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.

1. Slow Service

One of the most common complaints in restaurants is slow service. Customers want to be served promptly and efficiently—long wait times can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction. To avoid this, restaurant owners should make sure that their staff is properly trained and that the kitchen staff and servers are working together seamlessly. Additionally, having a well-organized system for taking orders and preparing food can speed up the process. One strategy to avoid slow service is clear communication between the servers and the kitchen. This ensures that orders are taken promptly and sent to the kitchen in a timely manner, reducing the chance of delays.

Another strategy is a well-staffed restaurant, with enough servers and kitchen staff to handle the volume of customers. This ensures that orders are prepared and served quickly, without delays. Another important aspect of avoiding slow service is to have a well-organized seating system. This can include using a reservation system or a waitlist, which can reduce customer wait times. Additionally, restaurant owners can consider offering a “call ahead” service, where customers can call to place their order in advance, reducing their wait time at the restaurant. Furthermore, efficient table management can minimize delays by allowing servers to quickly turn tables over and seat new customers.

2. Inaccurate Check Calculation

Another common complaint is a wrong check amount. This can be caused by a variety of factors, including human error or technical issues with the point-of-sale system. To avoid mistakes, restaurant owners should train their staff in how to properly use the point-of-sale system. They should double-check the calculations before presenting the check to the customer and know how to handle any discrepancies that may occur. Additionally, it is important to have accurate and straightforward menu pricing to ensure that customers are not over- or undercharged for their meals. Clearly itemizing orders with a computerized point-of-sale system will reduce human error and provide a clear record of the order for both the customer and the server.

Another way to avoid check mistakes is to h include details on the menu about additional charges (taxes or gratuities) or credits (discounts or deals). Easily understanding the cost breakdown—and being able to explain it to the customer—is essential.

3. Rude Behavior

Rude staff behavior is a major complaint that leads to negative reviews and lost business. Customers expect friendly and polite service—rudeness and lack of professionalism can ruin a meal. (Some customers may even walk out before ordering if they sense a bad attitude from their server.) This can include anything from a server being short with a customer to a chef being rude to staff. Staff should be properly trained in customer service and be held accountable for their behavior. Clear rules about how employees should treat customers are paramount— owners must ensure they follow those rules through regular training and performance reviews. Additionally, regularly soliciting customer feedback can help identify any issues with rude behavior and address them quickly.

4. Order Mix-up

Order mix-ups can be a major source of frustration for customers. They expect to receive exactly what they ordered, and mistakes lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction. Anything from getting the wrong dish to receiving a dish with ingredients the customer specifically asked to be left out can be a turnoff. To avoid this, restaurant owners should properly train servers to take, place, and double-check orders before they are delivered to customers.

This can be accomplished with a digital ordering system that shows the customer's order precisely, or by having a staff member double-check orders before sending them to the kitchen. A policy for handling order mix-ups, like a free dish or a discount, can mitigate the customer’s frustration.

5. Food Does Not Look as Expected

Lastly, customers expect the food they order to look just as it was described on the menu. If the food does not look as they expected, disappointment and dissatisfaction will result. A dish may not be plated as shown on the menu, or it may simply not be as visually appealing as the customer had hoped. Owners must make sure that the food is prepared and presented as depicted, and that the menu descriptions are accurate. Kitchen staff needs to be taught to plate food correctly, and the menu needs to show exactly what the customer can expect to receive. Requesting customer feedback via a comment card or online review can help identify any presentation issues and address them quickly.

Conclusion

By proactively avoiding these top 5 customer complaints, restaurant owners can ensure their customers have a good time. It also increases the likelihood of converting the customer into a “regular.” By paying attention to detail, providing excellent customer service, and keeping an eye out for potential issues, restaurant owners will enjoy customers who are happy and satisfied with their dining experience.

5 minutues

Why Restaurateurs with Food Inventory Management Software are Making It Big in the Industry

Inventory control and food inventory management are key components of overall restaurant management. To keep service running smoothly, proper inventory management is a must in any restaurant, and failing to do so majorly affects the finances of the restaurant.

Handle your restaurant’s food inventory management like a pro with DOYO. Take control of your inventory and your employees. Let’s look at some of the major benefits an inventory management software can provide:

Benefits of inventory management

Having an appropriate stock control system adds a lot to food business practices. Keeping a close eye on how much things cost to make and how much they are worth on the market as a whole will help you control cash flow in the long run. The food and beverage businesses do not always subject their menus to the same level of dissection.

It becomes even more important to have a good stock control system that helps you reduce overhead costs, change menu prices, and come up with a good plan for controlling portion sizes. As food and drink businesses put the right control systems in place, they can be sure that they are making good business decisions.

Proper restaurant inventory management ensures a proper food and money management system. It will be easier for you to keep track of the fact that some items may have lower profit margins than you expected, so you end up burning money when these items go unsold, eventually negatively affecting cash flow. If you know enough about this subject and keep track of your inventory, you can make better decisions, make changes at the last minute to make up for lost profits, and protect yourself from similar risks in the future.

Preventing lack of food items

It is essential for restaurants to keep track of the usage of food items, along with item costs and overall inventory levels. It will eventually help you understand where the money goes. This information is necessary for restaurants because it will reduce their cost of goods sold and also boost profits on each sale.

Preventing food waste

Food inventory management can be of immense help in maintaining profit margins. Refilling the inventory with the labor cost it takes is one of the most notable expenses for a food and beverage business. With the right inventory management and implementation of stock control, food waste can decline. Considering how food waste is a huge problem for the food and beverage industry, having the right technology to help minimize their contribution to waste is a good deal.

Start by thinking about how much food you are wasting unnecessarily. Sometimes you can't help it, like when a customer doesn't like the dish. There are, however, always ways to reduce waste on your end, such as cooking mistakes, spillage, or waste during preparation. To keep track of all this, you need the right equipment on hand and even help the staff be more mindful of the waste they are encouraging so they can minimize errors and practice avoiding food waste.

Overordering

As restaurants stock up their inventories, they forget to carry out a proper management system, which at times results in overordering. By ordering less food than you actually need, you can reduce food waste and save a lot of money with proper inventory tracking and performance.

Assorted misfires

Misfires do not happen with a disclaimer. Whether you prepare the wrong dish because you read the order wrong or forget to add an allergy note to a dish with nuts, there are all kinds of possibilities for making mistakes in the restaurant business. But when you use an automated solution like restaurant inventory management software, you cut down on these errors. All you have to do is provide your staff with proper training and active management, and you will notice how these small mishaps lessen with time during a shift.

Poor portion control

Having an inaccurate idea of portions could lead to food waste, too; you have to get your portions right. And if you control the size of your meals, you can usually stretch your food budget further without sacrificing quality. Stopping food from reaching the trash by standardizing the measurements for each dish works especially well for the guests’ leftovers.

Food waste can't be stopped completely, but a few simple steps can make a big difference. This way, you can control food waste, save money, and even manage your kitchen better.

Manage your stockpile more efficiently by switching to an automated system.

Food inventory management is an important part of running a restaurant well, but it takes a lot of time to do it right. Using automated inventory management software that is connected to your POS will save you hours of time each day on tasks related to managing your inventory.

The numbers in stock will automatically be depleted as items sell, so you are able to track your stock in real-time. It alerts you when a key ingredient is running low and other similar things. Try our DOYO app for your restaurant inventory management—it allows you to manage your menus and COGS from one account, run regular reports on your inventory movements, keep a check on your inventory costs regularly, and much more. Start your 30-day free trial today!

7 minutues

Ready to get started?

Download the app and let’s start your digital journey together!