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.

Even before the advent of Groupon, many restaurants fell into the coupon trap.

Smart restaurateur s realized that's exactly what Daily Deals are - a trap.  A recent article in the New York Times addressed the pitfalls of Groupon and similar 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."

Do Groupon-type customers come back?  Yes …if they have another coupon.  According to Lingo-Link, a blog discussing how companies can give the best customer service, “...people who are signed up with Groupon get a different half-off coupon offer emailed to them every day.  And as a result Groupon has developed, in a way, their own cult following."  The loyalty is to Groupon, not your business.

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.  Daily Deal programs only train shoppers to come back when a discount is available - there is no loyalty.  Unlike NetWaiter, which is, in fact, very likely to draw customers back repeatedly and have them happily paying full price.

An online article from MIT's Technology Review also examined how merchant reputations changed before and after a Daily Deal.  The article reported the average rating scores from reviewers who mention Daily Deals are about 10% lower than scores of their peers.  And, what’s the cost for these poor reviews?  Extraordinary.  If the standard discount is 50%, and the Daily Deal site takes half the money paid by each customer, your restaurant is essentially giving a 75% discount to a customer that might come back.

Bottom Line: Forget flushing marketing money on Daily Deals.  Instead, implement long-term and cost effect marketing programs.  NetWaiter should be one of the key pillars of your marketing strategy to attract good customers who pay full price.  Get people into your restaurant, create brand awareness, and make money! 

Some helpful social media tips came out of a recent “Summer Brand Camp Conference” as reported by Nation's Restaurant News.  Here they are, along with some of our own thoughts-

Facebook is still the most favored platform.  There are others, but Zuckerberg's baby seems to pay off the most.  Our guess is that both your kids and your grandma are on Facebook.  It's easy to use.  Twitter, while popular, is perceived as slightly more technical.

Simplicity is key.  Short and visual messages often get the best response.  The top Facebook post for Buffalo Wild Wings was a tantalizing photo of a glass of beer and the post: "Mmmmmm, Beer."  People love pictures.

Social media should be a conversation - not a sales pitch.  If you’re always trying to hawk your product, people find it annoying.

Resist the urge to jump right in and defend you restaurant against a negative post.  Other customers may step in to defend you, which looks better and may prevent you from getting into an online squabble.

Folks love video, and everyone can be a videographer with a smartphone.  Some smartphones even allow you to edit videos on the device.  Tell customers if they make a good video about your restaurant, you’ll post it online.

Integrate social media with other marketing efforts.  If you’re advertising anything offline, you should include your social media information too.

More than one location?  It might be best for each location to conduct their own social media efforts if each has its own character.  A sandwich shop in an industrial center will have a much different vibe than the same brand in a college town.

These suggestions are quick and easy, but remember – all markets are different – do what works best for your restaurant.

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."

The onset of summer brings a unique opportunity to use NetWaiter to get more customers into your restaurant, at minimal expense.           

With longer, warmer evenings, towns across the country have free movie night and free music night at local parks and other venues. Some of these events draw hundreds of people , even thousands. They bring dinner, spread out a blanket and enjoy the evening.

Locate these events in your market. They typically start with the end of school and are held weekly for four to eight weeks. On the first evening, blanket every windshield in the parking lot and surrounding streets with flyers advertising your NetWaiter online ordering capabilities. Consider offering an event special for online orders--a free bucket of wings with every order over $30, or an offer that works with your menu.

"The trick is to get customers familiar with your online capabilities," said Jared Shimoff, Sr. Director at NetWaiter. "Once you do this, they'll surely find other uses for it. A thousand flyers at the beginning of the summer, and paying some high school kids to distribute them, will give you customers for the rest of the year."

Some of these events also offer sponsorships, including the opportunity to have a commercial read over the P.A. system during the event.  Every event is different. Explore the possibilities. Let us know how things go. 

We've seen rumblings of this in a few places across the media - as the economy crawls out of recession, diners are shifting back to the casual dining segment. Nation's Restaurant News cited this in an online article in late May.

According to the article: "Respondents devoted 37.7% of their restaurant spending to limited-service restaurants during the quarter, a decline from 41% - 42.1% during the previous year.  Meanwhile, consumers said they spent about 41.1% of their dining-out dollars on casual dining restaurants, up from 38% - 39.4% seen in 2011."

The market for casual dining is coming back and casual dining is a huge user of online ordering services like NetWaiter.

Also, according to Restaurant Hospitality, 84% of those restaurants that have a stand-alone mobile website see an increase in new business activity.

"We're starting to see the beginnings of a perfect storm for online ordering," said Jared Shimoff, a Sr. Director at NetWaiter.  "The market is shifting more towards the casual dining sector, and at the same time, we are seeing an explosion in the popularity of smartphones."

"All the data we've seen tells us that mobile websites, with the ability to place orders, continue to increase as a major influence on the restaurant market.  Thankfully, we’re able to keep our clients on the forefront of this growing trend."

Anyone who has owned a computer has suffered from some sort of data loss - even if it was just due to closing a document before clicking ‘Save’.  After getting over the paralyzing fear of losing information, you have to start over again.  It sucks. So, it’s only natural, in this information-driven age, to ask, “Can I rely on NetWaiter to handle all of my orders, make sure they get to the right place, AND store my information safely and securely?”

It’s a good question.  Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at your ‘Online Ordering Cloud’ -

NetWaiter uses only the most reliable systems.  Our servers are hosted at co-location facilities, which are secure data centers that many large businesses use to run their networks and systems.  The facilities are unmarked, climate-controlled, have advanced fire and water protection systems, on-site security, multiple power backups, and multiple internet feeds.  If power is lost for an extended time period, the facilities are on a distribution schedule for fuel to run backup generators indefinitely.

The security of equipment and data is also protected.  Employees at the facilities have limited access to the equipment and all visitor ingress and egress actions are escorted.  Even login access by NetWaiter employees is limited to only the information and data they need to do their job.

After reading some of this, you may wonder why we operate like the Pentagon.  Well, truth is – while we understand we’re not protecting nuclear launch codes, we still take our clients’ businesses seriously.  They use NetWaiter for a simple reason – we’re the best at what we do.

It’s important for our clients to have an online ordering system that is rock-solid and feature-rich to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.  You can rely on NetWaiter to protect it.

The National Restaurant Association has created an infographic to show what restaurateurs can expect about the increasing importance of online ordering, websites and electronic payment. 

What customers have to say:

• 61% say they have visited a restaurant website.
• 36% say they have placed an order online.
• 46% would use a restaurant’s smartphone app if available.
• 36% of customers have looked up nutrition information online.

What restaurateurs have to say:

• 48% of restaurateurs say that smartphone apps will become more popular.
• 82% of quick service restaurants say online and smartphone ordering will become more popular.

And about social media:

• 9 of 10 restaurateurs say social media will become more important marketing tools.
• Virtually all restaurateurs (95%) say they will be of Facebook in the next two years.
• 78% say they will be on Twitter.

NetWaiter provides an easy-to-read mobile website to every customer, along with a QR code that takes users to the site. NetWaiter was also the first online provider to offer those who order takeout the opportunity, when purchasing online, to automatically post their purchase to their own personal Facebook page. This also creates an automatic link for Facebook friends to go directly to that restaurant and order online, too. Call NetWaiter today at 866-638-9248. We can have you up and operating on your own mobile site in less than a week. 

If you walk into The Pickle Barrel, a sandwich shop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the first thing you notice is all of the employees wearing T-shirts with QR codes printed on the back.  When they turn around, the front of the T-shirt reads: “Ask Me About Online Ordering.”

“We’ve been using NetWaiter for online ordering since January and we love it,” said owner Jen O’Brien, who opened the sandwich shop seven years ago in this town of 153,000 people.  “We have a lot of fun with it, and it’s convenient for both our customers and us.”

With the arrival of online ordering, O’Brien decided to step up some marketing to build its awareness.  She started placing a sign at a random location in the city, and then dropped daily hints on the restaurant’s Facebook site regarding its location.  Each person that found the sign and posted a picture of it on The Pickle Barrel Facebook page got entered into a drawing at the end of the week for a $25 gift certificate.

“In just a few days we got fifty new friends on our Facebook site and a ton of orders,” said O’Brien.

O’Brien has been using social media to promote the restaurant for a few years.  She readily admits that there is a good deal of experimentation involved.  “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  The nice thing about the NetWaiter Management Console is that I can see right away if a promotion resulted in more online sales.  I know what’s working.”

According to a recent article from Restaurant Hospitality, 30% of all traffic to your website comes from a mobile device.  In reality, that figure may be a lot higher, but 30% is still significant.  Here are some dos and don'ts for promoting your restaurant to mobile visitors and customers:

1. Create a mobile-friendly website.  Pssst... NetWaiter automatically creates a mobile site for your restaurant.  It's easy to use and folks love it, but it’s also a good idea to have a mobile friendly version of your existing homepage.  Provide customers easy navigation and show your critical information.

2. List your mobile site on sites such as Yelp, Urbanspoon, and Foursquare.  Your regulars may know where to find you, but others may be looking up your restaurant on their mobile device using one of these sites.

3. Keep it simple.  People care more about ease-of-use and functionality when it comes to mobile websites.  They just want them to work - so forget fancy graphics that take forever to load.  Keep it simple and easy to navigate.  Note: A mobile NetWaiter site is fast and easy to navigate.  

4. Make it easy for customers to find you.  Use a QR code on all your signage and spread the word that you have a mobile site and mobile ordering.

With more than 90 million internet-accessible Smartphones in the United States, mobile ordering and accessibility is something you don't want to miss!

Astute restaurant owners know that other restaurants are not their only competition.  There are many other businesses attracting the would-be takeout customer from your place.  Among them is the local supermarket and convenience store.

Online and mobile ordering can help you compete for more of those customers.

Jon Luther, chairman of Dunkin' Brands, in the keynote speech at COEX 2012 in Las Vegas last month, described supermarkets and C-stores as “the new elephant in the room" for restaurants, according to Restaurant Retailer News.

Shoppers are already at the store, and providing foodservice gives them an opportunity to integrate their meal purchases with other purchases.  Add to that an accessible location, plus lots of parking, and the choice is easy.  Because of this, many supermarkets are now including casual dining areas in their layout.

So, how do you compete against that level of convenience from savvy supermarkets?

Well - it’s an interesting challenge, and quite frankly, can be hard, but it’s not impossible.

First, think about what you have on your side.  Most customers carry a perception restaurants can provide a higher quality meal (and hopefully better value) than a supermarketselling pre-packaged meals (a.k.a. “Home Meal Replacements”).  This is especially true if your restaurant offers unique menu items.

Second, you have to battle convenience with convenience.  This is where your mobile ordering site becomes important.  Customers need to be reminded that ordering from your restaurant is easy and accessible.

We know that convenience is the top reason people order online.  So, spread the news about your convenient mobile ordering site and remind customers your food is high quality.  Stress the fact that your online site offers access to your full menu (compared to a very limited supermarket menu).

"You (supermarkets and c-stores) win people with service and convenience...", said Luther.

Restaurants just have to do it better.