Branding: It’s what customers, employees , vendors, the media and all other key constituents come to expect in dealing with your restaurant. Brand-building is closing the gap between what you promise and what you deliver. A strong brand is one that has alignment between the promise and execution. It’s not something that happens when you advertise, and it’s not that people recognize your logo or recall your advertising.

Positioning: Positioning is an under-leveraged restaurant marketing component. Positioning is the place you hold in the customers or prospects mind relative to the competition. Effective positioning involves incorporation of your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The USP is the one thing that only you can claim. It’s a point of differentiation that the competition either cannot or does not claim.

Due Diligence: Restaurant marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Effective restaurant marketing must be built on a foundation of fact and knowledge about the market, your competition, your customers, your Internal Customers, financial history, marketing history, the industry, and outside forces that will impact your business. It’s a lot to worry about, but restaurant marketing has to factor these considerations into the overall strategy.

Menu Mix: Every six to twelve months, you’ll want to conduct an analysis of your menu. This will include profitability analysis and competitive menu analysis. To keep your menu fresh, relevant, and profitable, you’ll need to know specifically how each item on your menu is performing and also how it stacks up next to your top competition.

Training: Training is a vital component of restaurant marketing. Training needs to go beyond just employee orientation. You’ll need an ongoing program that constantly improves and evolves your staff competencies. It’s also a good idea to include a restaurant marketing component in your training program so that you have a staff of ambassadors to help your sales-building efforts.

In a restaurant with traditional system of ordering or we say where there is no online food ordering system, each and every person in staff from manager to cashier, from chef to waiter, is busy. They have to take care of every thing such as number of customers, table reservations, payments, takeout/delivery orders etc. by themselves which sometimes can become a matter of physical and mental stress resulting into quitting the job finally. According to a research study, the restaurant industry has one of the largest attrition rates as compared to any other industry.

Since your restaurant employees constantly keep on looking for ways to make your customers’ experience as enjoyable as possible, so it becomes necessary to bring down the amount of focus and energy of your restaurant employees so as to offer them a stress free job. Online food ordering assists you here by streamlining the overall ordering process. This helps in lowering the probability of human error thereby reducing any undue stress on your restaurant staff. Your online food ordering system enables your customer to visit your restaurant’s website, choose the food item from menu, click the button to order which can be  then received  via email or fax. Even reservations can be done online by customers themselves.

The convenience that online food ordering provides to your staff make their job easier and relaxed. This makes them put all their energy and effort into offering an enjoyable culinary  experience to your restaurant’s customers.

Here is a wishing that the coming year is a glorious one that rewards all your future endeavors with success.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

May God shower the snow of joy and happiness on you, may the bells jingle for you and may  Santa be extra good to you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

‘Internet has  a great impact on customer’s  experiences and plays a key role in the restaurant industry.’ Thirty-nine percent of the respondents liked receiving promotional emails from restaurants with the two most popular online promotions being coupons for drink or food specials.

The current market scenario reveals that chain restaurants which are crowding the market day by day, are making a smaller restaurant to look at new ways to market and entice customers. Email and cell phones are overtaking most venues of communication and the traditional mode of advertising.

Restaurant industry is changing completely with technology. Today, the Internet is replacing and becoming additional exposure to traditional advertising and marketing. Since, the first contact that many people have make with a restaurant is through its website, it is required that the website should reflect the restaurant in its look and feel, is easy to navigate and have mapping directions (which is considered to be the most important thing on a restaurant’s website) and contact details of  the restaurant.

We all make plans before traveling to any place. This includes hotels, tourist sites, and restaurants. Just because a restaurant is close to a hotel does not ensure that guests will visit it. If the restaurant does not have an online presence we may not consider visiting it. A restaurant website should be set up that once the customer arrives at the restaurant all that they need to do is to sit down and enjoy their dining experience as they have all of the relevant information prior to arriving.

We notice that it is customary of restaurateurs to distribute pamphlets/flyers to advertise about their menu specialties, which we often try to ignore and dump them into garbage. No doubt, this adds a lot to paper waste and pollutes the environment. The serious environmental issues require restaurants to shift from paper menus to online menus. This would benefit environment, in terms of reduced amount of wood used to produce paper and the amount of fuel used to deliver it. By submitting menus online, restaurateurs can now save as much as 90 per cent of the cost of producing paper menus. All they need is a computer with Internet connectivity to receive online orders from their customers. The online food ordering approach fits in perfectly with the need to cut cost, reduce staff and environment friendly food ordering.

More the restaurants will switch to online ordering, lesser will be the amount of paper menus generated, which in turn will save millions of trees which are cut down to manufacture paper every year. This will also help restaurateurs to list their efforts  in the measures used to reduce global warming and encourage other restaurants to give up the conventional practice of using paper menus and start using a techno cum eco-friendly way of displaying their menu items online.

Starting with Thanksgiving following to Christmas, the holiday season is arriving to knock your doors soon. It is the time when everyone is in a relaxing frame of mind and doesn’t want to even think of their chaotic schedules at work. Christmas holidays become an excuse for gatherings and parties when people get a chance to dine in with their dear ones. But those who want to remain in a little lazy feel and wish to have food from their choice of restaurant without stepping out; online food ordering is a fine selection.

With online food ordering system, menus can be accessed directly so that all details about the food to be ordered can be retrieved. Just click on the food shown on online menus and place your order for delivery/ pick up. You don’t need to have a superior tech sense for ordering food over internet. It is so effortless that even kids can place orders for their happy meals, with just a few mouse clicks. Restaurateurs also feel at ease with these ordering systems as they do not require bulky installations and set ups. By merely signing up the system, one can start taking /placing of orders.

You might have suffered from the frustration when your order was noted erroneously by the person at the restaurant receiving your phone order and the height of annoyance reaching the top level when delivery boy brought the wrong order. Online food ordering liberates you from that annoying situation as there is no chance of error prone ordering due to bad phone connection.

Time and cost are cut down to a remarkable amount by adopting these online ordering systems. Restaurateurs benefit from lower maintenance and labor cost whereas customers get cost cut offs incurred in long phone calls for ordering food. Payment of food is also a trouble free task while ordering food online. Various payment gateways are opened for you such as pay pal, pay upon delivery etc., ensuring a complete protection of your valuable information.

During this festive season and chilling winters, online food ordering system can be considered as Santa’s gift for those who wish to have their favorite food from their choice of restaurant, and that too at their homes while cozying up in blankets!

Myth 1 - “I don’t have adequate knowledge on computers and the Internet” - Majority of the food outlets in the county has this misconception. Therefore, the job should be left to experts. Online food ordering companies require details from restaurants on menu and time needed to answer customers. This leads to the restaurant owner having a stress-free process in dealing with technology.

Myth 2- “To work out this service, I need to get POS, computer and high-speed Internet connection” - High-tech food junctions need not to have any of these to provide this facility to their customers. They only need a fax machine and a phone line connected to it. For those outlets who accept credit cards, they may not need a fax line but they may necessitate a processing line or one of the rollover lines for the fax so that you can use your credit cards.

Myth 3 – “It costs too much” - This is not true. Online ordering includes a wide range of prices. The price varies greatly and depends largely on customization you would want to add into your site. The most important thing to consider is return on investment. It is always advisable to ask few questions to the online food ordering company before hiring its services like how often one can bring alteration in the menu prices and items without incurring extra charge, do you charge per order or do you charge for updating coupons or specials. This helps you avoid paying hidden charges.

Myth - 4 “Customers usually dislike sending their credit card details on Internet” - A greater fraction of purchases are made using credit cards these days. As majority of the people use online services for every need of theirs, this shows how advanced is Internet security system. The online food ordering companies are using advanced security system like Secure Sockets layer (SSL) technology to provide security assurance to the people. The payment method adapted by the masses over phone is similar to the payment mode preferred on the net. The customers who do not want to use their credit cards online are again not happy with the idea of using their credit cards over phone.

Myth – 5 “I already own a website, so offering food online won’t make any difference” - It’s a myth because a good website only allows customers to get information about what you offer like menu, coupons etc. What would be the next step? Of course! ordering food online. This actually allows consumers to place an order without obstacle. The aim of a website is not just to inform the food lovers about its offerings but to make them avail a complete process till transaction.

Talking about corporate customers; we due to their busy schedules, office hours and meetings, they have to order food from restaurants. This frequent food ordering from corporate customers adds a value to the restaurant sales; hence corporate customers need proper care and restaurant service. Following tips can help restaurateurs to offer quality services and meet the food-services needs of their corporate clients:

Prix Fixe Menu:  Since a prix fixe menu includes a collection of pre-determined items presented as a multi course meal at a set price, this will allow your corporate customers with a regular need for food delivery to set delivery budgets and times. This will also enable employees to order food online and enjoy great food they love, quickly and conveniently.

Group Ordering:  Group ordering enables large and small companies an organized solution that allows individuals to place their own orders without wasting the administrator’s time. Restaurateurs should provide the ability of group ordering to their corporate customers keeping in mind the importance of their precious time.

The Corporate Caretaker Team:  A special corporate caretaker team should appointed by the restaurateurs which could take care of the needs and queries of the corporate customers round the clock.