If you haven’t integrated online ordering with your point of sale system yet, it’s time to add this valuable feature and start operating more efficiently.
Every take-out or delivery meal starts with an order. Although phone orders are universally accepted at restaurants, integrated online ordering is a must-have alternative to phone calls. If you haven’t integrated online ordering with your point of sale system yet, it’s time to add this valuable feature and start operating more efficiently.
Free Online Ordering Resources
Social distancing has deeply affected our customers in the restaurant industry. That’s why Star Micronics is offering free online ordering resources for VARs and ISVs helping restaurants navigate the implementation of online ordering.
What is integrated online ordering?
Integrated online ordering allows diners to enter their orders online through the restaurant’s website or app, designate whether it’s pickup or dine-in, pay with a credit card and send the orders automatically to the kitchen. This functionality is a crowd-pleaser that, depending on the integration, updates the customer on their order’s progress and gives an ETA for delivery or pick-up. In turn, restaurant owners and managers can increase revenues by accurately processing more orders with less staff.
Here are four ways online ordering will positively impact your restaurant:
1. Restaurants gain a new revenue stream with online ordering.
For smaller restaurants with only a few tables, it can be difficult to increase profits without adding capacity, turning tables faster, or extending the hours your eatery is open. All these options add overhead in the form of higher rent, more employees and additional costs related to a longer work day. Adding online ordering and delivery generates an additional revenue stream without impacting the on-premises operations.
People are looking for eateries with the technology that allows them to order in the way they feel most comfortable in the least amount of time. On average, restaurants that implemented online ordering increased their takeout revenue by 30%.
2. Order accuracy will improve and customer satisfaction will increase.
More people are logging on to place their orders for everything from doughnuts to Thanksgiving dinners. Customers want to be able to place their orders online —in fact, a National Restaurant Association survey shows that 63% of respondents said that they would use online ordering if it were offered.
Without online ordering, an employee must reenter orders received via phone or non-integrated application into the restaurant POS, which creates double work and opens the door for mistakes to be made keying orders into the workstation. Removing these steps means more confident staff at the POS, less errors and a reduction in the amount of time and resources wasted on remaking orders prepared incorrectly.
3. Integrated online ordering is more cost effective.
If you currently offer menu items for delivery or take out, but do not have online ordering, your staff needs to spend time answering the phone. This means they are interrupted from another task, need to stop and place the order, and then return to their original task. This translates to a decrease in productivity — and an increase in labor costs. Paring with a POS system that uses Star’s CloudPRNT solution offers the option to have orders print automatically when received. Online orders that are directly transmitted to the kitchen save time and money.
4. It helps you compete — your competition has already implemented it.
Patrons expect your restaurant to have the technology that allows them to order online or with a mobile app. Online ordering is booming — it’s projected to be a $38 billion industry in the U.S. by 2020. The restaurant industry is extremely competitive and has a high failure rate, so restaurateurs simply cannot afford a “wait-and-see” attitude.
Online ordering delivers hot, fresh food quickly and correctly, so it’s time to integrate if haven’t already. Integrated online ordering will allow people to order their meals the way they want and when they want. This functionality will help you reduce human error while inputting orders and cut down on payroll cost and wasted resources. The restaurant business is fierce, so you can’t afford not to offer this cutting edge technology.
