In a sit-down restaurant, new menu items are sold through menu inserts, easels, and as part of the introduction given by the wait staff.  In an online environment such as NetWaiter there are also a number of ways you can promote new menu items and changes.  Here are a few tips:

Maintain an Interactive Online Menu.  Nothing makes a customer twitch more than outdated information on a website.  With an easy-to-use interactive web-based menu, you can also update your menu without calling a website designer.  It’s also easy to highlight changes or new additions.

High Quality Images.  We’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth repeating.  A quality photo of a new menu item says more than any description.  Post it on your interactive menu, but also get it on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.  You want those images shared.

Include Social Media Buttons.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - all of them.  Make it easy for people to spread the word about your new menu items.  Remember that certain social media sites are favored by different age groups.  Facebook is now considered an “old folks” platform.  Younger people tend to use Instagram and Twitter.  You may want to alter your message based on the platform.

Create Buzz with “Partnerships”.  Try naming a new item after someone popular in the community.  At the very least, they will promote the item and your restaurant for you.  You’ll make this person and all their family and friends advocates for your restaurant. Imagine the buzz.

Has your restaurant ever been blindsided by an online complaint?  It doesn’t matter if it’s about your online business, or an in-restaurant experience – it’s not a good feeling.  Whether it’s legitimate, or something totally unwarranted – you need to know how to respond. 

Often it’s based on a misunderstanding or a failure to respond early, when a complaint is fresh.  A recent webinar from the National Restaurant Association had some tips on how to respond to these online complaints.

• Don’t be the last person to find out about a problem at your restaurant, or with a takeout order. Get familiar with the tools.  Use Google Alerts, monitor Yelp.  Have systems in place. 

• This isn’t personal, so don’t get defensive.  Your goal is to neutralize these incidents. 

• Take responsibility online.  Denying that it happened is usually the wrong tactic.  If it’s a completely false or bogus complaint, contact the site (i.e. Yelp) and have them remove it. 

• Get the response public and prominent.  Don’t be the 75th person to comment.  Tell the complainant that you want make it right.  Make sure everyone sees it. 

• Treat your online communication as carefully and as thoughtfully as you would in-person.  You don’t want these things going viral.

• If you are posting online, keep everything positive.  If a customer persists with negativity, take the conversation offline by suggesting they call you. 

• Train employees with your approach to handling complaints so that your staff speaks in one voice. 

• If complaints are routine or happening in patterns, it can indicate a weakness in your operation.  Use that information to your benefit and correct the issues. 

Be persistent to make things right.  People tend to remember the last thing you did for them.  It could be a big problem or small dilemma, but if you bend over backwards to make things right, that’s what they will remember most. 

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.

We saw three trends, among many, changing the restaurant industry this last year, and they can all be addressed with online ordering from NetWaiter. 

Have It Your Way — This used to be the marketing line of Burger King, but now everyone is on the customizable bandwagon.  Extra meat, extra cheese, replace the bun with a lettuce wrap. NetWaiter’s online ordering system makes it easy to allow for this type of customization.  Even when a customer has pre-paid for their online order and throws in a special request that should cost extra, NetWaiter has enabled a way for you to politely go back and charge them the additional fee (see our March newsletter, out in a few weeks).

Unconventional Hours — A substantial number of people saw their traditional jobs go away for good over the last decade.  Some estimates have as much as one-third of the workforce in “freelance” jobs.  Others are working two jobs to replace the one that went away, or commuting a considerable distance. The 9-to-5 workday has been replaced by “whenever and wherever."  Online ordering accommodates these new and unconventional work hours by making your menu always available and easily accessible.   

More Competition from Unconventional Places — Some hotels are pondering takeout parking spots for their in-house restaurant as they struggle for new ways to bring in more revenue.  Supermarkets and even big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target are offering pre-packaged meals for shoppers that are on-the-go.  To compete with these places, you need to be more convenient and innovative than they are, and never let your customers forget it.

Remember the 2013 Super Bowl and the 34-minute power failure? It has a special place in football history. 

It was also a legendary moment in marketing. Somewhere in those thirty-four minutes, the marketing guru’s for Oreo tweeted a simple graphic—a photo of an Oreo cookie on a semi-darkened screen and the words “You can still dunk in the dark.”

It’s called moment marketing – marketing that takes advantage of unique circumstances. What if your restaurant, during that power failure, had tweeted, “You can still order online in the dark, and we deliver in case the lights come back on.” It would likely bring your NetWaiter online ordering site some action. 

But how can you prepare for moment marketing?  Here are some tips:

Have a plan. We just concluded the Olympics, a true global event. Imagine sending your customers a message in Facebook or Twitter—“Need a pizza to get you through the lady’s figure skating finals?” or, “How about celebrating the U.S. sinking the Russian hockey team with one of our submarine sandwiches?” If you prepare for an event, when the unexpected happens, you’re that much closer to being ready to pounce. 

Choose the best channel. Email might not be the best vehicle to reach folks during a weekend event. It is primarily a business tool, and after hours and outside of work, people are not as tuned into it. Facebook or Twitter are more appropriate. In the middle of a weekday, though, email might well be the best way to reach someone. 

Be authentic. Be part of what’s happening. If you can make people laugh with the cleverness of your promotion, you are apt to be more successful. Oreo didn’t send out an ad for their cookies. They suggested that their cookies would be appropriate for the moment, and they did it in a humorous way.

Online ordering is one of the best tools restaurants can use to position themselves against larger chains that dominate the market.  Indeed, there might not be a better time to be an independent or small chain than right now, especially if you offer online ordering.

Yahoo Finance reports that customer traffic at large casual-dining restaurants slid 2% this past December. Reasons cited for this traffic decrease? Oversaturation, to be sure. How many large intersections in a city contain two or more casual-dining concepts?

Another is the rise of fast casual chains, the most prominent examples of which are Chipotle and Panera. Restaurants like these have seen sales increase 15% annually for the last five years. What do they offer? Made-to-order meals, made in a hurry. To sum it up in one word we all know well, they offer - convenience.

Also, a consumer trend we are seeing return is called “cocooning”, a word first coined back in 1981. Large-screen HD televisions, services such as Netflix, and the ability to buy almost anything online has resulted in more and more consumers coming home from work and never leaving the house again.

If they don’t want to go out for a meal or cook at home, their only alternative is the convenience of takeout. This is why online ordering is so helpful.  Customers crave convenience, especially takeout customers.  Offering customers the ability to order from your NetWaiter site helps them just as much as it helps your restaurant.

Your restaurant should want as many customers as possible to order online.  Here are 5 simple reasons why:

•    You capture valuable information.  You can see ordering frequency and ordering habits.  You also get customer contact information such as email addresses and phone numbers.
•    Online orders are larger than phone orders by as much as 45%, although the average is around 20% larger.
•    Reduction in errors.  How many times have you given a credit to a customer because their order was wrong?  Also, you free up employees from all that time on the phone.
•    Customers order more frequently.  Once they experience the ease and convenience of online ordering, they keep coming back.  NetWaiter online ordering takes good customers and makes them better.
•    Customers are happier. Online ordering is quick, it’s convenient, and customers love being able to order from anyplace, at any time, and know their order will always be right.

5 simple reasons why your customers prefer to order online:

•    It’s convenient.  How many people have memorized your telephone number, let alone know your current menu?  With NetWaiter, your customers can view your up-to-date menu and not worry about speaking to anyone.
•    It’s quick.  With just a few clicks on their mobile device or laptop, their order is complete.
•    Their order is accurate.  Order accuracy gives customers the peace of mind that items won’t be missing from their order.
•    They can order from anywhere—as they’re leaving the office or on the soccer field in the final minutes of their kid’s game.  They also won’t feel rushed by an employee on the phone.
•    The ability to use discounts and promotions is much easier online and they can pay in advance.

A recent study shows the branding advantage of a mobile site, especially for a restaurant. 

Consider these facts:

• Consumers attach to a brand faster using mobile devices than anything else, because they hold the device in their hands, as opposed looking at a computer screen or television.  They make it a part of their identity, and therefore, trust it more (the study calls it psycho-haptic — “what I touch is real”). Amazing factoid: Studies report that 65% of mobile owners admit to sleeping with their device next to their bed.

• Choices to messages on a mobile device tend to be Yes or No, and responses come fast.  This is because mobile devices are designed, in part, to make things convenient and quick.  Amazing factoid: According to a Litmus study, entitled Email Analytics, as of December 2013, 51% of emails were opened by a mobile device.

• Branded content on a mobile device is more likely to get a positive response.  This goes back to how people take personal ownership of their mobile device, which is much more than a desktop or laptop computer. 

• Want to counter a couple of bad reviews on Yelp?  Spend a little money for a great mobile site.  Consumers are more likely to change their perception of a brand if the message or experience comes via a mobile device.  Remember, their device is their personal property.  They are emotionally attached to it.  It wouldn’t lie to them.

It’s accepted industry wisdom that a good contributor to building business at a restaurant is new-product introductions.  Those new dishes bring back customers, goes the logic.

If this is true, why does NetWaiter remind online customers what they last ordered when they visit your online ordering site?  

Because what we’ve long suspected turns out to be right… according to a recent industry study, less than 30% of diners are inclined to try new menu items or limited time offers (LTOs).  The other 70% stick with what is tried and true. 

The study also shows that for those culinary adventurers, there is a preference for permanent new-menu items over LTOs, by about 56%. 

There is also a distinct difference between the types of restaurants where customers are more likely to expand their menu selections.  The Casual-Dining segment is most likely to draw in customers who want to get adventurous and order something new for the first time.  40% of those customers may try a new or unfamiliar item.  Compared to only 19% for QSRs and 12% for Fast Casual restaurants, Casual-Dining is relatively high, but the overall incidences of people ordering something new are low.

For takeout and delivery, customers use Online Ordering for its tremendous convenience, and being reminded of what they last ordered, only helps increase that convenience.

The statistics are stunning: 95% of smartphone users conduct restaurant searches, and 64% of those searches convert to purchases within one hour.  Knowing this, it’s important to understand that mobile websites come with their own specific set of challenges.  Here’s what to keep in mind:

Keep it quick. Think about your own experiences.  When you’re using your smartphone to look up information, you could be in your car, walking in or out of an appointment, or traveling.  Time is a premium.  Your mobile site should include the important things within one click (i.e. a link to your online menu and online ordering).  Quick access is important.

Highlight your menu.  Sixty percent of consumers say a menu is the most important factor in selecting a restaurant online.  Keep that menu updated, too.  No one likes bad information, especially when it’s directly from the source.

Keep your brand prominent.  Who you are is important.  Make sure your logo and colors are reflected on the first page and all other pages of your mobile site.

Choose the right mobile partner.  At NetWaiter, we quickly saw the potential of online ordering from smartphones.  That’s why every NetWaiter client gets a custom mobile website for online ordering, branded to their restaurant.  Furthermore, we make it easy to update your mobile menu and settings through the NetWaiter Management Console. 

When NetWaiter brings you a new online ordering customer, our statistics show the likelihood is that they will return to place their second order within 14 days.  This is important.  New customers, and specifically ones that come back again and again, are one of the principal engines of growth.

It is safe to say that the convenience of online ordering is what draws them in, and is part of what keeps them coming back. What can you do to make sure your online ordering process is as convenient as possible, so they keep coming back to your restaurant?  Here are some quick tips:

Make the pickup process smooth and easy.  If you can, have a separate area for pickup orders, preferred parking, and your most personable employee working the counter.  These are all things we’ve talked about before, but are worth repeating.

Take advantage of NetWaiter’s pre-payment capabilities.  While one industry study indicated that less than 19% of online customers pre-pay for orders, that number is significantly higher with NetWaiter.  When given the option, 68% of all NetWaiter customers choose to pre-pay online.  The figure jumps to 77% when looking at just delivery orders.  Be sure to enable online payments and receive funds directly to your merchant account.

Good waiters and waitresses work hard to upsell dine-in customers - to gently suggest they add items to their order, whether it’s a side of sautéed mushrooms with their filet mignon or an order of breadsticks with their pizza.

Does this same upselling occur with phone-in orders?  Probably not.

Why?  The employee taking the order is multi-tasking three other jobs simultaneously and the customer placing the order is more concerned that the employee get it right, rather than add more items.

NetWaiter, however, guarantees each customer ordering online from your restaurant will be properly upsold, netting larger orders and greater profits. This upselling happens in two phases.  The best thing – both are done in an unobtrusive way to generate larger orders, without slowing down the customer’s ordering process.

The first phase allows a customer to select additional options while customizing an item.  This can be done with any item.  If someone is ordering a sandwich, you may need to ask which type of bread they want (along with their topping choices).  You can also upsell the sandwich with additional suggestions, such as adding “Extra Turkey” for $1.50 or a “Bag of Chips” for $1.25.

The second phase tracks which categories a customer has ordered from and prompts them to add items from categories that haven’t been selected.  NetWaiter highlights the three or four most popular items from a suggested category and allows a customer to make a selection after adding any item to their order.  The specific categories are set based on a hierarchy configured by the restaurant. 

As mentioned in a recent blog post, appetizers, desserts, and beverages are the most overlooked items for takeout.  The hierarchy of categories for upselling can be set with this in mind.  You should set appetizers and desserts towards the top of the hierarchy.  Other categories at the top should include those with high profit-margin items and items with price points that make them an easy add-on to any order. 

The next time you update your online menu, make sure the categories in your upselling hierarchy are optimized to maximize online sales.  If needed, a NetWaiter Success Specialist can help you with your configurations.