When it comes to an online food ordering system, you must be familiar with the basic procedure before using it in your restaurant business. Having a thorough understanding of its functioning helps you to use it to its maximum potential.
With online food ordering, you allow your customers to order food from your restaurant business through your website or app. Similar to ordering other commodities online, you may allow your customers to log in to their accounts to make regular ordering convenient.
When partnered with the third-party app, your customers will search for your restaurant. The interface can be easily filtered by a particular cuisine, an option to select delivery or pick-up, a payment method to choose from among credit cards, cash, or mobile wallets.
Read along to know how this restaurant technology is made as a solution for your daily operational concerns.
Online Food Ordering and Delivery System 101
If you are still intimidated by this system, or if you think it will take up a lot of your time, then you just need to understand its overall flow. It’s important to remember that this solution is meant to serve both restaurant owners and customers.
It’s designed to serve the following purposes:
- It should boost your average check size. The leading third-party apps eat away almost thirty-five percent of income just for commissions. Other fees are also expected to be paid by restaurant owners. Imagine if you’re just a start-up restaurant business trying to survive this pandemic season?
It’s unsustainable for you to keep on hanging on with such an arrangement. This type of situation led to the birth of the Scottish delivery platform, Gravvy. The founder, Chris McColl found a way on how to support small restaurant owners sustainably.
This platform differs from the leading ones because it helps restaurant partners get orders in a centralized system. At the same time, it will also act as a directory where restaurants can still run promotions and marketing stunts for their services.
- It should require minimal maintenance. The main reason why you have this tool is to help you simplify your work process. If it takes too much of your resources just to maintain it, then it’s not serving its main purpose for you and your restaurant.
- It should be easy to set up and implement. Keep in mind that you’re running a fast-paced and very demanding business. No one has an extra minute to deal with technicalities.
In addition to orienting and training your staff on your new restaurant tool, choosing one with a user-friendly interface is a great advantage.
Online Ordering System for Restaurants – Components
You should know the “must-haves” of such technology before you deploy it in your restaurant. This is so you can take maximum advantage of all its features.
- Hardware (Tablet, PCs, Mobile)
- Interactive and updated online menu
- Delivery management
- Online reservation
- Flexible online payment processing
- History viewing
- Order management
Online Ordering System for Restaurants – Process
You will learn the fundamentals of how an online food order and the delivery system operating in this section. This section is meant to help you gain a better understanding of how this solution operates.
Step 1 – Consumers place their online orders from your website or app
It is a given that you should have your restaurant website first before you launch an online ordering service. Once you have developed your website, your customers are now allowed to place their orders directly to you.
Restaurant websites can fully sustain your online ordering service, but there are benefits that only online takeaway apps can provide. It’s more accessible for the younger generation, especially the Gen Zs.
Step 2 – Your restaurant receives the notification regarding the incoming order
This is a real-time thing. Once your customers are close to finalizing their orders, you will now receive a notification about it. You may now confirm their orders and start preparing for delivery.
This is why it is important to keep your menu updated and synced with your inventory. Customers want accuracy and convenience with their orders. Finding out that their orders are unavailable is not a good place to earn their trust and loyalty.
Step 3. – Customers receives a confirmation and other particulars about the delivery
You will now send the estimated arrival of their orders to your customers. Details about their delivery driver should be included as well just in case there is difficulty in finding the pinned address.
It is best that your customers can talk to your restaurant representative and drivers to establish clear communication. They may have last-minute requests regarding the delivery process, catering brings plus points for your restaurant.
Step 4 – Customers are given the chance to rate and provide feedback
Your service doesn’t end with the food being delivered to your customers. Your service doesn’t technically end because you’re aiming to engage and build relationships with your customers.
One way to ensure this engagement is to allow them to share their feedback about your service. The quality of food is just a small portion of your restaurant service. They should be able to express their opinions about your online ordering platform, the service of your delivery, and even the service is done in between.
Benefits of Online Food Ordering and Delivery System
These types of solutions were developed for both restaurant owners and customers to streamline ordering. Here are some of the top benefits for your business and your customers.
Customers
- The convenience of placing orders anytime, and anywhere. Now that they can access your online ordering platform through their mobile phones, food ordering is now easier on their end. There’s no need to wait and talk directly via a landline.
- A higher degree of order accuracy. Relaying food orders by telephone to a staff that is likely handling other things is difficult. With an online ordering platform, your customers can choose their orders directly from your online menu.
- Waiting time is reduced. Customer loss due to long waiting times will be reduced since they can now place their orders online. Allowing them to process online reservations and advance orders is also a good option for your restaurant.
Restaurant
- It saves you from unnecessary costs. There’s no need to pay for extra service fees and commissions. The entire revenue you’ve generated from your online ordering service is all yours.
- You can easily access and update your menu. Imagine if you have launched a PDF menu? Every update from your menu will be disastrous. Your menu must be interactive because you would want to prevent miscommunication between your customers regarding the availability of your food items.
- You have the option to receive orders 24/7. Even if your physical store is not operating the same hours, just let your customers know you’re accepting orders for the next day. Don’t underestimate the power of late-night cravings.
