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)

They say, "So goes California, so goes the rest of the country." This article, from the Silicon Valley Mercury News, addresses the growing regulation of food trucks that are quickly becoming a large part of the dining scene in Los Angeles.

Unlike traditional food trucks that cater to workers while on break, this new wave of trucks park in high-traffic areas and serve a higher quality of food, often with their own specialties. According to this article, some counties have received complaints by restaurant owners that these trucks steal business. Consequently, some cities, such as Rancho Palos Verdes and Palos Verdes Estates, have enacted zoning restrictions on when and where the trucks can operate.

Thankfully, by the end of the year, food truck customers in California can expect to see the same health quality ratings they see at normal brick and mortar restaurants. This doesn’t necessarily “level the playing field” for regular restaurants to compete with food trucks, but will help educate customers about their health quality.

So, how do restaurants compete with this food truck invasion? Some have actually decided to join them – and launched their own food trucks. Others have focused on convenience factors and their communication tactics. For instance, many food trucks rely heavily on Twitter to communicate their daily whereabouts. Brick and mortar restaurants that are inundated by food trucks should step up their Twitter communication and takeout business. Ordering takeout online in advance is definitely a way customers can capitalize on your restaurant’s convenience.

Do food trucks affect your restaurant? Let us know how. Email us at mailto:[email protected]. Does your restaurant operate a food truck? We want to hear your story. Email us at [email protected].

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.