Posted by Tim on June 26, 2012
This quote is particularly telling about one of the main benefits of online ordering:
“Maximizing the number of customers who are engaged with the brand and come into the restaurant at least once per month, as a percentage of your total customer base, is what differentiates restaurants on the metrics that we monitor," said Dan Meichenbaum of Dectiva, a California-based research firm. "Preventing customers from becoming lapsed customers is critical to sales and ongoing brand success.”
It reminds us of one of the most important aspects of NetWaiter: It helps you take good customers and make them better ones.
According to a 2011 study by Cornell University, the top two reasons consumers use NetWaiter is convenience and speed. Customers know they can get their takeout order without hassle, and they can get it quickly.
We'd like to add another reason - Reliability.
Once customers know they can rely on your restaurant for an easy takeout experience, they have less incentive to change. Make it simpler by adding the ability to order with their smartphones (a feature provided to all NetWaiter clients) and you will further establish your restaurant as reliable and convenient. Combined, these efforts make it difficult for another restaurant to lure them away.
"An alarming number of customers order online four and five times a week," says Charlie Olson, owner of Blue Moon Burgers in Seattle, WA (and NetWaiter client). "The customer always has the right menu in front of them, and the order is always accurate. If the customer pays online, then they just come into the store and grab their bag, and they're gone."
