Going Digital For Restaurants In India

In every step of our lives, digitalisation today is widespread. Somewhere about five decades ago, with the advent of computing technology and modern electronics, this digitalisation movement began. Indian restaurants have therefore now welcomed the latest period of change for themselves, i.e. digitalization.

Why are the restaurant menus left behind with the advent of this modern era of technology where everything is being digitised? It would allow you to swap hard copies of restaurant menus with a digital restaurant menu in more than one way. Not only is it cost-effective that any time you make the smallest adjustment, you won’t have to print menus, it’s really pleasing to the eyes when the customers can see the whole menu at one sight, which in turn can help you upsell.

Digital Marketing For Restaurants

The Internet has taken over our lives altogether, so much so that the need for the hour has become modern ads for restaurants. Restaurant Digital Marketing is relevant because it aims to target online consumers whose ratings will directly influence the credibility of your restaurant. Some reasons why restaurant digital marketing is relevant are:—

• Internet marketing has a wide impact for restaurants which costs less in terms of the profits it can gain. If you do not go online for paying ads or to raise posts, it would be virtually free.
• You will be directly in touch with clients, both current and prospective, with a working Facebook, Twitter and an Instagram account. Because of this, they will still be able to reach you to boost your customer service in the event of some concern or grievance.
• Online marketing platforms will provide you with multiple consumers, both current and prospective, on the receiving end of your marketing strategies because of their immense scope.
• Typically, consumers share their feelings online and being with them online can help you hear what they expect from a restaurant and what they are thinking about you.

Now that it has been decided how important it is for your restaurant to come up with digital marketing tactics, next is to understand what different restaurant digital marketing approaches you can use. Below is how you can use apps for your restaurant’s online marketing.

Digital Restaurant Menu Can Boost Your Restaurant Business

For different factors, the interactive restaurant menu has an upper hand over the classic restaurant menu. Because most restaurants automate their restaurant tasks with a comprehensive restaurant management programme, the transformation is also simple to make.

The main reasons why the shift to the digital restaurant menu is a must are:

1. Reduced Dependency on Manpower

Automation often frees up employee dependency and decreases dependence on external factors such as the workforce. If you have an e-menu on each table, the servers do not need to take orders, which in turn will help free them and decrease the need to schedule servers at peak hours.

This will not only decrease the need to tap the correct restaurant staff and then educate and maintain them, it will also decrease the amount of errors when taking orders and the incidents of misplacing orders. Because it is the customers who put the order, it would be almost negligible to give the customers an incorrect order. The digital restaurant menu is a highly accurate system and leaves little room for mistakes.

2. Easy Menu Updation

As the automated restaurant menu is combined into the robust POS programmes, it is possible to centrally control all menu modifications related to menu items and prices so that all or only the chosen few restaurants (if it is a chain) are modified on the e-menu.

3. Enhances Customer Experience

As it would improve the entire guest experience, the interactive restaurant menu is extremely advantageous for your restaurant. It will cause your food products to look more appealing with a stellar HD picture displayed on the tablets. Based about what they have been browsing, the interactive restaurant menu will also be designed to recommend food items to customers or guide them to the most common dishes for that week. This ensures that your interactive restaurant menu would be capable of supplying your clients with a customised experience.

It would also help to lower the average wait time of the consumer. It then provides consumers with a justification to look at the screen for longer than the planned time, and this allows the restaurant another excuse to slip into promotional or other advertised material. Overall, it means that you have a healthy conversation with your clients as they eat or wait for the food to be prepared during their stay at the restaurant.

4. Cost Effective

Unlike a conventional static menu board, by decreasing the need to plan, print, ship and reprint menus as promotional items are added to the menus, costs can be minimised. If you have built, enabled and merged your digital restaurant menu with your POS, keep it as easy as uploading images and sharing to either of the social media sites.

Since it is simple to edit a digital restaurant menu, it helps your café or restaurant to be versatile with your offerings, such as tweaking your cuisine to respond to the new trends or seasonal festivities.

5. Real-time Data Analytics for your Business

For all companies, monitoring data is highly relevant, and restaurant business is therefore no different. Getting a digital restaurant menu can help you track which dishes were famous for the week automatically, and also help you track the exact time that those dishes were most sold.

You can effectively predict such potential demands with such details in hand, to ensure that your kitchen never runs out of stock over the predicted time frame and therefore keep your restaurant from losing valuable sales. This would not just allow you to order only what is required, but also to reduce the output of kitchen waste and the input costs involved in the procurement of raw materials in the right quantities and accordingly.

6. Remote Control

It is strongly suggested that you have a digital restaurant menu that is compatible with your restaurant POS whether you have a chain restaurant or have multiple franchisee outlets, even if you are unable to be physically present at your restaurant. Whenever you operate a chain restaurant or a franchise, ensuring continuity is incredibly critical. And it is seen several times that a franchise may only start selling goods other than the prescribed products when the owner is not physically present in the outlet. You must have a digital restaurant menu to shield yourself from all such conditions, because you can remotely review the products sold. As it is incorporated with your restaurant POS, none of your restaurant chain stores, other than those already fixed, can sell things behind your back.

7. Upselling

Upselling is an art not everyone is capable of learning. Although upselling is a very valuable aspect that allows your restaurant to garner extra bucks, it can be tiresome to educate your employees in successful ways. Don’t be scared! The automated restaurant menu will very easily come to the rescue. Once you have the digital menu of this restaurant incorporated with your POS, these digital screens display free items. The HD displays offer your viewers a much smoother and cleaner look compared to the static pictures in your regular menu. Burger King deployed automated menu boards around outlets in London and Birmingham in 2010, resulting in a sales growth of 64 percent in just 12 months.

8. Customer Engagement

On social media, communicating with consumers is an absolute necessity. Their tweets, posts or messages must always be replied to. Several apps for managing social media are available that allow you to control all your platforms in one place. To ensure continuity, you can also plan your posts and tweets.

Mind, keep a frequency in your updates, don’t just upload a photo one day, then ghost out, that’s going to be a big turn off for your fans, and some consumers might even cost you. Restaurant digital marketing is based on exposure. You don’t need to write every day, but at least once a week, try to post something.

9. Google My Business Listing

Do not forget to create a Google My Company Listing for your restaurant when designing your digital marketing plan for your restaurant. A special listing for restaurants on mobiles named ‘Local 3 Pack’ is given by Google. It has many advantages:

• Next, customers can call your restaurant directly if you have the contact number in the GMB listing.
• If they want to eat, consumers can conveniently find your restaurant and get driving directions.
• It happens with a map before the search results, thereby giving the restaurant more exposure.
• Owners of restaurants that have a GMB listing can conveniently upload the menu that is shown in the listings.

10. Functional And Updated Website

Restaurants also have only a Facebook profile and a listing on the rating pages in the name of the web presence. However, without a robust and modified restaurant website, digital marketing for restaurants is incomplete. Ensure that the website is designed for smartphone use. These should have an ideal restaurant website—

• A Theme Page that represents your restaurant’s brand.
• A menu page where all the delicacies are listed.
• Gallery page that highlights the restaurant’s stunning interior and décor.
• Feedback type in which your clients can share their dining experience at your restaurant. It also serves as a fantastic networking tool, as your website users can view the opinions of your clients, in addition to gaining input that gives you the ability to learn and develop.
• An About Us page where you learn about culture and history.

Digital Marketing Plans for Restaurants

Each provider of online marketing services is armed with a barrage of tools and arms to help a company find its identity online. It is only the best digital marketing firm who can pick the right instruments successfully and plan the right blend for your business. For restaurants, there are several methods that perform best:

Local Searches

People typically decide to dine out at nearby restaurants. For your restaurant, this makes local searches on search engines a priority. When doing searches in the local area, prospective consumers can find the website of your restaurant and other content. In addition, when they are on the move, such scans are also carried out on mobile devices. Your digital marketing partner must ensure the smartphone friendliness of your web sites.

Social Media

You can see individuals telling their peers and contacts about restaurant suggestions on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for anniversaries or birthdays. They review eateries’ social media accounts and go over customer feedback and impressions. Your supplier of internet marketing services needs to branch out across these networks to users.

Email Marketing

Emails and newsletters are helpful for restaurants to arouse curiosity. For pre-booking tables, you can submit deals and discounts via emails. In this respect, transactional emails are very helpful. Inform individuals about weekend deals or new dishes introduced to the menu via emails.

Video Marketing

Diners love a restaurant’s environment as much as the food. You can upload videos of the scenery and interior of your restaurant on channels like YouTube. Apart from what is written on the menu, customers can see what you are selling. They would be interested in paying you a visit as customers find your restaurant well run and suitably staffed.

BottomLine

With the tremendous technical growth and its spreading effect on the restaurant industry, if you stick to the conventional static menu boards, your rivals will miss out on many future buyers. It is strongly recommended for you to make the fast move to the digital menu boards in order to streamline your entire operations.