage of it.  
-    STEP 1: Make sure you have at least one ‘Order Online’ button on your homepage.  DO NOT make people search or scroll to find your online ordering menu.  You should also have links to place orders on other pages of your website for easy access.
-    STEP 2: DO NOT link your ‘Order Online’ buttons to another page, forcing customers to, yet again, click another button.  Send customers directly to your online ordering menu.  They love online ordering because it’s convenient.  Forcing them to click around your site or search for your online ordering menu will only irritate them.
-    STEP 3: Get employees to help spread the word to all of your customers.  

Simple Advertising.  Some of the following tactics are very simple to implement and will help you advertise your online takeout and delivery business.  
-    1) Attach ‘flyers’ to all phone-in orders that mention your website and online ordering.  (TIP: Order some inexpensive or free business cards from a place like vistaprint.com).  This is also a great tactic if you are trying to convert expensive portal customers to order directly from you.  A small promotional discount for ordering directly from you will go a long way.
-    2) Display signage inside your restaurant.  The next time a customer is in the mood for takeout, they’ll visit you online first.  
-    3) Mention your online ordering system and website address to all phone-in customers.  The truth is – they don’t want to be calling you anyway.  They would rather place their order online and you do too – average order sizes are much larger online.
-    4) If someone calls your restaurant during a rush, there is a good chance you’ll put them on hold. Make sure your on-hold message mentions your website and the ability for them to order online.   

Your goal is to have skyrocketing online sales, but don’t get discouraged by a slow start.  With additional NetWaiter features, like our Facebook integration, email marketing, and promotional system, you’ll be able to kick things into high gear.  It’s all about building momentum.  The nice thing about it – once you have it, it’s hard to slow down.