Sunday App Archives - Page 2 of 2

In today’s fast-paced world, customers prioritise convenience, speed, and personalised experiences, driving the escalating demand for online food ordering, delivery, and takeout. While off-premise dining boasts advantages like increased revenue, an expanded customer base, and higher check sizes, some restaurant owners remain hesitant due to concerns about losing valuable in-person customer interactions. To address these apprehensions and empower restaurateurs to elevate their online ordering experiences, here are four insightful tips for staying connected with customers in the digital realm.

Tailor Your Platform Listing and Online Menu

Consider your restaurant’s page on third-party platforms as a virtual storefront—a canvas that needs to captivate potential customers. Infuse it with the essence of your brand’s voice and personality. Craft a compelling introduction that narrates the story of your restaurant, its culinary offerings, and your vision. The menu, the heartbeat of the experience, should showcase delivery-friendly, high-quality, and customisable dishes.

Engage potential customers through visually appealing content, such as high-definition images of your culinary creations. Complement this with imaginative dish names and clever descriptions that evoke curiosity. For instance, would you prefer ordering a “Large Cheese Plate” or a “Sweet Dreams are Made of Cheese Plate?” Descriptions offer a unique opportunity to let your brand personality shine in the digital space.

Harness the Power of Social Media

Social media stands as a potent tool for fostering customer interaction. Establish a connection with your followers through contests, giveaways, and user-generated content. Organise engaging photo contests, encourage customers to share their culinary experiences, and create custom hashtags exclusive to your restaurant. Use the platform to share behind-the-scenes stories, communicate hygiene measures, and introduce the faces behind your brand.

Invest time in nurturing your social media accounts to establish a genuine connection with customers. The organic growth of these accounts over time can serve as a cost-effective means to disseminate messages to your loyal customer base.

Infuse a Personal Touch in Each Order

Once an order embarks on its delivery journey, it’s essential to maintain a connection with the customer. Employ a point-of-sale (POS) system integrated with your online ordering solution to ensure precision and completeness. Timeliness and order accuracy resonate deeply with customers, making it imperative to get these aspects right.

Elevate customer interaction by personalising food orders. Consider including handwritten thank-you notes, short messages, or branded freebies like stickers or utensils. Thoughtfully branded packaging contributes to a unique ‘unboxing’ experience, potentially prompting customers to share their delight on social media.

Consider offering a ‘build your own’ meal option to provide customers with an ultra-personalized dining experience. This showcases an understanding of personal preferences without burdening your kitchen staff.

Actively Seek and Welcome Feedback

While reaching customers who utilise third-party services can be challenging, actively seek feedback through alternative channels. Utilise polls, surveys, and social media platforms to encourage customers to share their thoughts. Include a feedback card in delivery and take-out bags, complete with a custom QR code for seamless online submissions. Consider incentivizing feedback with discounts or coupons.

Monitor and respond to reviews on delivery platforms, transparently communicating actions taken based on feedback. For those with their own delivery service or online ordering app, leverage customer relationship management (CRM) data to send personalised offers, discounts, and feedback forms.

In conclusion, fostering customer interaction in the online realm may pose challenges, but it’s far from impossible. By tailoring your platform, leveraging social media, infusing a personal touch into each order, and actively seeking feedback, you can bridge the gap and forge meaningful connections with customers. Embrace these strategies not only to streamline operations but also to cultivate growth and customer loyalty in the competitive landscape of online food ordering.

Dishoom, the exclusive Bombay café in London has chosen NFS Technology’s specialist Aloha POS software as its management system of choice to enable a smooth running service at all its prestigious London locations.

London based Dishoom, with café sites in Shoreditch, Kings Cross and Covent Garden, draws upon the heritage and tradition of old cafés with all-day menus paying homage to the food of Bombay.

As the business is growing, its management team looked to adopt a software system to enable tighter control and mobility alongside organising staff and maintaining a positive guest experience to ensure each café was running at optimum capability.

NFS’s Aloha system was selected due to its all-encompassing nature to enable full management, including measurements and reporting capability in real time. Aloha has also allowed Dishoom to monitor social media activity and customer engagement to ensure any comments are acknowledged and responded to as quickly as possible.

Says Brian Trollip, Dishoom’s Head of Operations: “Dishoom’s philosophy is steeped in the traditional values of Bombay, bringing the culture, vibe and eating styles to London and we are really thrilled with how it has been received, leading us to grow and establish a further two cafes with more in the pipeline.

“However, with growth, we have to be careful not to lose this essence, which takes intensive management control and focused mobility.

Aloha has proven to be a powerful standalone POS software solution that provides all the information and more to ensure the smooth running of our cafes. We especially like the link of social media so we can see all the feedback from our loyal customer base.”

Aloha from NFS is proven to optimise real time restaurant management and actively increases revenues. With NFS Aloha Orderman, Dishoom can optimise hand held devices specifically designed to deliver orders straight from the table to the kitchen.

In addition, using, Dishoom is using NFS specialist hosted solutions including Restaurant Guard, Gift Card, Loyalty and Insight alongside specialists CFC software to enable management of all three Café locations from just the one unique system.

Luis de Souza, CEO of NFS Technology Concludes:

“Dishoom is a unique dining concept that has paid particular attention to recreate a Bombay café experience in London. With such a specific formula to follow, the focus must be on creating the right vibe to remain successful using a combination of highly reliable technology to run the restaurant operation and great customer facing solutions such as mobile ordering integrated credit cards and social media which deliver a total experience for both the restaurant operator and the guest.”