Frequently Asked Questions
Expand All | Contract All- I already get plenty of orders on the phone! Why is online ordering important?
- With broadband available easily, orders are quickly moving to the web
- Newer orders from internet savvy individuals are coming online
- Online orders provide far more detailed information about your customer and you can market to them far more effectively
- New v/s repeat orders
- Pickup v/s Delivery
- Cash v/s Credit Card
- Average Order Tickets
- Failure Rates
- Mistakes by the staff
- Opportunity to hear back from your customers via automated feedback system
- Customer service by sending electronic coupons
- Why is taking orders from my website more important than taking orders from SeamlessWeb, Delivery.com or other portals?
- Orders from your website are cheaper for you
- Orders from your website create customer information that is fully accessible to you
- You do not lose customers to your competition
- You are not dependent on someone else for promoting your website
- Your investment in promoting online ordering benefits you instead of benefiting your competition on the portals
- On a portal every order that you fill, helps strengthen the portal instead of strengthening you - and your restaurant
- Its like this: If a customer has a good experience, it is the portals credit. If she has a bad experience, the restaurant screwed up! Heads - the portal wins. Tails - the Restaurant loses!
- Hmmm!! But I get many orders from portals. What are portals? What is their business model?
- Portals are Expedia or Travelocity for restaurants
- A visitor chooses from a list of restaurants
- The portal gets paid as long as the customer orders from ANY restaurant in that portal. You are just another entity generating revenue for the portal
- Portal stands between YOU and the CUSTOMER. The portal keeps all the customer information
- A portal is interested in traffic to the portal, not necessarily to your restaurant
- If you are good, customers go to the portal more frequently and you tend to lose your customers
- Portals are good for POOR restaurants who benefit from traffic generated by GOOD restaurants
- Typically the customer pays the portal and the portal pays the restaurant at the end of the month. (Especially credit card orders). The portal prefers keeping the float
- So what ... should I stop taking orders from portals?
- NO! Portals provide a good service and absolutely serve a purpose. They invest in advertising to the customer. They bring new business. However they charge too much AND siphon off YOUR customers. Their businesss model is NOT to work towards making the restaurant successful but rather to make themselves successful. Portals are good for NEW customers, but not necessariy to serve the customer on a repeat basis. Once the new customer comes to your store (or gets the delivery) it is YOUR customer and you should have access to the customer yourself.
- Hmmm! So what should I do? How?
- Get NEW customers from the portals but serve the customer from your website for repeat business. The HOW is simple:
- Instead of paying mega fees to the portal, give a discount to the customer!
- Tell the customer to order from your restaurant's website and get a discount on the first online order
- Get loyalty programs in place that recognize and reward the customer for their loyalty
- Provide good customer service - for that you should know when you make a mistake! Read your feedback and if you make a mistake, simply apologize and send a coupon! Customers are typically generous and graceful. They recognize your problems and appreciate your attention when you make mistakes.
- Ok! I get it! Online ordering makes sense. But why should I choose iMenu360?
- Ah! good point. Click Here, to read why!!