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    4 Digital Marketing Strategies To Enhance Customer Experience

    Superb Customer Experience Takes Precedence

    Customer experience should be at the center of all paid services. And while the current political climate takes employee welfare and satisfaction into precedence, fact of the matter is, that it is customer patronage that keeps a business afloat.

    Over the past few years, the demand for more efficient online stores, may it be with regard to the supply of certain merchandise or more responsive customer support, has exponentially increased. Being shuttered inside of our homes due to the global pandemic had admittedly helped in its realization. But then, it should also be noted that the demand is highly likely borne out of a more preferable business model. And this business model would see the satisfaction of customers even as they transact remotely.

    To this effect, Digital Marketing appeals a great deal. From simply posting across Social Media to building a website that leverages Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Digital Marketing is the way to go to not only gather a notable following but to render effective customer service.

    But what is Digital Marketing anyway?

    Digital Marketing pertains to the kind of marketing that is done online through digital technologies like computers, smartphones, and other channels of digital media. Like traditional marketing, the aim of Digital Marketing is to promote products and services to gather the patronage of customers, driving sales for proprietors and business owners.

    This method of marketing saw development during the 1990s and 2000s in light of the creation, or more precisely, the explosion of internet technology into the mainstream. Extending well into the present day, no other means of marketing has become more effective in reaching out to more audiences regardless of demographic and geographical location.

    Digital Marketing Strategies To Enhance Customer Experience

    Data should be at the center of Digital Marketing for it to be successful. Data analytics in marketing can improve your segmentation strategy. This enables the business of the organization to predict the behavior of consumers, improve and streamline decision-making, and ultimately allow for the estimation of their ROI. In a report lodged back in 2020, the use of Digital Marketing has been observed to have grown over the course of 5 years. From $153.65 billion, its reach jumped to $260.36 billion. An impressive 78% of the sampled businesses report that understanding marketing technology has become an important skill across industries.

    Meanwhile, from the customers’ end, high expectations are always in the cards when they engage in brands online. They have become tedious in their assessment of products they are thinking of purchasing, leading them to voraciously read online reviews to ascertain the viability of the products.

    Digital Customer Experience is thus crucial. Defined as the total impression customers have of a business, the basis of Digital Customer Experience is primarily the digital engagement with it. What is being focused upon here is how customers see a business’ digital presence which is reflected across platforms that directly connect to the internet. Of course, it is influenced wholly by the technology on which it runs. However, it must be noted that other operational facets also factor into its success.

    Having said these, let us take a look at the following Digital Marketing strategies that aim at improving customer experience.

    1. Personalize!

    It can be a major turn-off when customers are sent generic messages when being invited to avail of a company’s products. It goes without saying that customers are humans, which means they have conscious preferences and would want to be treated as individuals. When a brand communicates with them by sending them personalized emails or when the customer support representatives actually compose replies instead of sending templates, customers are more likely to feel validated. As a result, they would want to engage more with the brand.

    2. Capitalize on AI

    While personalized communication and actual conversations with customer support representatives build trust, Artificial Intelligence should not be disregarded altogether. 

    Templated responses that inform customers when the online store they are visiting would be back are given, this assures them that they would be attended to soon. These become more valuable when the responses come with other contact details that would allow clients to reach the store extraneous from the online platform.

    3. Improve and Standardize Omnichannel Experience

    Omnichannel marketing integrates various channels to interact with clients with the aim of creating a consistent brand experience for them. What this means is that physical and digital venues for brands are used with great effectiveness so that both existing and prospective clients may experience smooth user experiences. Customers are given the option of either buying an item online or by picking it up at an actual retail branch.

    Information through this strategy may be experienced in real-time. Ultimately, customers are given the chance to engage with products and services of certain brands on their own time.

    4. Make Your Brand Available Across Different Channels

    For this, simply promoting your brand across too many channels might only serve to overextend your resources. You have to find the right mix of channels on which your brand will appear. 

    In an online study done in 2020, it was reported that the sound number of channels is pegged at 4 to 6. With this number, marketers are able to achieve a notable 77% in good responses among customers.

    A good example is when a brand physically engages in an event and gets to have a conversation with a prospect. The business may opt to send an email to the said prospect that may lead to him or her availing of the products or services being offered. Once the prospect, now a client, receives the product, the business’s system could generate an automated email that prompts the client to review the product. The business could then respond to it by assessing the review and asking the client what else they could do to render more optimal results. The whole process already involves 4 channels, all of which take the client’s experience into account. This may be a basis for a good customer health score that could ultimately decide how the business with move forward with future transactions.

    Client Satisfaction at the Forefront

    Fostering a good customer experience through Digital Marketing takes not only consistency but also a savviness of the business owners in determining the sound channels which will further enrich their services and reach. What this entails of course is research and keeping abreast with the latest trends in the ever-changing terrain of Digital Marketing. 

    With all the strategies that Digital Marketers can think of, it would serve them well to bear in mind one thing: businesses and service providers are always at the winning end when they put client satisfaction at the forefront.   

    About The Author

    Bash Sarmiento is a lifelong learner, writer, and educator from Manila. His academic background and extensive experience in teaching, textbook evaluation, business management, and traveling are translated into his works.

    How To Market Your Restaurant Franchise?

    How to market your restaurant franchise?- This is the second part of our “How to franchise your restaurant?” blog series. In the previous article, we discussed how to get ready for franchising, including legal requirements, FDD and franchisee registration, as well as hiring and training. In this blog, we’ll focus on the marketing aspects of restaurant franchising. We are going to take you through the basics and the most important aspects of franchise marketing- what it is, the types, and how you can market your franchise effectively.

    In this post, we’ll discuss franchise location marketing rather than brand marketing, which includes things like mass media. Because the tactics we propose are focused on local marketing rather than television advertisements or other forms of mass media that help franchisees establish their brands.

    As of June 2021, Subway had 37,540 locations in more than 100 countries and territories.

    Does your franchise have what it takes to become the next Subway? The right marketing strategy is one of the most important factors here. Anyone, with the right marketing, can reach these figures.

    What is restaurant franchise marketing?

    How To Market Your Restaurant Franchise?

    Before you even consider marketing your restaurant franchise, you must first understand what franchise marketing is.

    Franchise marketing is basically all those activities that you do to grow as a brand. Franchise marketing might involve pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, SEO, trade exhibitions, content marketing, commercials, and other activities that a franchise engages in to expand.

    It entails attracting new customers, keeping them engaged so that they become loyal patrons, and raising brand awareness.

    Now, let’s quickly hop on to the marketing strategies required to market your restaurant franchise.

    How to market your restaurant franchise?

    How to market your restaurant franchise?

    Answering the question- “How to market your restaurant franchise?– might seem like a lot of work, but trust us, with careful planning and implementation, it’s not that hard. Here, we’ll walk you through some best practices for a smooth and effective approach.

    The first stage in planning any marketing strategy, let alone franchise marketing, is to conduct thorough research on your customers, their interests, geography, demographics, and other factors, as well as to define the personas you will be targeting. Following that, you’ll need to choose the channels through which you’ll put your message out.

    Franchise marketing channels-

    Franchise Marketing channels

    We’ll go over the franchise marketing channels at each stage of the A2A funnel.

    A2A Marketing funnel


    1) The Awareness Stage

    Social media marketing-

    Social media marketing

    One of the most effective ways to raise awareness has been through social media. People spend an average of 1.4 hours every day on social media sites, sharing their thoughts and opinions and conversing with others.

    This is the time to make a good first impression and position yourself as a thought leader in your field. The goal of the plan is to present your brand to customers by producing material that catches their attention. The benefit of incorporating social media into your marketing strategy is that it allows you to reach a much larger audience without requiring significant marketing spending.

    Optimizing the customer experience at each of these touchpoints is critical to converting a cold lead into a profit-generating customer. Developing a social media funnel attitude may assist you in fine-tuning your approach, increasing audience engagement, and, most crucially, increasing conversions at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

    2) Engagement stage

    a) Online Reputation Management

    Online reputation management

    Restaurant franchises have long relied on word of mouth to reach out to their consumers and establish their brand, in addition to traditional marketing techniques and paid advertising. While the internet’s expansion provided chances to promote your company to a larger audience, it also brought a number of obstacles. 

    Maintaining an online presence isn’t enough; you need to monitor and update your listings on a regular basis. Customers are attracted to a restaurant based on online ratings and reviews. A negative review is no longer limited to a disgruntled customer’s personal circle of friends; instead, it can reach millions of potential customers. As a result, managing your restaurant’s online reputation is critical.

    b) Local Marketing

    Local marketing

    Local restaurant marketing is more than just handing out flyers. Contributing to causes that are important to your customers and match your company’s beliefs is, in fact, the best approach to generate goodwill with your customers. Collaborating with local companies can provide your restaurant with a number of advantages, including increased brand recognition and revenue.

    In fact, most well-known restaurants, such as Chipotle and Pizza Hut, have regular fundraisers with public schools, sports organizations, libraries, and youth community groups.

    Working with local groups such as animal shelters and non-profits, you can organize charity events, fundraisers, and Spirit Nights for your franchise businesses. The collaborating organization receives a percentage of the traceable sales revenues.

    c) Email marketing

    Email marketing
    1. According to Marketing Sherpa, 72 percent of consumers prefer to communicate with businesses via email.
    2. Every day, at least 91 percent of consumers check their email.

    Sending emails to promote your business is known as email marketing. Restaurant Email marketing has been around for a long time and is still being used by businesses to send out brand updates, promotions, coupons, and to stay in touch with new and existing customers.

    Emails are an excellent way to communicate with your consumers and stay in touch with them on a regular basis. In fact, there are a plethora of inventive methods to use emails to communicate the proper marketing message to your restaurant’s patrons.

    3) Acquisition stage

    a) Website

    77% of the diners visit a restaurant’s website before placing an order. 88% of online website visitors are less likely to return to a website after a poor experience [Gomez], losing you a wealth of potential customers. Numbers speak for themselves, hence you need to consider creating a quality website, that is fast, easy to navigate through, and the most important thing, it should be mobile-friendly.

    There should be a balance between having a single website and having several location-level websites – restaurants are hyperlocal in nature, yet managing a single website provides the appearance of a chain and comes with scaling and ensuring consistency. You should make sure that your store’s information is up to date on Google My Business, Yelp, and other sites.

    Also have a properly optimized and easy-to-understand menu, with proper descriptions for your customers to easily place orders. Make sure that you have proper contact information and pop CTAs (order online) for you to not lose a single customer to the fact that they didn’t know where to place an order on your website!

    b) SEO

    According to research based on more than 80 million keywords and billions of results, 28.5 percent of searchers click on the first Google result, 15.7 percent on the second, 11% on the third, and 24.8 percent on the fourth to tenth. Many people rely on Google to discover the appropriate answers to their questions, with little over 3.5 billion searches per day. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play in your franchise marketing plan. The difference between a continuous flow of leads and no visitors can be determined by optimizing and ranking for the right keyword.

    4) Loyalty Stage

    a) Birthday clubs and loyalty programs

    Birthday clubs and loyalty programs

    Restaurants had been successfully using punch cards to create a regular client base long before the switch to mobile platforms. The entire landscape of loyalty programs is undergoing a revolution as a result of the introduction of simple mobile platforms. 

    With nearly 30% of restaurants offering a customer loyalty program and 69 percent of consumers reporting that where they may earn rewards influences their restaurant decision, it’s clear that a loyalty program is a great way to market your franchise restaurant.

    Birthday clubs can be a fun way to interact with your clients.

    Customers who had not planned to visit your restaurant may decide to do so after hearing about the deal.

    5) Advocacy Stage

    People are more likely to trust a brand that comes highly recommended by their friends and family than any other type of advertising. Referral programs are a great way to turn your most loyal customers into brand ambassadors while also collecting consumer data.

    IMPORTANCE OF DATA DRIVEN-MARKETING IN MARKETING YOUR RESTAURANT FRANCHISE

    IMPORTANCE OF DATA DRIVEN-MARKETING IN MARKETING YOUR RESTAURANT FRANCHISE

    In practically every industry, data is used, and the restaurant industry is no exception. The days of restaurant owners thinking of this as a day-to-day operation are long gone. Read this post to learn how to adopt data-driven marketing in your restaurant franchise- https://www.mkonnekt.com/blog/resources/7-strategies-to-boost-your-restaurant-sales-with-data-driven-marketing/

    Wrap up

    Now that you know how to promote a franchise, you can pick and choose which strategies to employ and get to work.

    We can be of great assistance to you if you’re wanting to market your franchise restaurant. Know more and request a demonstration of our 4Q-marketing platform today!

    How Do You Get Customer Data To Boost Your Restaurant Sales With Data-Driven Marketing

    How Do You Get Customer Data To Boost Your Restaurant Sales With Data-Driven Marketing? – The Answer, The A2A Approach 

    It is very vital to get customer data to boost your restaurant sales with data-driven marketing. Understanding a customer’s journey as they learn about your organization, develop an affection for your products and services, and eventually become an advocate for your brand is an important part of expanding your business.

    The process isn’t easy, but once you grasp the customer’s perspective, you’ll be able to guide them through the many stages of the journey.

    The customer life cycle boils down to this. You carry out marketing operations that move customers through the stages of the customer life cycle. This allows you to expand your company.

    One of the key problems that arise when talking about data-driven marketing is, “Where do you get your consumer data and how do you collect it in order to analyze and use it afterward?”

    The answer is simple; it is just a matter of understanding marketing to see how you can turn small platforms into data-producing machines.

    Get Customer Data To Boost Your Restaurants Sales With Data-Driven Marketing

    Here in this article, we’ve gone over the foundation of how and where you may get customer data to boost your restaurant sales with Data-Driven Marketing in each buyer stage of the A2A funnel.

    Get Customer Data To Boost Your Restaurant Sales With Data-Driven Marketing at Different Stages-

    The Awareness Stage

    • Organic and paid social media–
    Organic and paid social media

    One of the most effective ways to raise awareness and collect customer data is through social media. People spend an average of 1.4 hours every day on social media sites, sharing their thoughts and questions and conversing with others.

    This is the time to make a good first impression and position yourself as a thought leader in your field. The quantity and quality of leads you generate at this level are determined by your actions. At this point, the aim is to expose your brand to the customer by posting material that catches their attention. The benefit of incorporating social media into your marketing strategy is that it allows you to reach a much larger audience without requiring significant marketing spend and in turn Get Customer Data To Boost Your Restaurant Sales With Data-Driven Marketing.

    The Engagement Stage-

    • Specials and contact page on your website
    Specials and contact page on website

    Create a contact page on your website and invite people to sign up for your restaurant’s specials. It’s a really straightforward method of obtaining client information.

    You may also run Facebook and Instagram advertisements and give a CTA for the same when your aim is to collect customer data.

    • Social Media
    Social media

    Determine the variants of posts that drew the most attention and write content that engages your customers and distinguishes your product while answering the question of why they should buy from you.

    It would benefit you to also plan activities such as live Q&As, webinars, tournaments, or live events, as well as host contests or giveaways.

    Spend some time responding to reviews, comments, and mentions of your brand. These activities with help you get customer data to boost your restaurant sales with data-driven marketing.

    • Chatbots
    Chatbots

    Chatbots are an excellent method to connect with your visitors, interact with them in real-time, solve their queries, make the ordering process seamless, and send promotional offers directly to your consumers’ inboxes. They deliver an interactive experience that is completely automated. When you communicate with a chatbot, it’s as if you’re conversing with a real person.

    According to Statista, 11% of the world’s population uses Facebook Messenger every month. Facebook Messenger and other live chat services can gather a wealth of information about each individual customer.

    The Acquisition Stage-

    • POS systems
    POS Systems

    You have complete control over your POS systems. You’ll be able to manage your delivery and takeaway orders while simultaneously collecting and tracking all of the information your customers give you. This provides you, as a restaurant owner, to categorize them, ranging from the casual user to committed customers. You may contact your consumers directly, send them excellent offers, retarget them, and fully automate the process—your restaurant, your customers—using the power of data and information. From beginning to end, the service is completely branded.

    • Integrated feedback software
    Integrated feedback software

    At mkonnekt, we have developed a software called Kritiq, which is incorporated into our online ordering platform Foodkonnekt and sends a feedback email with each order. This allows you to learn extensive information about your customers’ experiences and how you can use it to vastly improve your strategies.

    You can do something similar by sending out feedback email campaigns and online surveys and getting a hold of your customer experiences.

    The Loyalty Stage-

    • Loyalty Clubs And Birthday Programs
    Loyalty Clubs And Birthday Programs

    On multiple media platforms, ensure that you promote your birthday clubs and loyalty programs. These are some of the most effective methods for gathering vital client information. You may give your consumers personalized weekly deals, birthday specials, and many more freebies using these platforms. When a customer joins your program, it’s a sure sign that they’ve reached the loyalty stage of the marketing funnel!

    The Advocacy Stage-

    The Advocacy Stage

    The ultimate goal of your marketing funnel should be to convert loyal consumers into proactive advocates for your company. People are more likely to trust a brand that their friends and family recommend over any other form of advertising. Referral programs are an extremely beneficial method to transform your most loyal customers into brand advocates and collect customer data as well. Essentially, they function the same way targeted promotions do, attracting customers who have brimming interest in your restaurant’s products.

    Wrap up-

    Getting customer data at every part of the marketing funnel is essential to a restaurant’s sales and performance. Learning how to incorporate this data in our technologically reliant society is a must to ensure success.

    Strategies to boost your restaurant sales

    7 Strategies To Boost Your Restaurant Sales With Data-Driven Marketing

    Here in this article, we have come up with 7 strategies to boost your restaurant sales with data-driven marketing. Data is no longer an option; it is a requirement. Data is used in almost every industry, and the restaurant industry is no exception. The days of restaurant proprietors seeing this as a day-to-day business are long gone.

    Considering sales based on the number of feet that landed today, with no notion if they will return. Gone are the days when we couldn’t predict restaurant sales and had to rely on what we sold at the time. Gone are the days when we didn’t know how much inventory we’d need in the future and had to rely on how much we utilized today. 

    GONE ARE THOSE DAYS.

    Enter- Data.

    Consider this- Organizations that are data-driven are 23 times more likely to acquire than their less agile counterparts. That means data is something, right?

    Let’s be clear: only those restaurants will survive who are able to collect and, more crucially, exploit critical consumer data.

    After you’ve gathered vital customer information, it’s time to devise strategies to boost your restaurant sales with data-driven marketing- with this information.

    1. Understand And Segment Your Audience

    Understand And Segment Your Audience

    With so much data at your disposal, you can figure out the characteristics of a typical restaurant patron and learn about their background, style, and personal preferences, among other things. Interaction with your visitors on social media, online ordering habits, phone conversations, and customer feedback, among other things, provides you with a lot of data on client behavior.

    Begin segmenting your audience and developing marketing initiatives that will specifically target them which will, in turn, help you to devise strategies to boost your restaurant sales with data-driven marketing.

    For example, if you notice a customer who does not order tacos on Tuesday, send them an email or a text message reminding them that you have a taco Tuesday at your establishment. Alternatively, if a customer never gets wings with their pizzas, inform them that you have a lunch special where they may have pizzas, wings, and a beverage for a cheap price.

    2. Manage Your Restaurant Inventory

    Manage Your Restaurant Inventory

    Inventory management is a critical component of every restaurant, and it becomes increasingly difficult to manage without effective tracking and reporting.

    You can better adapt your ordering cycles and ensure you have the proper amount of inventory at the right time by using data to better understand cooking and ordering behaviors. You really don’t want to overstock and run out of stock because either can cost you a lot of money.

    3. Boost Customer Loyalty

    Strategies To Boost Your Restaurant Sales With Data-Driven Marketing

    Are you aware that attracting a new customer costs five times as much as keeping an existing one? As a result, rather than chasing after newer clients, concentrate on your existing customers. It’s all about customer loyalty in the restaurant industry! Loyalty is one of the most important strategies to boost your restaurant sales with data-driven marketing.

    4. Manage Labor Costs

    Manage your labor costs

    You need to know how much you’re paying your employees. When you combine sales data from your POS with scheduling software, you can determine when you have too many cooks in the kitchen. However, delving a bit deeper can reveal missed profits. Are your tables turning too slowly because you’re short-staffed during a particularly busy time of the week? As a result, you should make use of the platform to objectively monitor employee performance and determine who is meeting your professional expectations.

    5. Menu Management

    Menu Management

    It’s not always the case that the most popular dish is also the most profitable. There may be times when a large number of customers order a particular item on your menu, but none of them return for more. Big data may help you find the worst and best products on your menu, as well as dishes that need to be promoted or discounted on a regular basis. Aside from that, you can compare visitors’ preferences based on time of day or week to create a highly tailored menu.

    6. Improve Upon Guest Experience

    Improve guest experience

    It’s a lot easier to improve the visitor experience when you have a lot of data about your customers at hand. When visitors enter a restaurant, they are anticipating more than just the food; they are anticipating the entire experience in order to return. As a result, depending on your experiences with and research into your clients, strive to give the finest experience possible.

     7. Sales Forecasting

    Sales Forecasting

    When you keep a constant watch on your audience (through social media, feedback mechanisms, etc. ), which is the essence of marketing, you learn about what’s new in the marketing world. That is to say, eating habits, what’s “in” these days, and so on. This aids in the forecasting of sales. Using big data to forecast business will assist you with all aspects of organization and planning, ensuring that no unpleasant surprises arise.

    Wrap up-

    Finding strategies to boost your restaurant sales with data-driven marketing can be challenging, but having the right facts and stats to help you along the way can make it a lot easier. Tracking and utilizing these crucial data points will help you better adjust and prepare, giving you more control over your strategic growth.

    5 Steps To Franchise Your Restaurant

    Do you operate a restaurant and wish to expand? Do you want to become part of a distinct brand? Then franchising is definitely the way to go! Starting a franchise restaurant is a means to expand a business by allowing independent owners (franchisees) to sell or provide services under a specific brand name using a trademark, business strategy, and most importantly, a process.

     According to the most recent data from the United States Census Bureau, franchises accounted for almost 54 percent of fast-food and fast-casual restaurants in America. And trends suggest these numbers are only going to increase in the coming years. 

    Franchising may appear to be complex due to the extensive planning and paperwork required, but the process is easier than meets the eye. 

    We’ll break down this topic into two parts: the first will focus on the operational steps that you need to take to franchise your restaurant. In the second part, we will cover the marketing & development for franchises. 

    Step 1- Assess your situation- Are you ready?

    Before you rush into franchising, there are a few aspects you should consider. Your role when running your restaurant independently was drastically different from what it will be when you become a franchisor. Always start with asking yourself a few questions- 

    • Is your business scalable?
    Is your business scalable?

    Is your restaurant concept different? What sets you apart from other pizza places? Why would people choose your pizza place over the other mom-and-pop diner right across the street? Execution also must be flawless. If you are planning to open ten similar restaurants, then the replication process should be easy to execute. 

    • Are your finances in place?
    Are your finances in place?

    Once you have decided whether franchising is the ideal path, you need a robust financial plan. There are numerous expenses that you’ll have to bear, so plan strategically. Divide the early setup fees according to your restaurant’s business plan.

    • Do you know your competition?
    Know your competition

    Yes, optimism is a nice thing, but at the end of the day, numbers mean everything. Always conduct market research prior to establishing a business to determine who are the competitors, how you are superior to them, and how you may outgrow them. This must be prioritized before beginning the franchising process.

    Step 2- Legal Requirements

    Legal requirements for restaurant franchise

    Below are the legal documents you are required to fill out before being able to franchise your restaurant:

    FDD- Franchise Disclosure Document:

    The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) is designed to inform potential franchisees about the franchisor, the franchise system, and the agreements they will be required to sign so that they may make an informed decision. The FDD is divided into 23 sections, each of which the prospective franchisee must read before signing.

    According to the Federal Trade Commission, franchisors must present the franchisee with the FDD at least 14 days before it is due to be signed or any money is exchanged. After the franchisor has received the application and agreed to consider it, the franchisee has the right to a copy of the FDD.

    Check out the detailed requirements for the FDD here- https://bit.ly/3LTTsza

     Franchise Operations Manual:

    A franchise system’s DNA – the basis that regulates franchise unit performance, processes, and conduct – is a franchise operations handbook. It details the requirements, rules, and procedures that franchisees must follow in order to operate their franchised businesses and deliver on the franchisor’s brand promise consistently.

    The length and substance of franchise operating manuals vary. In general, a well-prepared franchise operations handbook will cover at a minimum, the following categories below:

    • The objectives of the franchise system;
    • The day-to-day procedures that the franchisee must follow 
    • Payroll 
    • Customer service, which includes things like welcoming customers and dealing with complaints, as well as personnel issues like training.

    While working on your franchise legal paperwork, prepare notes on important things like how your franchise will run. Geographical areas to target, franchisee qualifications, royalty percentages for franchisees, and marketing strategies are just a few of the other details to iron out. To accommodate a franchise concept and make operations more practical for franchisees, you may need to change some of your current practices. 

    Trademark and Logo Registration:

    When you franchise your restaurant, you grant another person the right to use “your” logo and trademark. As a result, registering your brand’s logo and obtaining a trademark is the most important, yet frequently overlooked, step in franchising your restaurant. To protect their intellectual property, franchisors should register everything to avoid being duped by a fraudulent Franchise party.

    Step 3-Issue FDD And Register As a Franchisor

    Franchise your restaurant

    Once all your important decisions are made, it’s time to complete all the legal paperwork. Issue your FDD and register it inside the franchise registration states.

    After receiving an FDD, you can begin offering and selling franchises in non-registration states (i.e., states that do not require a special filing or registration) while filing your FDD for registration in registration states.

    Step 4- Make Hires And Work On Training

    Make hires and work on training

    As you prepare to become a franchisor, you’ll usually need to hire several people who will be solely responsible for assisting franchisees. Staff training is essential in order to maintain the same product standards as the original franchise restaurants. The franchisor should train the entire staff, from the Head Chef down to the busboy’s wait staff. The induction and training of new employees should begin well in advance of the opening of the Franchise Outlet.

    Step 5- Support And Grow Your Franchises

    Support and grow your restaurant framchise

    It is here, at the point where you start supporting your franchisee network. To minimize any future misinterpretation, support should be included in the agreement. Some Franchisors provide solely infrastructure development, operations, training, and software support, while others also provide raw materials. 

    You must accomplish a few things in order to expand your restaurant franchise business to many locations. You must develop an ecosystem in which you must collaborate with people from the real estate, produce, and point-of-sale vendors, as well as other aspects that we will address in future blogs.

    Wrap up-

    Running a franchise can be a terrific way to get started in business, but you need to know why you’re doing it, what you’re getting into, who you’re getting into it with, and, of course, what you have to gain. The better you are able to answer these questions, the more likely you have the chance to excel. 

    Social Media ROI

    How to measure your social media ROI?

    What is Social Media ROI?

    What is social media ROI?

    With social media getting used as a great device in enterprises to grow, it’s been more and more vital to track the effects of your social media ROI, ie, your social media efforts. 

    The most pressing question now is how to comprehend the consequences of your social media strategy. Are you on the right track when it comes to your content strategy? Return on investment, or ROI, is the solution. It is nothing more than the returns a company would expect from the time, resources, and minds invested in the company’s entire social media strategy.

    In terms of math, it boils down to–> Revenue-Costs/Costs*100.

    Now imagine you were running a grocery store and you purchased the groceries for $100 and sold them for $150, then you’d get: 150-100/100*100= 50% by plugging these numbers into the formula.

    Isn’t it easy enough? But, in terms of social media marketing, how do you apply this concept?

    The return on investment (ROI) on your social media campaign is the amount of money you’ve made. But not all social media efforts are directly attributable to monetary benefits. As a result, all marketers must be able to extract and apply relevant data, as and when required.

    Why is it important to measure Social Media ROI?

    Why is it important to measure social media ROI?

    It’s crazy how many marketers have no idea what kind of ROI they’re getting from which channel or how their social media practices are impacting their enterprise. Since every step, every effort you put into your business has repercussions, this underestimation of social media can cause havoc for your business. As a result, it’s past time for you to start treating your social media sites with the respect they deserve.

    If you’ve figured out which social media activities are yielding the best results, you can start planning strategies in that direction. For example, you will discover that posting stories on Instagram or running competitions on Facebook generates more momentum on specific days, resulting in increased monetary benefits to your company; as a result, you’ll know what you need to do in the future. That’s the power of studying ROI.

    How to measure social media ROI?

    How to measure social media ROI?

    Step-1 

    Identify your goals:

    Identify your goals

    Always determine the goals you want to achieve from your activities before calculating returns or even thinking about analyzing the consequences of your social media efforts. Do you want to increase your following? Do you want more people to sign up for your newsletter? Do you want to increase your sales? Following that, you should consider calculating the social media ROI.

    Step-2

    Understanding marketing funnel: 

    Marketing funnel

    After you’ve figured out your marketing objectives, you should move on to understanding your marketing funnel. Understanding how social media metrics connect to the customer journey is a crucial first step.

    Engagement with the consumer, which translates to reach in social media terms, is the first step in the customer journey, as it is in the early phases.

    Similarly, while learning about your audience in the middle stage, it translates to CPC, or cost per click, and CTR, or click-through rate. Finally, at the last stage, encouraging your audience to purchase equates to conversions like sales, subscriptions, downloads, etc. 

    Step-3: 

    Calculate!

    Calculate social media ROI

    Now that you have targeted your KPIs and understood what to calculate, now comes the tricky part, calculating them.

    In order to determine your ROI, you’ll need the correct tools. Many built-in technologies, such as Facebook insights, Instagram insights, and LinkedIn insights, provide granular information on how people interact with your material.

    With these, you can keep track of all of your engagement. You can observe when your audience is active, where they are from, what demographics they have, so on and so forth. You can check how your audience reacted to your ad using Facebook Ads Manager.

    Another significant tool is Google Analytics. To find out how much traffic and conversions your social media marketing efforts are producing, add Google Analytics UTM parameters to the URL of your social media ads.

    Why is measuring social media ROI difficult?

    Why is measuring social media ROI difficult?

    Due to a variety of factors, social media managers and executives are finding it increasingly challenging to measure social media marketing ROI. Executives are unsure about what to measure. Many people believe that if their content gets a lot of likes and shares, their strategy is good enough; however, this is not always the case. We need to see if our efforts are yielding any quantitative results. 

    Is your product being purchased? Is the quality of your online orders improving? Is your eBook gaining popularity? Always measure all the relevant KPIs and do analysis accordingly. 

    Wrap up:

    Social media marketing ROI is a parameter that should never be overlooked, if you are putting in genuine efforts in it, and want good results out of it, keep measuring and keep analyzing!

    How To Optimize Your Restaurant's Online Ordering Menu?

    How To Optimize Your Restaurant’s Online Ordering Menu?

    Restaurants can easily leverage their online ordering platform to generate additional revenues. A fully customizable online ordering platform coupled with a great marketing strategy can help you reach more customers online. However, to keep those customers coming back, restaurant managers should spend some time optimizing their restaurant’s online ordering menu to streamline the customer experience. We have put together a list of 10 steps you can take to optimize your restaurant’s online ordering menu.

    10 Tips to Optimize Your Restaurant’s Online Ordering Menu

    1. Rethink Your Menu
    2. Include High-Quality Photos
    3. Clear Menu Item Names
    4. Precise Descriptions
    5. Categorize Menu Items
    6. Make it simple for guests to customize
    7. Create upsell and cross-sell opportunities
    8. Order Of menu Items
    9. Leverage Data
    10. Keep Your Menu up-to-date

    1. Rethink Your Menu

    Often, restaurant owners make the mistake of taking their entire dine-in menu online without giving any thought to individual menu items. Some food items may be very popular in-store but what you need to consider is if they will hold their taste and integrity in a packaged container.

    Imagine receiving a cold soup or soggy nachos for lunch or a curry spillover crisis ruining your work table! As a restaurant owner/manager, it falls on us to deliver a consistent brand experience for pick-up and delivery orders. If you feel that a particular item on your menu will not carry well, it is best to take it off the online menu.

    However, if the item in question is your signature dish and you feel your online customers would like to see it on the menu then you would need to go the extra mile. Experiment with different packaging options to find what works best for you. Pack the individual component of dish separately. For instance, to retain the crunchiness and flavor in your salads, you can pack the dressing and croutons separately.

    How To Optimize Your Restaurant's Online Ordering Menu

    Before preparing your final menu, factor in the cost of additional packaging and take into account both the popularity and profitability index of each menu item. Your final online menu should contain items that

    1. carry well/ or alternatively figure out special packaging to retain flavors and texture
    2. Popular
    3. Profitable even after including the additional packaging costs

    2. Include High-Quality Photos

    Imagine sitting down at a restaurant and waiting for your food to arrive. A scrumptious platter arrives for the fellow on adjoining table, and suddenly, you are more hungry than you thought! Food appeals to all our senses, and the first assault is almost always visual! In fact every time a customer walks in to your restaurant, he is taken over by a host of aromas and visual treats that hook them on to your food. But, how do ensure that any prospect who lands on your website orders instantly?

    You guessed it, images! Food pictures that make them drool.

    You don’t need to be a professional photographer to take great pics. All you need is a smartphone and a little practice. Use these tips to capture great food images!

    a. Use Natural Light

    Stay away from bright sunlight to avoid shadows. Although, you can shoot outside in the shade or bring your plate to a window with natural light.

    Keep your background simple; close-up images of food with no distractions can look great.

    b. Compose The Shot

    Put some thought into composing your picture. A great food arrangement ensures that food is visually appealing and the accompaniments go well together when someone takes a bite. Try these tips

    • Apply The Rule of Thirds to plating by placing the focal point of the dish (often a protein such as meat, fish, or poultry) to either the left or right side of the plate 
    • Arrange the accompanying items (Vegetables or fruits) to accentuate your focal point.
    • Plate moist ingredients first and place other items beside them or on top of them to prevent them from running.
    • Accentuate contrasting yet complementary textures and flavors by arranging them strategically on the plate.
    How To Optimize Your Restaurant's Online Ordering Menu

    c. Take Your Pics A Notch Above By Creative Food Styling

    • Serve individual foods such as Ravioli and shrimp in odd numbers.
    • Use complementary colors to create  a bright colorful meal.
    •  Add green vegetables, herbs and fruits to add color and flavor to the dish.
    • As you finish plating, take your food presentation a notch above with delicious sauces. Use a squeeze bottle and spoon or a plating wedge to create unique designs.
    • Pair garnishes that complement the flavor of the meal and place them thoughtfully to add color or texture.

    3. Clear Menu Item Names

    Quirkiness aside, customers should be easily able to find what they are looking for. While fun, creative names of menu items may be all rage, the name of food items should also be intuitive! You can name food items to reflect your brand position, or use creative adjectives to highlight the item. Here are a few classic winners:

    1. Mac donald’s “Big Mac”: The name clearly highlights two things; the brand and the size of the burger.
    2. Loaded Bacon Cheddar Tots : Creative adjectives to draw attention to the distinguishing features of the dish.
    3. Piada Italian Street Food’s “THE FARMERS MARKET SALAD”: stresses the their locally sourced, sustainably farmed, organic ingredients.
    4. Wendy’s signature Dave’s triple: named after the founder
    5. California Steak Salad or NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN SANDWICH: the names surmise the flavors and ingredients to expect in a dish simply by adding the name of a location.

    4. Precise Descriptions

    Descriptions should be short and to the point. Think of it like painting a picture of menu items using words. Work on bringing out the flavors of the dish by using descriptive adjectives. A great description can help you personalize your dishes and let your customers know what to expect. Focus on 3 main aspects of the dish:

    • Ingredients
    • flavors
    • Origin of ingredients

    “Fire-roasted Roma tomatoes” sound so much better than tomatoes.

    Take a look at this example: “served with homemade marinara” / “served on homemade bread”. The menu stresses that all sauces and bread are prepared in-house from scratch using fresh ingredients.

    “Calamari from Point Judith” consider how this example grabs the attention of the customers by talking about the source of the main ingredients of a dish.

    5. Categorize Your Menu

    Organizing your menu into categories makes it easier for your customers to find the desired dish. On most online ordering platforms, categories function like accordions or drop downs menus, which makes it easier to handle and read especially on smaller screens.

    Chipotle Online Ordering

    6. Make it Simple for Guests to Customize

    No matter how perfect you feel your dish is, customers want what they want. They truly appreciate if you tweak a dish according to their specific requirement whether its adding extra cheese to their pizza or a choice of toppings. Make it simple for your guests to opt for substitutions and select add-ons and customization options. Provide your patrons with a quick and easy way to add special instructions to the menu items to accommodate for allergies.

    Your staff is continuously engaging with your patrons and is well- aware of the customizations that your customers usually want in their order, so you would want to take their inputs when building your online ordering menu.

    7. Create Upsell or Cross-sell Opportunities

    When patrons dine at your restaurant, your staff takes care of suggesting wine pairings or sides that go well with the dish. You have boards drawing attention to new menu additions or the day’s specials. Your staff encourages patrons to try out new dishes. You are motivating your staff each morning to upsell and cross-sell menu items.

    Chipotle Online Ordering

    Your online ordering platform can easily do all that for you and more!

    1. Highlight your specials
    2. Feature sides that go-well with the selected menu item
    3. Suggest wine pairings
    4. Enable auto-suggestions based on customer’s previous orders
    5. Create sliders featuring popular items ordered by other customers
    How To Optimize Your Restaurant's Online Ordering Menu

    8. Order of Menu Items

    The in-store menu is traditionally built in the order that customers have come to expect; broadly, appetizers followed by main course and desserts. The printed hard copy restricts your ability to move around things occasionally and figure out what works best.

    The online ordering menu, on the other hand, is your playground. You can arrange and re-arrange it based on requirements and observations. Initially, you should go with the traditional order of categories that customers expect and then use data and insights to optimize the order of menu items.

    • You can highlight the frequently ordered items by showcasing them at the top.
    • Reduce visibility of lower margin items pushing them towards the bottom
    • If you want to increase the sale of certain items, you can consider featuring them at the top or toggling them to the first position under their respective category.

    The best way to go about this is to reorder your menu based on the insights that you draw from the online ordering data. Observe how the changes you made pan out to optimize your restaurant’s online ordering menu on an ongoing basis.

    9. Leverage Data

    Your online ordering platform provides you with rich data on your customers. You can use this information to optimize your online menu.

    • Check the items that customers are frequently ordering together; You can use this information to create combo deals
    • You can use the data to add/remove items

    10. Keep Your Menu Up-To Date

    Streamline the customer experience on your online ordering platform by updating the menu on a regular basis. Remove items that are no longer available, include new menu items or update changes in menu items wherever applicable.

    Increase Your Restaurant Revenues with FoodKonnekt Online Ordering

    Learn More

    Metaverse And The Restaurant Industry

    Metaverse and the Restaurant Industry– The metaverse often referred to as the meta or web 3.0, is one of the hottest talking topics in our modern-day society. Questions upon questions about the meaning, value, and impact are asked by many. The interest in the metaverse is unmatched, and in this article, we’ll touch on why and the relation between Metaverse and the Restaurant Industry.

    So, where did it all begin? Neal Stephenson’s dystopian cyberpunk novel Snow Crash is credited with coining the term “metaverse.” The novel was published in 1992 and is considered a canon of the genre, along with William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which describes the matrix, a virtual reality dataspace.

    It’s a hybrid technology that blends virtual reality, augmented reality, and video to let people “live” in a digital world. The metaverse is made up of two technologies: virtual reality, which is characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist, and augmented reality, which combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. It does not, however, imply that those locations may only be visited via VR or AR.

    In a nutshell, it is thriving within the internet, where one has the ability to party, buy, sell, attend events, and socialize.

    What is the difference between Facebook and Metaverse?

    Facebook and Metaverse

    Facebook is a social networking website where users can post comments, share photos, and share links to news or other interesting web content, as well as chat and watch short-form videos.

    Shared content can be made public, or it can be restricted to a small group of friends or family, and sometimes it is even directed towards a single person.

    Meta, on the other hand, is an online world in which people can interact with one another, collaborate, and communicate virtually without having to be in the same physical space. For example, you could be in New York while your family is in Texas, but you could all watch a movie together in the same room. Envision Zoom or Google Meet, but on a much more technologically advanced scale. Your family members would be more than just a face on a screen; they’d be seen across from you on the dinner table.

    Facebook is simple to use and accessible to anybody. Even those with the least technical knowledge can sign up and start posting on Facebook. Although it began as a way to stay in touch with long-lost acquaintances, it quickly became the darling of businesses that we’re able to target an audience and deliver adverts straight to those most likely to be interested in their products or services.

    The VR, or virtual reality, headset appears to be the device of choice for the metaverse at the outset, at least according to Facebook.

    “You’ll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create, and more. It’s not necessarily about spending more time online — it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful,” In a September blog post, the company made the familiar pitch about time spent on its platforms.

    What does it mean for the restaurant industry?

    Metaverse and the restaurant industry

    Talking about the Metaverse and the Restaurant Industry, this concept is not totally new for the restaurant industry, Metaverse and the Restaurant Industry have been together for a long time now. Sublimotion in Ibiza, Spain, has been operating as one of the most exclusive, luxury VR food experiences for the past seven years. The multisensory space provides guests with a futuristic, interactive audio/visual event. While the price tag, unfortunately, puts Sublimotion out of reach for the average consumer, as technology advances, less expensive options have become more readily available to foodies who want to see food as an experience rather than just a source of nourishment.

    Mark Zuckerberg gave a “feast for your eyes” presentation to show how restaurants may incorporate this strategy easily.

    It allows guests to swipe through a virtual reality menu, which allows them to explore options such as finding ingredients and witnessing the menu items being prepared and cooked. Restaurants might even allow guests to order directly from the virtual menu while dining in or ordering for delivery, according to Zuckerberg.

    AR/VR and Avatars may replace physical staff or even manage a front office, with abilities ranging from bookings and service provision to property sales. If this is made possible, the industry’s labor challenges could hasten the adoption of the metaverse faster than expected.

    Restaurants can also create a Metaverse universe that allows guests to virtually experience the restaurant with their friends and family. This will allow people to have the experience of dining in a real restaurant while remaining in the privacy of their own homes.

    “Often restaurants experience a tug of war between experience and convenience. The metaverse is the ultimate marriage of these two elements. Customers can look at and order food without leaving the house, whilst still having the experience of going out for a meal with others,” says Joseph Schumaker, who is president and CEO of foodservice consulting start-up FoodSpace.

    What is unknown is how the normal mom-and-pop restaurant will deal with these massive technical advances and their financial consequences.

    The most concerning aspect is that the Metaverse and the Restaurant Industry prefers chain restaurants with large creative and technical budgets. Some independent operators might be excluded from the benefits the metaverse provides.

    How can one prepare for it?

    Prepare for the Metaverse

    When it comes to evolving technology and applications, the possibilities are endless, and restaurants have complete control over what they choose to do as the meta world expands.

    Food will be integrated into virtual experiences by brands. Restaurants will be able to recreate their physical space in the metaverse and invite guests from all over the world instead of using traditional email marketing. The metaverse will provide new opportunities to test promotions and loyalty programs.

    As more people begin to participate in the metaverse experience, apps will no longer be the primary ordering channel. Companies such as Doordash, UberEats, and GrubHub will need to reconsider their strategies as ordering and discovery become more integrated into more interoperable experiences. Someone would have to deliver the food after all!

    While we expect restaurants to always accept cold hard cash, we believe that over the next five years, a few large cryptocurrencies will emerge at the top of the metaverse. A restaurant’s branding and marketing activities will be influenced by the money it accepts.

    Wrap-up:

    Metaverse

    In the real world, most of us enjoy sitting down with friends at a relaxed restaurant and having a great conversation. That desire will not be impacted by the metaverse as restaurants will continue to offer those one-of-a-kind experiences. However, through the metaverse, restaurants will be able to reach more customers who may not be able to attend in person and still provide them with a memorable time.

    All restaurants should begin to prepare for the metaverse as the future is near!

    If you have something to add about the Metaverse and the Restaurant Industry, please add yourself to our Facebook community, the link’s above, let’s start connecting!

    How To Increase Restaurant Sales With Online Ordering?

    Competition in the restaurant industry can be cut-throat and with the rapidly changing trends, it can be difficult to acquire new customers or retain existing. As more customers seek out the ease of take-out–and especially delivery, third-party for delivery services provide an easy way to increase restaurant sales with online ordering.

    Although these delivery services offer an opportunity to reach new customers  and increase sales, the benefits  come at a cost: giving up access to valuable customer data and losing loyal customer base to the delivery partners. 

    It, therefore, becomes pertinent for restaurants to explore strategies to engage with their customers to keep the regulars coming back, attract new customers, and build their native platforms to increase online orders on their website. In this article, we will discuss some strategies to increase restaurant sales with online ordering.

    How to increase restaurant sales with online ordering?

    1. Opt for A Robust Online Ordering Solution
    2. Streamline your online ordering menu
    3. Optimize your online ordering platform
    4. Make it easy to order from your website
    5. Leverage Digital channels to Promote Online Ordering
    6. Optimize Your Website For Local Search
    7. Promote your Online Ordering Platform
    increase restaurant sales with online ordering

    1. Opt For A Robust Online Ordering Solution

    Many restaurant owners/managers opt for third party delivery services to provide the convenience of online ordering to their customers. The general belief is that it is easier to get started on such platforms and get more orders without any investment in terms of time and resources. However, what they fail to factor in is that the additional revenues generated by orders received via these platforms is usually diluted by the hefty commissions charged by them.

    At this point, it is advisable to consider the long-term benefits of building your own online ordering platform. Initially, you may have to put in some efforts to promote your online ordering platform but these are resources invested in building your brand that have the potential to deliver huge dividends in the future.

    There are several robust online ordering solutions in the market, which are commission-free and are available to restaurants totally free of cost. There are a few things you should keep in mind while selecting an online ordering solution:

    What are the key features of an online ordering solution?

    • Simple configuration: Most modern solutions are easy to setup and configure and allow to start taking online orders within 24 hours.
    • POS integrations: An integrated online ordering solution does away with the need for manually updating orders. Your online orders appear on your POS along with other orders, and all menu updates on the POS are automatically reflected on your online ordering platform.
    • Customer data: if your online ordering solution is integrated with your pos, the customer data from online orders appears with all other data on your POS.
    • Customizable: You should be able to customize the platform, upload pictures and add descriptions to align with your brand identity.
    • Customers should be able save their preferences and customize their orders easily.
    • Accept Multiple Payment Options
    • Integrated feedback and loyalty program help you to build a loyal customer base.

    2. Streamline your online ordering menu

    increase restaurant sales with online ordering
    Chipotle Online Ordering

    A lot of thought should go into creating your online ordering menu. Some items that may be very popular in-store might not lot lend themselves to pick-up or delivery. Evaluate each menu item on the following three criteria to come up with the ideal menu.

    • Whether they do or do not travel well
    • Whether the margin on the food item is enough to cover packaging/delivery costs.
    • Packaging considerations

    Your online order menu should include only those items that travel well and at the same time have a high popularity and profitability score.

    3. Optimize Your Online Ordering Platform

    The online ordering platform is an extension of your brand, and you should take utmost care to build the same customer experience on your online ordering page that customers have come to expect from your brand.

    • Customize every aspect of the solution to align with your brand identity.
    • Upload good quality food images and detailed descriptions of food items.
    • Arrange menu items like they would appear on your in-store menu.
    • Create up-sell or cross-sell opportunities by creating pop-ups for popular items or items that are usually ordered together.
    • Streamline and smoothen the customer journey on your online ordering platform by setting up automations such as helpful tips and suggestions or allowing customers to save orders or delivery address etc.

    4. Make It Easy To Order Right From Your Website

    In most case, customers land on your online ordering platform from your website. The order online button should appear prominently on the top of your home page and menu page to grab the customers attention. Highlight your specials and consider adding add to cart buttons to menu items.

    5. Leverage Digital Channels to Promote Online Ordering

    You should build a strong online identity by adding the order online button to all your social media handles including Facebook, Instagram and GMB page. Platforms like Yelp and Tripadvisor also allow you to build your restaurant page and add an order online button to lead customers to your order online platform.

    6. Optimize Your Restaurant Website for Local Search

    Each day thousands of customers are searching on Google for restaurant like yours using keywords or terms related to your business/menu. You should optimize your website for these key search terms. Research keywords for your restaurant and include them in your page’s body, header, title tags, and Meta description and your sit’s SEO.

    Build your website’s credibility and trust with the search engines by adding your restaurant to relevant local listings including Google maps, Apple maps, Yellow book, Map quest and Nextdoor.

    increase restaurant sales with online ordering

    7. Promote Your Online Ordering Platform

    You would want your customers to know that you are accepting online orders. Promoting your online ordering platform through organic and paid channels can help your reach more customers and increase restaurant sales with online ordering.

    In-Store Promotions
    1. Promote your online ordering link via window displays and posters in prominent places such as the check out counter.
    2. Grab the attention of your customers when they are waiting for their food to arrive with table tents.
    3. Menu inserts are also a great way to reach your customers.
    4. Ensure that your online ordering link is prominently printed on your takeout packages and receipts.
    5. Train your staff to promote your online ordering platform to your customers.
    Online Promotions

    Social Media platforms can be a great tool to reach your customers. Besides regular posts promoting your online ordering link, you should also consider advertising to reach your target audience on these networks.

    • You could create a special offer or discount to promote online ordering among your customers.
    • Run contests to promote online Orders.
    • Run Ads to promote online ordering

    8. Leverage Data To Build Loyalty

    Use data from your online ordering solution to create targeted promotions fostering brand loyalty. Segment customers based on their purchase history, preferences and visit frequency and come up with customized offers to bring back customers. For instance;

    1. Offers to bring back dormant customers
    2. Offer on kids meal to bring back customers with kids
    3. Deals to increase average order value of regulars
    4. Flash offers to increase online orders on slow days
    5. Offer available only on online orders to incentivize customers to place pickup orders during rush hours.

    Streamlining the customer experience on your online ordering platform and targeted promotions can help you build your brand and increase restaurant sales with online ordering.

    Increase Your Restaurant Revenues with FoodKonnekt Online Ordering

    Learn More

    10 Advantages of An Online Ordering Solution For Restaurants

    Taking orders over the phone has worked well for restaurants for past several decades. Although taking orders over the phone in the middle of a bustling restaurant wasn’t always easy! And, then dealing with customer complaints about busy phone lines and inaccurate orders interfered with the in-store experience. Inspite of understanding the advantages of an online ordering solution for restaurants, restaurant owners had little choice as getting onboard an online ordering paltform was not easy or cheap.

    Over the last decade, the restaurant industry witnessed a paradigm shift in customer habits and demands. Customers have come to expect the ability to view menus, and place their order online. The good news is that the rapid advances in technology have now made online ordering available to even small mom-and pop stores at nominal or zero costs. Besides providing a superior customer experience, getting onboard an online ordering platform helps you hold your own in the competitive restaurant industry.

    If you are still contemplating whether or not to opt for online ordering, here’a a list of 10 distinct advantages of an online ordering solution for restaurants.

    Advantages of An Online Ordering Solution For Restaurants

    1. Wider Reach
    2. Higher Average Order Value
    3. online Orders Drive Revenue
    4. Superior Customer Experience
    5. Reduces Wastages
    6. Efficient Order Management
    7. Stay Ahead Of The Competition
    8. Own Your Customer Data
    9. Build Brand Loyalty
    10. Safety
    advantages of an online ordering solution for restaurants

    1. Wider Reach:

    As people look for a faster and convenient method of food ordering; getting onboard an online ordering solution, makes you available at their fingertips. It helps you reach customers who otherwise may not have heard of your restaurant. With integrated online ordering solution in place, the number of customers you can serve at any given time is no longer by the seating available at your restaurant. You can even manage the increased demand on weekends or during rush hours by encouraging more guests to order online.

    2. Higher Order Value

    The average order value of online orders is 30% higher than in-store orders. Now, you may be wondering if that is just another meaningless statistic, but then think of all the times you have actually ordered a pizza after looking at a delectable picture of a pizza. Customers on your online ordering platform are savoring all the drool-worthy images that you have put up there and that is making them hungry.

    When customers are ordering from your online ordering platform, they have plenty of time to check out your menu, read descriptions, consider items they have never ordered before, or go through your specials and combo deals. This makes them more likely to try new items and order more.

    Further, there is also a general tendency to order more when placing an order for pick-up or delivery as the customer is well-aware that he cannot order seconds and it is better to have left-overs than fall short. 

    3. Online Ordering Drives Revenue

    Your online ordering platform provides you with an excellent opportunity to drive up-sell and cross-sells to boost order sizes. You can assist the customer through their online ordering by offering helpful tips such as “frequently ordered together” or recommend side dishes, appetizers, wine pairing, and desserts. These recommendations popped up at the right moments during the ordering process not only assist the customers but also help you sell more!

    Putting your restaurant in front of more people allows you to reach a much wider market and enable customers to oder from you on-the-go via your website or social media. The additional revenue stream and higher than average order value can help you generate incremental revenues.

    Restaurant owners often decide to get onboard a third-party delivery service to keep up with the changing demand. However, most of these services charge a hefty commission that eats up into their revenues. With your own online ordering integrated with your PoS, you get to keep all the profits.

    4. Superior Customer Experience.

    Traditionally, every restaurant allows its patrons to place orders over the phone for pick-up and delivery. Now, if that is the only way to place to-go orders, imagine the wait on your phone lines. It is often difficult to jot down an order correctly or miss out on finer details of the order, especially, during the rush hours when the restaurant is teeming with guests.

    An online ordering solution can free up your phone lines and improve order accuracy. You will no longer lose orders during rush hours/ weekends due to busy phone lines. Customers can easily place an order, add special instructions or details and even pay for the order on-the go. Most online ordering platforms offer a final confirmation page where users can verify their order before paying for it. Another sore point for customers placing orders over the phone is the uncertain wait time for to-go orders. An online ordering solution effectively resolves this problem by providing an accurate estimates of pick-up and delivery times.

    With the system taking care of online orders, your staff is better available to focus on the in-store customers and deliver stellar experiences.

    advantages of an online ordering solution for restaurants

    5. Reduce Wastages

    Now, this one is something we have all experienced; oftentimes at the time of pick-up the customer complains that the order is incorrect and we have had to reimburse or re-prepare the order to avoid unpleasantness. These costs could add up over time. But, when taking orders over the phone, such occurrences are more or less inevitable in the long run. 

    With an online ordering solution, incorrect orders or missing details are no longer your problem, the onus is now on the customer. And, even better, you no longer have to deal with losses resulting from customers failing to show up to pick up their orders. As the customer has already paid for the order, he is more likely to collect it and even if they don’t, you are covered.

    6. Efficient Order Management

    With an online ordering solution, a dedicated staff member is no longer required to manage phone calls. With pos integrations, you no longer have to transcribe orders manually as your online orders appear along with other orders on your POS.

    Whenever customers place an order, the online ordering system sends notifications via email or SMS to the restaurant’s kitchen printer. If you are using a KDS the orders simply appears in the kitchen display system with no manual intervention.

    7. Stay Ahead Of The Competition

    If you have been in the restaurant space for any amount of time, you are already aware of the importance of keeping  up with the trends and catering to any change in customer demand. Customers are looking for easier and faster ways to place their orders and if you are not providing the service, they are likely to look elsewhere.

    8. Own Your Customer Data

    All customer data from your online ordering solution is available to you. This data can help you analyze and understand customer preferences, or discover your best performing menu items, special offers or combos. You can also use this data to create customized promotions to target your customers and keep them coming back.

    9. Build Customer Loyalty

    With an online ordering solution, you are in complete control of the online ordering, pick-up or delivery experience. As a restaurant owner/manager you can ensure that your customers get the same consistent experience that they come to expect from your brand. The automated feedback mechanism, which is inbuilt in most modern online ordering solutions helps you collect feedback from customers to continuously improve on your services.

    Engaging with your customers on a regular basis with targeted promotions and messaging helps you build loyalty towards your brand. You can also use the online data to invite customers to join your loyalty program and build a loyal customer base that visits more often and buys more.

    10. Safety

    As we navigate this pandemic, many customers are still vary of venturing out to eat. Having an online ordering solution provides both your customers and staff an efficient way to maintain safety and hygiene requirements during this time.

    Wrap-up

    Now, that we have discussed the advantages of an online ordering solution for restaurants, the next question that obviously comes to mind is that wouldn’t it be easier to hop onto third-party delivery instead of building your own native platform. The short answer is no. Now, you can build your own online ordering platform with little or no assistance at zero costs and you get to keep all the profits and use the customer data to build a loyal customer base.

    Increase Your Restaurant Revenues with FoodKonnekt Online Ordering

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