Does my POS’s online ordering do enough? (Part 2)

Marketing, Promotions, Loyalty, Insights

As POS providers launched their online ordering systems, many failed to build sufficient tools, if any, to handle customer data like marketing, promotions and loyalty tools. The difference these tools make to a restaurant's bottom line is so significant, and it’s either free to do or incredibly low cost. 

Again, a white label app allows for unlimited push notifications, but even web orders can provide automated loyalty updates sent to customers letting them know where they are in the cycle and what they can achieve keeps people engaged and your brand top of mind. MENUU pays for its customer's SMS texts for loyalty, so this is never a cost for our customers. 

Some do provide loyalty, but it is very limited, buy 10 get 11th free. Which is fine, but what about rewarding people based on what they spend. How about letting them achieve something they can keep for a rainy day. How about making promos only available for 3 days to get the customers to come back quickly. Variety is king here as every customer is different. Which leads us nicely into Customer Insights.

MENUU’s new customer insights module, gives you an easy to read, graphic display providing detailed info on each customer. How much they spend, favourite items, when they like to order, how often they do it. This is really valuable insight, which gives customers a tailored experience, develops a closer relationship with your clients and provides an exceptional customer experience. It is all under your nose, but the right tools unleash its potential.

Order Slots & Prep Time Management

With ordering becoming a higher overall percentage of a restaurants order total, the ability to manage those orders correctly, increase prep times and manage the flow is essential. Most POS providers online ordering don’t allow automated prep time extension based on order value or size, they don’t choke or limit the amount of orders per 10-15-20 mins. What happens when a restaurant can’t manage this and get overwhelmed, they shut off their online ordering. That could cost hundreds per hour. Avoid these issues and utilise specialist systems, like MENUU, that pay attention to this detail.

Lost revenue, through lack of functionality, is easily avoided when using the right systems. Just because your POS offers a free system, does not mean more revenue in your pocket. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.

Front End Design

This is never more important than for multi site concepts, where focus on branding and consistency become more important. A consistent look and feel between your site and your ordering system is vital. Not only does MENUU integrate directly into your website, but offers options for customers to change fonts, colours and wallpapers to match the restaurant’s website. So many POS ordering interfaces are quite ugly. They look clunky and are not a nice place to be. 

You want customers to enjoy the experience and not just provide a functional, boring or even frustrating environment. Your virtual restaurant is the a digital walk-in experience. You would focus on the design of your restaurant for walk-in business, why not pay that same attention to your online aesthetic when a huge portion of your customers are there? The devil is in the detail.

Support

We get by with a little from our friends, support is important and never more so if you experience an issue online and need a quick solution at 1am in the morning. Many POS brands offer poor support or no support after 5:30pm, which is when you start to get busy, your day has barely started, theirs is over. MENUU provides a 24hr, 7 days a week live agent support team, ready to address any queries or provide any help you might need. Sometimes a great support team is the difference between hundreds or even thousands in profit and a blown up Saturday Night.

That just about rounds up all the different elements that separate a specialist online ordering solution like MENUU and a freebie you may have got from your POS. Yes, I can appreciate the appeal of free, it is hard to ignore, but it is easy to focus on the dollar in your pocket, instead of the dollars not yet in your pocket. Allow specialist systems to bring in the revenue you can’t see, because trust me, there is a lot of it. Worker smarter, not harder. 

If you would like to chat with Rowan about your restaurant needs, please book an appointment with him here.