5 Things Every Restaurant Owner Must Consider Before Choosing an Online Ordering Solution

1. Easy & Seamless to Manage
From hiring the right employees, to making the right dishes at just the right time; restaurant owners have a lot on their plate, so to speak. Needless to say, the last thing they need is to deal with managing a separate online ordering system. Online ordering systems should be synced automatically with the POS, both for pushing orders, but more importantly, to reflect menu data. Updates should reflect automatically without any manual management, or managing two different databases. One system that will sync the online ordering website and  native mobile apps with to POS data is key, whether it be new menu items or pricing.

2. Built-in Marketing 
Restaurant owners can no longer allow themselves to be in the dark about customers. They need an ordering platform that allows them to capture data and better understand, segment, and communicate with customers in a personalized way. Being able to send a message to a specific client segment, for example, “everyone who ordered vegan food in the past month”, is the ultimate way to engage customers and turn data into revenue.

3. Delightful, Slick & Blazingly Fast
Consumers today have a short attention span, they are used to 3-minute videos on social media and just don’t have time to focus on the ordering flow. They want their food, and they want it NOW. They are used to user interfaces and user experiences from Fortune 500 companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. Your restaurant's digital platform must be at the forefront of innovation to provide a slick, delightful and most importantly responsive experience! You want to make sure people keep coming for more, and a seamless and frictionless digital experience will ensure they do.

4. A Fully integrated, End-to-End Platform
In a complex business environment such as food and hospitality, there are no shortcuts. Every factor that is overlooked can create exponential problems in the future. That is why business owners need a platform that can handle every aspect of consumer-facing interactions. Whether it be the online website on their desktop, the mobile app on the go, in-store pick up, or even as they pay at their table, providing the same  streamlined design and experience is critical. Moreover, loyalty and marketing need to be connected and data must  be shared and leveraged across all aspects of the business in order to succeed.

5. Rapidly Evolving
With restaurants and customers becoming increasingly technology-driven, your solution provider must be constantly evolving to keep up with the pace of change. Ideally, it will be ahead of the curve when it comes to transforming your business from analog to digital. We all learned in 2020 that disruptive changes require rapid solutions. As a result, Appfront quickly released virtual drive-thru and curbside ordering, zero-touch deliveries and more. Evidently, digital platform need to be one step ahead when it comes to vision and technology.

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All of the above are an integral part of the Appfront ecosystem. We invite you to explore more on our website, and knowledge base, or even contact us if you have any questions. Feel it is the right time for you to switch to the next-level digital platform for your restaurant? Get in touch with us today.