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.

Do you have promotions you only offer to certain customers and others you want to share with the world?

NetWaiter now offers the ability to set promotions as public or private. When creating a new promotion, restaurants can choose to display it on their NetWaiter site. If a new promotion is made public, it will show in the “Available Promotions” section on the restaurant’s site. If the promotion expires, it is automatically removed from the site.

For private promotions, restaurants can simply choose not to display them on their site. For instance, if a restaurant wants to generate a promotion for a select group of customers, they can prevent it from displaying on their site and email it directly to the intended customers using NetWaiter’s Email Marketing System.`

It's common for restaurant employees to be familiar with the daily specials or a new dessert that hasn’t yet made it to the menu, but are you using your wait staff to their fullest when it comes to promoting your online ordering system?

Maybe not.

Make sure that your waiters and waitresses can inform customers about your online menu and ordering site.  Talk about how convenient it is for customers - reduced wait time, greater accuracy, and easy accessibility.  You can even demonstrate it to them at a staff meeting.

Also, make sure your employees are well versed on all of the latest features.  For instance, in the last few months, NetWaiter has added an ordering interface with Facebook, and more recently, the easy ability for customers to order from their mobile phones.  Your employees can help spread the word about new capabilities.

Some employees may be concerned that referring customers to your online menu will reduce their ability to make tips.  This is certainly not an issue.  Tipping is part of the ordering and dining experience.  If they help to create happy customers, they are going to get tips, and online ordering definitely makes for happier customers.

Opportunities are abound with social media. It is truly a fantastic platform to build your restaurant’s brand and communicate with customers. While doing that, however, it is important not to do a couple of things. Here are 3 simple things NOT to do with social media:

1) Don’t Ask For Favors
If you don’t know someone well enough to ask for a cup of sugar, then you don’t know them well enough to ask them to write about or promote your restaurant. Don’t publicly ask for a review. Instead, you can publicly recognize the customers that do review your restaurant with a “Thank You” and a link to the review. Ask them to introduce themselves to the manager the next time they visit. You might be able to provide them a complimentary dessert, or at least, an in-person “Thank You”.

2) Don’t Ignore Your Customers / Be a Jerk
This may sound too simple, but it’s worth saying. You’re using social media to establish relationships and build awareness for your restaurant, right? So – get social! Respond to messages, get involved in conversations, and don’t miss opportunities to communicate with some of your most valuable customers. It is certainly better NOT to use social media than to use it and NOT engage with customers. If customers send you tweets and you ignore them, they will think you’re a jerk, especially while sending out other tweets.

3) Don’t Send Auto-Direct Messages
Using auto direct-messages on Twitter is essentially Spam. Don’t bother someone with a generic direct-message that says: “Thanks for the follow!” or something similar. It’s a very hollow way of thanking someone. If you’re doing this, stop. Don’t take the “social” out of social media. You can lose followers and relationships when they forget why they’re there. People want to interact with you and your restaurant. They are interested in news, updates, and deals – not meaningless auto-direct messages.