Why Your Limited-Service Restaurant Customers Need Online Ordering
By Trisha Leon, contributing writer
A new Technomic study reveals that in order to remain competitive, limited-service restaurants must evolve to meet the varied needs of customers. One area where limited-service restaurants can adapt to the market is online ordering and/or delivery. Consumers indicate that convenient delivery or ordering services, such as call-ahead or online ordering, could encourage them to patronize limited-service restaurants more often.
While delivery is not economically viable for all limited-service restaurant locations, many brands within the limited-service industry are trying their hand at it. According to an article in QSR, “Delivery Done Right,” delivery service has increased in select markets around the country. David Decker, president at market research and consulting firm Consumer Edge Insight, recommends implementing and perfecting delivery in select stores before introducing it all over.
Ashley Morris, CEO at Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop, a west coast brand that offers delivery at selected locations, explains that Capriotti’s uses software that connects to its point of sale system which helps effectively deliver the address, location, and special instructions to the driver, as well as track delivery status. “If your drivers have to go to MapQuest and plug in an address for each delivery,” Morris says, “then your deliveries are going to take longer than needed.”
Online ordering options can also attract customers that limited-service restaurants have struggled to capture. In a column for Fast Casual, Greg Constantine, EVP of client operations for SecureNet explains, “Millennials, people aged 19-34, account for the largest generation in America. And as brands such as BlackBerry and Blockbuster can attest to, they are decision-makers whose preferences can make or break you. As research has shown, smartphones may be the answer. Gartner has estimated that mobile payments will top $720 billion a year by 2017, and the marketplace is hypercompetitive down to the last dollar.”
He says online ordering applications can be combined with value adds like loyalty programs or special offers, but points out, “the technology must work flawlessly all of the time” to get customers to truly embrace it.
Limited-service restaurants will turn to VARs for solutions and services that connect web services to point of sale systems that will provide these services and increase customer satisfaction.