How Your Restaurant Can Save Time by Offering Online Ordering
As the old saying goes, time is money. Although it is cliché, it is also true, especially for a business such as a restaurant. Smart restaurateurs are always looking for ways to streamline operations and have staff members work efficiently. One great way to do so is to offer online ordering to your customers.
Having an online ordering system has many benefits for your business. When you implement an online ordering system for your restaurant, you can expect to save lots of time in the following ways.
Avoid Miscommunications With Customers
One time-saving benefit of ordering online is that it eliminates misunderstandings between humans. Too often orders that are taken over the phone can be misheard or written down wrong. Although these errors can be chalked-up to simple human error, it can result in unhappy customers. Traditionally, the way to fix these problems was to spend time fixing the order so it meets the customer’s expectations.
Preparing an entire new meal for someone takes time, often while the customer is waiting and hungry. When an order is placed online, your customers have the opportunity to order their meals to their specifications and submit them online with just one click. The restaurant then as easy-to-read and easy-to-follow specifications on how to prepare the food exactly how the customer wants it. So, no time is wasted re-preparing food that was prepared incorrectly.
Updates Are Quick
Restaurants often update their menu offerings. Whether it is to add new items, remove old ones, or change the daily specials menu updates are necessary and frequent. Without an online ordering system, the menu update process can be long and arduous. In fact, some restaurants do not bother, and simply have to tell call-in customers “we don’t have that any longer” when they order something that is no longer on the menu, which just makes the restaurant look bad.
With an online ordering system, menu updates are automated and fast. In fact, they can be done in minutes rather than hours. A restaurant can save several hours over the course of just one week, and that time can be spent on other aspect that are also important to the restaurant.
Instant Marketing
As a restaurant owner, you are likely always trying to market your restaurant in order to gain new customers and retain current ones. Strong and successful marketing campaigns can take lots of time to plan and execute. However, online ordering systems easily provide you with instant advertising.
Spending a few minutes putting your online ordering system on your website and social media pages creates advertising for your business without expending much time or effort at all. Your online menu will attract both present and prospective customers and help you build your business. All of this can be done quickly and conveniently within minutes. That’s a lot faster than trying to craft and implement an entire marketing campaign.
Get Paid Faster
Despite the fact that you opened a restaurant because you love food and wanted to perform a service for people, the simple fact is that you own a business to make money. It is simply a fact of business that you need money to sustain it, so you want to make sure you get the money that is owed to you in a timely manner. When you implement an online ordering system, you can receive your money within one day’s time.
If you choose the right online ordering service, such as Orders2Me, the money can go right to you rather than through the service, thus saving even more time. Some services take up to four weeks to get your money to you. That is an excessive amount of time to wait when you need the money to put back into your business. So, when cash flow is important to the sustenance of your business (and when isn’t it?) choose your online ordering service wisely, and go with one that has a short turnaround time for the receipt of your money.
Now is the time to bring your restaurant into the technological age. There is no doubt that most, if not all, of your customers are almost constantly connected to the world through their computers, phones, and mobile devices. So, it is simply logical to reach them where they already are and offer the ease and convenience of online ordering.
Not only is it beneficial for your customers, implementing an online ordering system will save you and your staff an incredible amount of time. The time that is saved with a more streamlined and efficient online ordering system can be used to work on other projects that can better benefit your restaurant, or even allow you to take a night off every week.