January 1 is rapidly approaching. There is no better time to go over a list of things that will help you maximize the benefit of your NetWaiter online ordering system. 

1. One Click Access from your Homepage.  Attention spans on websites are measured in nanoseconds.  Don’t make your customer look – have at least one link clearly visible, at the top of your homepage.  Have at least one more button, shown consistently in the same place, on every page of your website.

2. Don’t Post a Link to Any Portal Listing.  Portals bring in the occasional new customer who might not have found your restaurant otherwise.  The costs, however, can be up to four times, or more, than NetWaiter.  Let portals send you new customers, not the other way around.  Remember, almost half of customers visiting a portal site (47.1%) said they clicked over to the restaurant’s own website to order their food once they found a restaurant they liked.  Capturing those customers is critical to save money.

3. Menu Priority.  Your online menu needs to be well crafted, just like your table menu.  The most profitable dishes, or those most popular with your customers, should have prominent positioning towards the top of each category.

4. Updated Menus.  Keep your online menu updated.  It only takes a second through your NetWaiter Management Console.  This is a big one: 68% of people are not likely to visit a restaurant, café, or bar after encountering incorrect online information about the business.

5. Don’t Forget About… Appetizers, desserts, and drinks are categories most frequently overlooked in takeout orders.  Make sure the hierarchy of your up-selling categories gives preference to these types of items. 

6. Market, Market, Market.  Use the database from your NetWaiter Management Console to promote off-hours business, special offers, and other incentives to make sure your favorite customers are well informed and come back often.

7. Seeing is Believing.  Photos sell product.  Are you making maximum use of photos on your NetWaiter site?  Click here for some tips and to learn more about the impact of photos with online ordering. 

8. Encourage New Customers.  Do you have an incentive for a first-time online customer?  The long-term value of an online customer is huge (considerably more than a phone-in customer), and the best part is – you can track it.  Consider offering an ongoing discount for first-time online customers (maybe 15% off, or more).

9. Take Advantage of Online Payments.  68% of customers pay online with NetWaiter, and the figure is even higher for delivery orders.  This saves time for both you and your customers.  In addition, the funds are deposited directly into your bank account. 

As of early November, all NetWaiter clients have their own custom mobile site.

Restaurants across the country offering online ordering through NetWaiter can now receive orders from customers using Internet-enabled smartphones.  The service, launched earlier this month, automatically became available to NetWaiter clients and their customers.  Analytics from NetWaiter already show a brisk business from this new mobile capability.

NetWaiter’s technology is able to determine when a customer is accessing a client’s site using a mobile device.  Customers can simply access any NetWaiter site from a smartphone (i.e. iPhone, Android) and the system will automatically recognize the mobile device and display the appropriate mobile site, making navigation simple.

Based on conservative estimates, there are more than 50 million smartphones operating in the U.S.  Knowing that most smartphone owners quickly adapt to everything they do, including online ordering, NetWaiter expects this capability to be huge for clients and their customers.

Nothing is required by restaurants to enable this new feature.  Mobile accessibility is part of every service package at no additional charge.