Reasons Why Restaurants Should Switch to Digital Menus
Digital menus are much more than displays; they add a lot of strategic and operational value for restaurants these days.
A digital menu is a smart and innovative way for restaurants to keep their guests interested and make them happier.
How do digital menus work?
This compelling new technology is driven by digital restaurant menu software. The cloud-based software even allows users to make real-time changes, including updating the food prices, removing items, or making adjustments to the ingredients of already featured items.
Let’s have a look at a few important aspects as we dive into the world of digital restaurant menu applications.
Some Benefits of Digital Restaurant Menus
Because of COVID, sanitization was the first thing to drive digital restaurant menus, since they are very useful for operations. Let’s find out more about these digital menus and how they are benefiting restaurants and customers alike.
It has more guest-centric order and pay processes
Interactive digital menus let customers use software to place their own orders with just a click. Such a technology enables customers to have a guest-centric experience. At the end of the day, it all comes down to how well the new tech innovations in restaurants are used.
However, in the past two decades, there have been many restaurant technologies that have emerged, but they have all been made to fit age-old service models. The digital ordering system will turn these technologies on their heads and give guests the power to be in charge of their experience and decide how service is delivered. It increases sales of the featured items on the menu.
Digital restaurant menus enable you, as a restaurant manager, to highlight specific items on the menu—items that are bestsellers, or something that is a ‘Dish of the Day.’ You can just put a daily special at the top of the menu, which will be shown when the QR code is scanned. Or you could get a callout on digital signage and try new limited-time offers. These changes could majorly affect the overall sales of your restaurant.
Digital menus also decrease the perceived wait times in Lines
Digital ordering system is here to enhance customer experience for everyone, and retail businesses are all about that. The customer experience hits the skids when they have to wait in long lines and with that, their interest in the brand gets affected, too. Although you can’t do much about the number of customers coming into your restaurants, but you can make an engaging digital sign for those who are in line.
Digital signs have been shown to cut the time people think they have to wait at checkouts by about 35%. That way, people on line will have something to do while they wait, and the time will seemingly go faster. This won't work with printed menus because they don't get better over time; they stay the same, and repeat customers won't want to look through the same pages.
People can see nutritional value of the items in menu
With digital menus, you are not just constrained to lists of food and drinks and their prices, but you also get to see the nutritional values of those items as well. The digital era has brought us instant access to information regarding nutrition, allergies, calories, vitamins, fibers, and other dietary facts. It adds to the entire menu description you set for your restaurant. Who doesn’t want to know how many calories they are consuming with each meal? This part of your digital menu will make your customers happy and make your restaurant a one-stop shop for them. You keep them informed so they can make the best choice.
As restaurant owners, you get to advertise your specialties on the menu, especially if you want to highlight what you locally source or some premium ingredient you use in your recipes. You can very conveniently do that on your digital menu.
Digital menus have the power of alluring customers with attractive visuals
The human brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text and creates an immediate sensory connection for a person. The digital restaurant menu prompts interest and appetite for people using images and other visual effects. High-quality food photos can entice customers to try the delicious-looking dish at the restaurant.
Digital menus also allow you to try different effects; your menu boards can include movement, which is another interesting way to grab any busy person’s attention. Even a small snippet or video clip could do the trick. The potential customer will read the offer and may decide to get that displayed item right there because it looks so darn good.
And since it's all digital, you get to change the images, upgrade to a better version of the software, and much more to keep your customers interested. Start your 30-day free trial with Do Your Order today and watch your table turnover dramatically increase.
MOST READ
Why should a restaurant use digital menus instead of paper Menu?The digital menu accessible to clients via their own smartphone are updatable in real time from any phone or laptop. This allows restaurant for real time price changes or to temporarily hide product which are out of stock. It also allows to add in few seconds new selling product. Having a menu on the table at all time, saves time! The client does not need to wait the server/waiter to bring him the menu to start reading it. As a result, the table turnover increases as well, bringing in more sales revenues to the restaurant.
Clients, can filter the food by allergens and exclude the items to which they are allergic to. Also, they are able to see the items in 8 languages and with pictures. This reduces the number of misunderstandings and increases their experience and satisfaction.
Having our digital menu increase on line and social media presence on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TripAdvisor. They have the option to add those links at the bottom of the menu. The client can be redirect there, so that he has the possibility to rate, follow or like your restaurant. The more people interact on line, the higher the number of people coming (assuming your offering is also good).
Last but not least, owners are able to run promotion in certain time ranges. For instance, if you have raw materials close to expiration day, you can reduce their stocks by offering a product discount before having to dispose them at a full loss. Or in case you have a bar and would like to schedule regular happy hours/discounts between certain working hours. Discounts lead to an increase the number of guests and sales volume.
There are always people who will continue preferring the old-fashioned paper menu. Especially elderly ones. It is good practice to have a couple of paper courtesy menus available for them to read. They could be edited and printed daily.
2 minutuesWhat is a KDS and why is it better than paper tickets?KDS stands as Kitchen Display System. Essentially, all orders are displayed digitally on a screen instead of been printed on a paper ticket. One screen fits up to 10 tables in one single view. Having a KDS solves practical issues such as changing the paper roll during the busy kitchen period times. Most importantly it allows for the kitchen staff to coordinate delivery to a table across different department by using the “Synchronization” functionality so that all people at the table eat at the same time. Currently in most of the restaurant such coordination across department is done physically by a manager (running between departments) or radio channels. Another big advantage of a KDS is to flag when the food is ready. The waiters who called the items will receive a notification on their phone/work device and will know it is time to pick up the food and “Deliver” it to the client. Once food is delivered by the waiter, the table will move at the back of the queue to that the next table can be start to be prepared. The last advantage of KDS are their environmental footprint. A heat laser printer consumes more energy than the average LED screen. On top also many Kilometers of high-quality printing paper per year! Such a waste ☹. For a well aired kitchen, you can use also a google smart tv as a KDS! What are you waiting for doing the switch?
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