Consumer change is accelerating.
So much has changed in the restaurant business over the last 2 years. The COVID-19 Pandemic coincided with consumer demand for increased use of restaurant technology. Consumers were already using restaurant technology before COVID-19, but the pandemic really accelerated technologies utilization by consumers and restaurants.
Off premise dining is a ‘NEED to have’, not a ‘NICE to have’ restaurant revenue stream.
Not so long ago, a small percentage of restaurants enjoyed a nice revenue stream from pickup and takeout orders. Modern restaurants today still need that revenue stream to grow their businesses. Even though the need is real, consumers are more and more unwilling to use the phone to place takeout orders. One of the biggest concerns with phone order is credit card security, as well as order mistakes as a result of miscommunications along the phone ordering continuum.
Off premise restaurant dining needs online ordering to thrive.
Credit card security issues and order inaccuracies are both solved with online ordering. Future orders are also simplified with a good online ordering system in place. Research shows that consumers are offering online for pickup twice per month and online for delivery once per month. With that many meals being placed online, you must have a competent online ordering system in place.
Off premise dining needs promotion to thrive.
Third party aggregators will not share your consumers’ data with you. With your own online ordering service, you are able to keep your consumer’s data, and consequently are able to promote to those customers. You’re not able to promote or message to those same consumers via third party apps. TakeOut7 not only captures your consumer data for you, but handles all your online email and social media marketing at zero cost to your restaurant. The consequence of this data capture is that you are able to build your restaurant’s brand, and not a third-party app’s by using your consumers to build their database.
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