When is the last time you ate in a restaurant? For the average consumer, the true answer to this question is hard to remember. The year-long (and counting) pandemic has been tragic for the restaurant industry. Most restaurants, throughout Canada, have had to shut the doors on their dining rooms and provide meals to their customers exclusively through takeout orders.
For restaurant owners, it’s never been more important to take the online approach to generating revenue. The title of today’s blog communicates a stark reality. Allow us to reiterate it. It’s an absolute must that restaurateurs utilize an online ordering system.
Why is it so important for restaurants to allow customers to place orders online?
Simply put, it’s what customers expect. It’s what they need and it’s what they want. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it so that eating in restaurants is considered unsafe. In addition, we live in an online-obsessed world. Combine the two truths and you have a society that considers it mandatory to be able to address their food cravings by going on the internet. On TouchBistro.com, Dana Krook explains the impact of technology on customer behaviour.
“Research by the National Restaurant Association shows that for nearly one-third of all adults and 41% of people aged 18 to 34, the availability of technology options is an important factor when choosing restaurants,” she reports.
Customers expect food delivery to be effortless.
Krook points out that, in addition to wanting to keep safe, customers generally consider the process of ordering food to be an easy one. At least, it should be. Krook notes that people expect to be able to order food at all hours of the day. But again, it should be lost on no restaurant owner that COVID-19 has practically made online ordering an absolute must.
“The online ordering business overall was worth $5 billion for the first two quarters of 2018 alone, and some experts predict that the food delivery market could be valued at $365 billion by 2030,” reveals Krook, “Though online ordering was already on the rise, it has become even more important in the wake of COVID-19.”
There are numerous advantages provided by online ordering.
Needless to say, online ordering makes life very easy for hungry customers. As Bharti Batra explains on RestoLabs.com, there are many different benefits to setting up an online ordering system for your restaurant. The first, and most obvious, is that it simply makes the ordering process easier.
“In a normal take-out setting the customer has to call the restaurant or make visit in person but with online ordering the customer can place an order by clicking few buttons,” Batra writes.
She goes on to point out that orders are “right” all of the time. “Often orders are misplaced due to faulty communication over the telephone,” Batra reminds us, “Online ordering cures this issue.” An online ordering system also keeps costs transparent, reduces human error and monitors your expenses in real time.
Do you allow customers to place takeout and delivery orders on your restaurant’s website?
You’re not just relying on food delivery apps to allow your customers to order food from your restaurant, are you? With Unity Payments, you can quickly set up your own online ordering system for your restaurant! To get started, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca.
