New features have come to NetWaiter, aimed at making the workflow in your restaurant smoother, and enhancing the customer experience.

New Order Dashboard - Any manager or employee at your restaurant can now see orders as they arrive on any device.  The new Order Dashboard is compatible with all computers, tablets, and smartphones.  New orders flash on the screen until the information has been viewed.  An audible chime can also be played to alert the staff.  Simply click to view the order details and print it to an attached printer, if desired.  Access to the new Order Dashboard is possible from the Dashboard section of the NetWaiter Management Console.

New Quick-Print Application - NetWaiter recently released an upgrade to the Quick-Print App that provides restaurants instantaneous order printouts.  Included in those enhancements is the ability to use one Quick-Print App for more than one account.  For instance, if your restaurant has a catering business in addition to your regular takeout/delivery menu, orders from both sites can be sent to the same Quick-Print App.

Curbside Pickup Enhancements - Now it’s easier for a customer to enter their car information during the ordering process (assuming you offer Curbside Pickup).

New Promotion Code Options - Additional types of promotions are now available from the Promotions section of the Management Console.

In a blog post earlier this month, we talked about how NetWaiter’s online ordering system can help you cater to increased demand for customization - requests for extra meat, double avocado, or other add-ons.

To help accommodate these requests, in addition to upselling the order, it’s important to include any paid option as a selection customers can click to add.  But what happens if a customer enters a separate request in the Special Instructions field that should incur an additional charge?

These special instructions, which restaurants are happy to fulfill, can cause a difficulty when an order is pre-paid. Do you honor the request for extra turkey, even though you haven’t been paid for it, or do you hold off and not include it?

To address this, NetWaiter has developed a Secondary Transaction Feature to allow a restaurant to run a separate charge on a customer’s card, after the initial transaction, to pay for that special request.

This is also a handy feature to add a tip.  A customer may not have thought about a tip when placing their online order, but the Secondary Transaction Feature allows delivery drivers to add a tip to an order, after the initial payment, if the customer tells them to.

Another new addition to NetWaiter is the Hidden Item list.  NetWaiter has always allowed restaurants to “hide” items on their menu, most often because the kitchen has run out of a key ingredient or the item was a limited special that may come back in the future.

This new feature shows “All Hidden Items” in one section of the Management Console for easy management.  Managers can see all items on their menu that are hidden, in one place, and then unhide those that they want to be available again.

 

In sales and marketing, the tipping point is the moment when all the market factors merge, tipping in favor of a specific product service. Sales skyrocket and no one looks back. 

Online ordering may quickly be approaching its tipping point. For restaurants that do not yet have online ordering, now is the time to get a NetWaiter site. For those restaurants who already offer NetWaiter, you’re already on the right path and riding the next big wave of change for restaurants.

Consider the market factors that have led to this tipping point…

The Consumer. Each year the percentage of consumers, aged 18 to 34, who indicate that they would order takeout or delivery on a mobile device goes up. The latest figure is 74%. Just a few years ago that number was below 50%.

The Technology. More than half of the mobile devices in use are smartphones, capable of accessing the internet and placing online orders. Public Wi-Fi is commonplace, and 3G and 4G runs things at breakneck speed. Placing orders online, not just by mobile, but tablet, laptop or desktop, is virtually flawless, and will only get better.

The Marketplace. It is estimated that the totality of mobile payments will top $720 billion/year by 2017, most of that being driven by the largest generation and demographic – the Millennials - which, not by surprise, is also the largest demographic who use online ordering.

The Capabilities. NetWaiter does much more than process online orders. The NetWaiter Management Console allows you to collect and analyze data, target customers, and send them special offers.

 

Social Embarrassment, in connection to a restaurant order, is a term that refers to a customer who holds back and doesn’t order everything they want - the extra toppings on a pizza, for example, or chili fries rather than regular fries - for fear the employee will judge them for their selections (unhealthy or otherwise).  If you remove human interaction from the ordering process, customers will have no shame ordering the high-calorie, and often more expensive, options.

For example, a regional pizza chain that implemented online ordering quickly noticed a shift in the nature of orders coming from customers who previously called in.  Social embarrassment seemed to no longer be a factor.  Customers loaded on additional toppings, spending an average of 61 cents more per order.

Although social embarrassment is surely a factor in human interactions at a restaurant, there is another, and perhaps more significant factor, at work here.  It deals with the social embarrassment of stumbling through a phone order with an employee who is also doing three other jobs.  Add in the background noise of ringing phones, other customers, and the kitchen and the result is a customer who feels pressured to keep their order simple and fast.  It’s not worth the hassle.  They will forego the double cheese and the sun-dried tomatoes on just half of the pizza (those are extra toppings and extra profits).

NetWaiter online ordering, though, takes this out of the equation because customers have full control of their ordering experience, without any pressure.

The other social embarrassment alleviated by online ordering is the pressure on employees who just don’t like to sell.  Most restaurant owners will agree that extra profits are lost because employees don’t always (or properly) upsell customers. NetWaiter, however, does this automatically.

People criticize the ever-increasing trend of taking human interaction out of business transactions.  It turns out, though; there are more benefits (for everyone involved) than downfalls when it comes to online ordering for restaurants.

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. 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

The NetWaiter Management Console captures and tracks information about your online customers.  You can also use it to send out email campaigns.  As you know, however, not all emails get opened.  It's all about the subject line.  These tips will help your emails get opened more often.

 

1. Exclusivity - Your customers like to be called VIPs, get invitations, and sent limited time offers.  These are words that make them act.

2. Don't Shout - Capital letters on the web signify that you are SHOUTING AT PEOPLE.  Also, too many words in upper case tend to get flagged by Spam filters.

3. Avoid Problem Words - Stay away from the words free, help, percent off and reminder in your email title.  They negatively affect open rates.

4. Go Negative – As sad as it sounds, titles with negative words have higher open rates.  Use words and phrases like worst, absolutely wrong, and no fewer.  Sample: Don't wait in line, order online at (your restaurant).

5. People Don't Like to Read - Don't say in a paragraph what you can say in a bullet point.  Bullets are more likely to get read.

6. Keep It Short - 27% of emails are opened on mobile devices, and even short messages look long on those smaller screens.  Keep the subject line to a few words. 

One of the things we like to do at NetWaiter is provide restaurants as much information as possible about the benefits of adding online ordering to your business plan.  A version of the following article recently appeared in Restaurant Hospitality Magazine.

A 30% boost in your takeout business within a matter of weeks.  What restaurant owner would not want that?

Those are the kinds of success stories we hear over and over from restaurateurs who have made online ordering part of their marketing plan.

Every day, restaurant owners are confronted with the costs of doing business.  The fixed expenses and staples are no brainers – rent, utilities, payroll for a great staff, the cost of quality food, etc.  The more difficult expenditures are discretionary ones like marketing. Where can a restaurant spend to get the best ROI?  Owners are bombarded with choices daily.

When asked, many successful restaurant owners have a similar response: “Online ordering has been one of our most profitable investments.  NetWaiter should be at the top of every restaurant’s to-do list if they don’t already have it.”

Companies such as NetWaiter offer a fully branded online ordering service through a restaurant’s website (a NetWaiter site can be customized with the look and brand the restaurant).  Customers order in seconds from an online menu.  They can make special requests, indicate future delivery or pickup times, and even make payments (NetWaiter electronically deposits the money to the restaurant immediately).  Custom delivery zones can be set by the restaurant (if they offer delivery), or customers can come in and pick up their order.  

The benefit to customers is convenience. They can order from anywhere (desktop, iPad, Smartphone, etc.). Imagine a mother getting off work. While still in the parking lot, she can order dinner from a restaurant and pick it up on her way home.  There is also the control given to the customer. Since they placed the order, there is less chance of error.  Customers who use online ordering typically use it again and again, quickly becoming regular customers.

Customized online ordering is a game changer for restaurants.  Using a restaurant portal that promotes online ordering for a variety of restaurants is very expensive (10-20%+).  Online ordering via a custom ordering site, such as NetWaiter, creates more business and is significantly more cost effective.  In addition, restaurants get a great tool that builds loyalty and extends and strengthens their brand.  Some NetWaiter clients even have ROIs in excess of 7,800% (the average is closer to 2,000%).

Where can a restaurant get a better ROI with their marketing dollar than online ordering?  There are many marketing options available, but none can come close to the ROI of a custom online ordering site.

When they first came out, daily deals like Groupon swept across the industry.  Smart restaurateurs, however, realized them for what they were—a trap.  An article in The New York Times more than two years ago addressed the pitfalls of these services:  "The consumers were being told: You will never pay full price again.  The merchants were hearing: You are going to get new customers who will stick around and pay full price.  Disappointment was inevitable."

Years ago, a newspaper advertisement might have been a restaurant’s ‘go-to’ way to bring in business.  Readership has dropped significantly, though, and even when newspapers were widely read, buying an ad didn’t provide a very good ROI.  It’s very hard to measure the success of such an advertisement unless you offer a redeemable discount.  Those discounts, however, significantly impact the ROI of the advertisement. 

Even more modern and effective marketing and advertising opportunities, such as email, loyalty programs, text marketing, social media marketing, etc. (which are all certainly worthwhile to deploy) would have a hard time beating the ROI of online ordering.

According to a study and paper done by The School for Hospitality Leadership at Cornell University, one of the things that draws customers to online ordering is convenience.  Once they experience it, they use it again and again.  Plus, because NetWaiter is integrated with Facebook, it allows people to share their ordering experience with their friends.  The more people ordering online, the more people learn about the restaurant’s online ordering site.

 

The Bottom Line – Why would you not offer online ordering?  There is no replacement for a well-run online ordering system such as NetWaiter, which gives customers the control and convenience of ordering takeout and delivery online.  Other marketing opportunities can’t come close to the ROI an online ordering site can produce.  Just as our clients say – online ordering should be at the top of the list for every restaurant.