Ways to Increase Your Efficiency With Online Ordering

Everyone knows that the restaurant business is a hectic one. Not only are you trying to make sure that your customers get the dishes they desire, but you are also working against the clock to get their food to them within a reasonable time. Then you repeat this process numerous times a day for every customer who walks in your door.

There are ways to make working in this industry less stressful, and less frustrating for your customers, such as implementing an online ordering system. With an ordering system, customers can order online from any device, as well as straight from Facebook. You can receive these orders in real time and start processing them right away.

This system has benefits outside of just reducing anxiety. It can help increase efficiency for you and your business, allowing you to process more orders in a shorter amount of time, so you can make the best possible use of your resources. That is why, once your ordering system is set up, you should focus on utilizing this process to your advantage, and grow your business. Here are the top tips on how to get the most out of your online ordering process.

What Online Ordering Looks Like

These days, online ordering platforms like GrubHub, Seamless and UberEats are ubiquitous. Everyone wants to order from the comfort of home, but not everyone wants to pick up the phone to do so. That’s why, if you have been taking orders over the phone and want to expand into the digital space, you must have your own online ordering platform. Customers who purchase through third-party apps will have to pay higher prices because of the middleman, which may turn them off of buying your food. So, having a way for them to go directly to you by setting your business up with its own ordering platform is a great solution.

That platform can work through several different venues. For example, customers can order through your custom-built website, mobile app or Facebook account. So, your customers will have a variety of options to choose from when ordering, and increases the likelihood that they will do so simply because it’s so easy. When it comes to websites alone, research shows that 70 percent of customers will look at a business’ website and online menu before making a decision. So it pays to have an “order” button right there to take full advantage of the views you get on your site.

Here are a few of the benefits of having online ordering capabilities for your business:

Reduce processing and wait times

With traditional ordering, customers had to either call over the phone or come to your restaurant in person and place their orders; each of these methods involved waiting for someone to pick up the phone or come into the restaurant, looking through the menu and waiting while the order was relayed to the kitchen and prepared. Online ordering can change this process. It streamlines ordering so that there are fewer steps involved. Your restaurant receives the order straight from the customer, and your team can immediately start getting it ready.

Payment takes place online too. So you will not have to wait while the customer reads a credit card number over the phone. Instead, you can focus your time on what you do best — providing great products and service. With faster responses, your customers will experience shorter wait times, and you can utilize the extra time to take care of other necessary tasks.

Make the most of your staff

With a process that has fewer steps overall, online ordering reduces the demands on your staff. You can make better use of their time and efforts by having them focus on preparing and serving food instead of spending time taking orders at the front of the house. When your staff is working more efficiently, you can ensure that your money is not being wasted. Your staff members can also focus more on the tasks that they know how to do best, like preparing certain food items, instead of trying to multitask, which is much less efficient.

Create a better customer experience

Ordering online ensures accuracy by cutting out human error. Instead of misunderstanding a customer’s order over the phone or mishearing a credit card number, you can guarantee that you will get the order in the customer’s own words. Cutting out human error along with shorter wait times and ease-of-access online means that your customers will have a better overall experience purchasing from you and are more likely to come back in the future.