NetWaiter recently released several new features for its restaurant online ordering service, aimed at giving customers more convenience and choices, building loyalty, and making your restaurant marketing efforts more refined and targeted.  Here’s a summary of the features:

Birthday Promo System – Configure a Birthday Promo for customers and NetWaiter will automatically trigger the promotion, emailing it to each customer before their birthday.  The promo can be valid for a pre-determined amount of time after a customer’s birthday.  The Birthday Promo System allows you to recognize your best customers with a ‘Happy Birthday’ wish and continue to build their loyalty.  The best thing about the system – your restaurant can “set it and forget it.”  NetWaiter manages the promotions and redemptions automatically.

Dine-In Option – Rather than offering only Takeout and Delivery options, you can now provide customers the option to place Dine-In orders.  This is ideal for the customer that wants to order in advance, but eat at your restaurant (and it saves you money on takeout packaging).

Delivery Driver Alerts – Send incoming delivery orders straight to your delivery driver/company.  If you want to notify a third-party delivery company of a new order, you can send them the order information, in full, including when the order will be ready at your restaurant and when the order is scheduled for delivery to your customer.

Enhanced Reporting Section – The new Menu Stats page is located in the Reports section of the NetWaiter Management Console.  The Menu Stats page allows you to sort through the most popular categories and items during a particular date range, using an assortment of variables, including: Pickup vs. Delivery vs. Dine-in, day of the week, and the time of day.

End-Of-Day Reports – The new End-Of-Day reporting feature allows managers to see an order summary and a list of all orders that were sent throughout the day.  The order summary includes information such as: Pickup vs. Delivery vs. Dine-in, mobile vs. non-mobile, and paid online vs. paid-in-person.

"Micro-relationship" is the bond you form with a tourist in your area visiting a local attraction. Tourism spending at restaurants in the U.S. is at an all-time high, according to the National Restaurant Association. Fifteen percent of sales at quick serves come from tourist wallets. Quick-service and fast-casual restaurants account for 34 percent of the total tourism and travel restaurant spending in 2012.

First and foremost, do what you need to do in order to show up on mobile search. Enroll in all the directories, boost your SEO budget, and keep the social media at a high level. These temporary visitors are using their smartphone to find a restaurant. You want to be at the top.

Visit the concierge staff at local hotels. Drop off a stack of flyers and menus and make sure they know you offer online ordering for either pickup or delivery

The advantage of these micro-relationships is that once someone finds your restaurant, they seek you out on their smartphone again and again during their stay as a matter of convenience. They are not familiar with the area, so they do what it easy. Not only that, but when they tell others of their destination vacation, they will often mention "that great restaurant down the street from the hotel that took online orders and delivered to our room."