Is online ordering an operational tool or a marketing tool? It is true - NetWaiter is certainly a better way to handle the takeout and delivery orders that come into a restaurant. However, as most restaurant owners discover, NetWaiter is actually a marketing tool.

For example - if you were to ask every guest how they first learned of your restaurant, you would quickly find that about four out of five people learned by referral - word of mouth. Social media - Facebook and Twitter - take word of mouth and put it online where it can grow exponentially. This type of new-age word of mouth advertising is built into every NetWaiter site. When a customer uses their Facebook account to place an order, a link to your site with your logo can be posted on the customer’s Facebook page for all their friends to see. The average Facebook user has over 130 friends. Imagine the impact!

Another significant marketing benefit is the ability to track customers. Of all the means you use to advertise and promote your restaurant, NetWaiter is one you can track. You can immediately see the payoff and have the ability to monitor customers.

Some restaurants spend a lot of money on expensive newspaper and magazine advertisements. They are virtually impossible to track. The only way to measure their impact is to provide some sort of redeemable coupon or discount. As a marketing vehicle, this is usually a losing venture.

So, not only is NetWaiter a marketing tool, it can actually be one of your best marketing assets, along with your website and other online media (email marketing, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Bottom Line: Investing in the long-term success of your restaurant is a lot better than wasting money on one-time advertisements that cannot be measured. Online customers are the most loyal and profitable type of customer. So, rather than an expensive newspaper ad, you can more effectively leverage your marketing budget by promoting your own online ordering system. Not only will you be making good customers better ones, you will also be making them more profitable.

When it comes to social media, your restaurant probably has one or all three of the following: a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a presence on Instagram.

What should you talk about?

A recent survey of more than 1,200 restaurant consumers asked what guides their choices when they decide where to dine or order takeout/delivery.

• 83% said that treating employees well is important. Highlight your employee-of-the-month on social media. Did someone get a promotion, graduate from college, or do something great for a customer? That’s more social media material. 
• 73% indicated that support of their local community influences their restaurant choice.  When you support a local community event, take some photos and post them online.  It makes a difference. 
• When you promote menu items, keywords such as “fresh”, “locally-sourced”, “whole grain”, and anything “all-natural” are great to mention.

And to no one’s surprise …

• The survey revealed that the convenience of an online ordering system shares the top spot with taste and quality, which is why you should always make your online ordering easily available to all customers.

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. 

One of the big topics of conversation buzzing around the industry lately is increasing prices. The facts: commodity prices and fuel costs are rising. This comes in conjunction with the last two years of economic recession, when it was hard, if not impossible, for restaurants to raise prices.

Here are some tips on how to strategically raise prices:

1. Don't wait too long to begin raising prices. Once you get behind, it's difficult to catch up and get your prices in line to where they need to be to earn an adequate profit.

2. Don't raise prices across the board. Start by surgically raising prices on a few menu items at a time to avoid "sticker shock". You'll just need to evaluate your prices more often, possibly once a quarter.

3. Use a menu format that can be changed quickly and inexpensively.

If you decide to raise prices, remember to check your online menu. This is where NetWaiter becomes advantageous, because making menu changes online with NetWaiter is a very simple.

Takeout continues to grow as a percentage of takeout business for restaurants. No wonder when many popular meals are more expensive to make at home (according to this Yahoo article) than ordering at a restaurant. And that says nothing about your time involved in putting the meal together. 

Take full advantage of that takeout market with online ordering from NetWaiter.