While the Covid-19 pandemic has affected every industry in the United States, the restaurant industry has probably been affected the most. Despite enduring catastrophic losses and experiencing profound changes, restaurant operators have evolved on so many levels in order to survive.
With another series of restaurant shut downs on the horizon due to the second wave of the pandemic, things are going to get tougher before they get better. The bad news is some restaurants won’t survive this. The good news is, those that survive, will enjoy a well-deserved boom.
The big question is what to do in order to beat these difficult times and come out on top? The answer is technology. Having the right technology not only helps you to continue your operations, but it can also increase your revenue. Here is a few things to consider:
1- Website - Your website should not only be professional and pleasing to the eye, it should be easy to navigate and highly functional. You should be able to easily update it with the latest information to conveniently communicate to your customers. Research shows that of those 89% of people who research a restaurant online, 57% thoroughly view that restaurant’s website before selecting it. So if your website is not updated and is not up to par, odds are visitors are going to leave your website to find one they like better.
2- QR Codes - Quick Response Codes are matrix barcodes that are designed to be read by smartphones in order to communicate information such as details about a promotion, a particular website page, or a link to a menu page. QR codes have primarily been used to direct guests to a digital menu, essentially eliminating the use of physical menus.
3- Online ordering - The ability to order online eliminate the need for guests to come inside the restaurant to pay. At the beginning of the pandemic, online orders increased by 63 percent on the first month alone. So offering a user-friendly online ordering system should be a top priority. Stay away from 3rd. party solutions such as grub hub and door dash for pickup orders since they take a large percentage of your sales. Either use your POS online ordering system or a solution provided by your web hosting company.
4- Email Marketing - Staying in touch with your customers through discount offers and specials during the pandemic is immensely valuable tool to have. Also, communicating regularly the safety precautions that the restaurant is taking to keep the diners safe will ultimately increase customer confidence in dining-in or ordering takeout.
5- Birthday Club - Research has shown that rewarding customers with a free meal, or a discount on their birthday and on their anniversary has been a huge factor in creating a relationship with guests which is a critical factor in boosting return business and ultimately growing sales.
The MenuClub team has been offering web development and digital marketing for over 20 years. We utilize proven technologies that will boost your revenue and help you survive the tough times ahead. Our solutions are highly effective and totally affordable to average size restaurants. Having a website is not enough. You need to have a team of people supporting it. My team is available 7 days a week to make sure everything is working smoothly so you can focus all your attention on running your restaurant. Click here to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. We're here to help in any way we can.
Best Regards,
Robert Hedayat
President/CEO
MenuClub, Inc.
www.menuclub.com