NetWaiter was recently featured in QSR Magazine in an article about online ordering and the use of Facebook and social media for the restaurant industry. 

QSR Article - NetWaiter Facebook Ordering.pdf (254.00 kb)

The New Year (like any other time of the year) is a good time to implement strategies that can boost sales and profits. Don’t overlook opportunities with online ordering. In fact, it can be a great starting point. Consider adding a special dish only available online or try distributing ‘secret’ promotional codes with each receipt to drive repeat business from customers within a certain timeframe.

You can also start cultivating an ‘ownership’ of your online ordering system with your employees. Develop a short pitch employees can deliver when speaking with customers. It should be brief and upbeat:

“Are you familiar with our online ordering capabilities? You can order takeout from us online with your computer or smartphone. It’s easy. Just check out our website, click “Order Online”, and make your selections. You can even use your Facebook account to login.”

Remember - online ordering is not only a way to attract new business, but also a way to make good customers better ones. This year – resolve to make better customers!

Valentine’s Day Sales Tip - Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, is a big day for restaurants. HOWEVER - not everyone wants to make a reservation and spend a ton of money. Think about offering a Valentine’s Day takeout special that includes an appetizer, dinner, and dessert for two. It’s a great way to get business from the sweethearts that want to spend the night at home!

Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, when it comes to getting your restaurant more online exposure, it can seem a little daunting.  It’s actually not that hard.  With just a few moments of your time, you can establish accounts with a number of online sites that will provide your restaurant more online exposure.  NetWaiter can help walk you through the basics:

Accepting Orders Online - This is easy.  If you’re considering NetWaiter, or already have an account, an online ordering site is provided for your restaurant.  In addition, a mobile site customized for your restaurant is also provided, giving customers maximum accessibility to your restaurant and menu.  Best of all – it’s very easy to setup.

Make a Name for Yourself and Get Connected - This is important.  If customers become more aware of your restaurant online, it will drive sales, both online and in-house.  Also, if you don’t monitor your online presence, you won’t know what is being said about your restaurant - good or bad!

While the Internet evolves daily, every restaurant can benefit from joining a few major websites.  Click on any of the following for a step-by-step guide to creating an account.  Here’s an overview:


- Driven by actual customers, who can add information, photos, and reviews of your restaurant.



- Maintained by Google (they’re a tiny company, maybe you’ve heard of them?).  This is where a lot of customers will land when doing a web search for your restaurant based on name, type of food, and/or area.



- Quickly growing as a competitor to Yelp!  Insider Pages is more of a “listing” service, while Citysearch contains a lot of what Yelp! has and more.



- A basic listing/review website with an easy to use interface.  One of the first to have an iPhone application and is now starting to get into online reservations.



- Foursquare is quickly growing as the mobile “check in” app.  Users can “check in” to your restaurant when they’re physically there and let their friends know what they’re up to.  As a restaurant owner, you can offer them discounts/perks for checking-in and/or being a frequent customer.

It’s no surprise that it’s the holiday season.  The big sales, endless carols, and countless commercials for the Snuggie® would have tipped you off if you hadn’t looked at your calendar recently.

Another nice thing about the holiday season: office meetings.  Office meetings are common this time of year as company employees collaborate to finish projects for 2010 and start planning for 2011.  This makes it a perfect time to take advantage of large takeout orders during lunch.

A Few Tips:
1)    Make sure your guests are aware that your restaurant is PERFECT for lunch orders.  Put up a sign, have employees tell customers in-person, and send out emails.  December and January are great months to take advantage of these orders, so continue promoting them into 2011.
2)    Try offering a discount for large orders.  For instance, setup a discount offer (either a percentage or fixed amount) for lunch orders that are $50 or more.
3)    You can also try offering a free item that is good for sharing OR a complimentary dessert for the group if they order above a certain amount.  (A dozen cookies will ALWAYS be well received by a group of employees.)

Restaurants across the country offering online ordering through NetWaiter can now offer the same service to diners using their Internet-enabled Smartphones.  The service, launched in early November, automatically became available to restaurants using NetWaiter, and their customers.

Mobile Ordering.pdf (132.37 kb)

NetWaiter, creators of one of the most innovative online ordering systems for restaurants, has taken their product a step further with the addition of two Facebook interfaces, bringing online ordering into the realm of social media.  "To our knowledge, NetWaiter is the first online ordering provider to offer this capability," said Jared Shimoff, a senior director at NetWaiter.

Facebook for NetWaiter.pdf (129.39 kb)

There are two major types of online ordering providers: Portal-Based Sites and Site-Based Systems.

As many know, portals group a number of restaurants on one website for diners to search and find restaurants based on a variety of criteria.  It’s typically free for a restaurant to get listed and restaurants simply pay a percentage of each order.  At first glance, Portal-Based Sites appear to be a good deal - they’re inexpensive to join and restaurants don’t pay anything unless they get business.

But, let’s look further. Most portals show the same exact listing for every restaurant, offering no individuality or branding capabilities.  In addition, a restaurant’s ability to control their information and menu is often minimal.  This leads to errors and customers can receive false information.  Furthermore, if a restaurant links their own website to their portal listing, they are powerless to stop would-be customers from ordering at a different restaurant.  If a customer did click from a restaurant’s website and completed their order, the restaurant ends up paying the portal fee (which could be as high as 15%-25%) - for an order that originated from their own site!

Many restaurant owners are simply dissatisfied with the results and headaches of being listed on a portal.  They joined a portal (or many portals) because they saw it as a riskless opportunity and didn’t realize the downfalls until later.  Errors, customer complaints, and not receiving proper payment from the portal are plenty of reasons to be upset.

Restaurants with the most successful online ordering businesses use a Site-Based System (like NetWaiter) with integrated marketing functionality.  Successful restaurant owners using their own custom site realize they can reap huge rewards if they promote the service to customers.  For example, a restaurant that recently started with NetWaiter immediately began pushing their site to customers using Twitter, Facebook, store signage, and messages on their receipts.  Within six months, their NetWaiter site helped them to almost double their takeout business.  Orders roll in every day.

The functionality and benefits empower restaurants to take ‘an ownership’ in their online ordering business.  The ability to provide customers a seamless and branded ordering process is also very valuable.  Best of all, because the fees are substantially less than a portal, restaurant owners recognize the savings and know that promoting their own online site will not cost them an ‘arm and a leg’ or drive sales to other restaurants.

As of early November, all NetWaiter clients have their own custom mobile site.

Restaurants across the country offering online ordering through NetWaiter can now receive orders from customers using Internet-enabled smartphones.  The service, launched earlier this month, automatically became available to NetWaiter clients and their customers.  Analytics from NetWaiter already show a brisk business from this new mobile capability.

NetWaiter’s technology is able to determine when a customer is accessing a client’s site using a mobile device.  Customers can simply access any NetWaiter site from a smartphone (i.e. iPhone, Android) and the system will automatically recognize the mobile device and display the appropriate mobile site, making navigation simple.

Based on conservative estimates, there are more than 50 million smartphones operating in the U.S.  Knowing that most smartphone owners quickly adapt to everything they do, including online ordering, NetWaiter expects this capability to be huge for clients and their customers.

Nothing is required by restaurants to enable this new feature.  Mobile accessibility is part of every service package at no additional charge.

Blue Moon Burgers in Seattle, WA, combines online ordering with social media--Twitter and Facebook.  The result is a 100% increase in business in the South Lake Union store in eight months.

Blue Moon using NetWaiter.pdf (160.19 kb)