Good waiters and waitresses work hard to upsell dine-in customers - to gently suggest they add items to their order, whether it’s a side of sautéed mushrooms with their filet mignon or an order of breadsticks with their pizza.

Does this same upselling occur with phone-in orders?  Probably not.

Why?  The employee taking the order is multi-tasking three other jobs simultaneously and the customer placing the order is more concerned that the employee get it right, rather than add more items.

NetWaiter, however, guarantees each customer ordering online from your restaurant will be properly upsold, netting larger orders and greater profits. This upselling happens in two phases.  The best thing – both are done in an unobtrusive way to generate larger orders, without slowing down the customer’s ordering process.

The first phase allows a customer to select additional options while customizing an item.  This can be done with any item.  If someone is ordering a sandwich, you may need to ask which type of bread they want (along with their topping choices).  You can also upsell the sandwich with additional suggestions, such as adding “Extra Turkey” for $1.50 or a “Bag of Chips” for $1.25.

The second phase tracks which categories a customer has ordered from and prompts them to add items from categories that haven’t been selected.  NetWaiter highlights the three or four most popular items from a suggested category and allows a customer to make a selection after adding any item to their order.  The specific categories are set based on a hierarchy configured by the restaurant. 

As mentioned in a recent blog post, appetizers, desserts, and beverages are the most overlooked items for takeout.  The hierarchy of categories for upselling can be set with this in mind.  You should set appetizers and desserts towards the top of the hierarchy.  Other categories at the top should include those with high profit-margin items and items with price points that make them an easy add-on to any order. 

The next time you update your online menu, make sure the categories in your upselling hierarchy are optimized to maximize online sales.  If needed, a NetWaiter Success Specialist can help you with your configurations.

January 1 is rapidly approaching. There is no better time to go over a list of things that will help you maximize the benefit of your NetWaiter online ordering system. 

1. One Click Access from your Homepage.  Attention spans on websites are measured in nanoseconds.  Don’t make your customer look – have at least one link clearly visible, at the top of your homepage.  Have at least one more button, shown consistently in the same place, on every page of your website.

2. Don’t Post a Link to Any Portal Listing.  Portals bring in the occasional new customer who might not have found your restaurant otherwise.  The costs, however, can be up to four times, or more, than NetWaiter.  Let portals send you new customers, not the other way around.  Remember, almost half of customers visiting a portal site (47.1%) said they clicked over to the restaurant’s own website to order their food once they found a restaurant they liked.  Capturing those customers is critical to save money.

3. Menu Priority.  Your online menu needs to be well crafted, just like your table menu.  The most profitable dishes, or those most popular with your customers, should have prominent positioning towards the top of each category.

4. Updated Menus.  Keep your online menu updated.  It only takes a second through your NetWaiter Management Console.  This is a big one: 68% of people are not likely to visit a restaurant, café, or bar after encountering incorrect online information about the business.

5. Don’t Forget About… Appetizers, desserts, and drinks are categories most frequently overlooked in takeout orders.  Make sure the hierarchy of your up-selling categories gives preference to these types of items. 

6. Market, Market, Market.  Use the database from your NetWaiter Management Console to promote off-hours business, special offers, and other incentives to make sure your favorite customers are well informed and come back often.

7. Seeing is Believing.  Photos sell product.  Are you making maximum use of photos on your NetWaiter site?  Click here for some tips and to learn more about the impact of photos with online ordering. 

8. Encourage New Customers.  Do you have an incentive for a first-time online customer?  The long-term value of an online customer is huge (considerably more than a phone-in customer), and the best part is – you can track it.  Consider offering an ongoing discount for first-time online customers (maybe 15% off, or more).

9. Take Advantage of Online Payments.  68% of customers pay online with NetWaiter, and the figure is even higher for delivery orders.  This saves time for both you and your customers.  In addition, the funds are deposited directly into your bank account. 

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Those were the words of the late Peter Drucker, one of the top management experts, an educator, and consultant with businesses across the world.  Knowledge is power!

So, what do you know about your takeout customers?  If a customer called to place their order – you probably don’t know anything about them.  If they ordered online, you know a lot.

An added value of online customers (above and beyond their larger orders) is the customer information you receive, and something you don’t get from phone orders.  You can see patterns, track results, and view a customer’s history/profile.

With this in mind, NetWaiter will soon be offering enhancements to the NetWaiter Management Console that allow restaurants to access more statistics about their online customers.  Owners and managers will be able to quickly break down and compare information regarding mobile vs. non-mobile orders, pickup vs. delivery, orders that are paid online vs. orders that are paid in-person, and group ordering.

Follow NetWaiter on Facebook, Twitter, and through our Blog for news on when these new features become available.

The studies and research all agree.  The biggest attraction for ordering online is customer convenience and control.  Whenever we make changes and upgrades to the NetWaiter system, we always put them through our ‘convenience filter’.  Above and beyond our recent Group Ordering release, other upgrades have been made to improve convenience for customers.  Here’s a recap:

Group Ordering

As discussed in our last newsletter, group ordering allows any customer, but particularly people like administrative assistants, pharmaceutical reps, or anyone organizing a group lunch/dinner, to conveniently place orders for everyone involved.

To start, an organizer invites friends or co-workers via email.  Your NetWaiter site allows the organizer to select invitees and include an optional message.  Each person accepts or declines the invitation.  If they join the group, they are directed to your menu to select their items.  When completed, their selections are sent to the organizer, who submits the Group Order, with the desired pickup/delivery time.  Each item of a Group Order is identified with the person’s name that ordered it.  If possible, your restaurant should write the name of the corresponding person on each item before packaging up the entire order.

Other Front-End Changes

Editing Orders – Customers will discover they now have a faster and easier way to edit and delete order information, if needed.

Site Appearance – We’ve tweaked a couple of visual elements (fonts, etc.) to improve consistency throughout the ordering process.

Site Layout – We’ve increased customer usability of the NetWaiter website.  Additions include a ‘breadcrumb’ to help with navigation, easier access to Log In/Off, and a link to view the status of a pending Group Order.

Management Console Changes 

Email Marketing and Social Widget Upgrades – You now have more options for editing content of email messages and those on your social widget.

Promotions Upgrade – When offering promotions that include specific items, NetWaiter will automatically add those items to an order when the customer enters the Promo code.