20 Mar 2019 | Blog
In Australia, we keep seeing and hearing about cafes, bars, and restaurants struggling to keep their doors open because of the lack of physical customer interaction. With the introduction of delivery companies like Uber Eats, more and more customers are opting for their food to be delivered to them at home. Unfortunately, the cost to get on board with many of these businesses is huge, but many restaurants feel they will lose out to their competitors if they don’t offer delivery as an option. As a result, venues are caught between a rock and a hard place feeling the need to jump on board the delivery train in order to keep up with their competitors. Unfortunately, in many cases, they end up doing their business a disservice by removing the physical interaction between the customer and the staff. Particularly in venues where it is often the service and the experience that drives customers to dine there in the first place. Not only that, what many of these businesses don’t realise, is that by investing in these delivery platforms they are actually cannibalising their market who would ordinarily dine in, which defeats their entire purpose for being in business. It’s time for venues to look at ways they can not only survive, but thrive in business and explore better ways to attract new customers and maintain their existing patronage.
The order ahead app Tabletime is an excellent alternative for businesses to consider. It offers customers a convenient ordering method but still maintains the customer interaction with staff. Customers simply order ahead and pick-up, or order from their mobile at the table to avoid lining up and spending time away from their group. By removing the delivery aspect, Tabletime allows venues to keep customers coming in to their venue, so there is still an opportunity to build a face to face relationship.
Below are some of the ways TableTime can help you increase foot traffic back into your venue:
Brand exposure through the marketplace
When you partner with Tabletime, your business will be exposed to a digital marketplace where there is already a captive audience using the platform to search for food. This audience can be made up of your regular customers, as well as new customers who may have never been to your venue before. Whoever they are, the app will serve your restaurant as an option for the patron to dine in if they are located in the vicinity of your venue. And because the platform is free, you essentially expose your brand to a captive market at no cost.
Offer fresh new menus and specials easily
Tabletime makes changing and adding digital menus extremely simple for your staff. All menus can be created and edited online and pushed live to the mobile app in real time. This allows you to keep your menus relevant to the season, or offer specials to your customers quickly and easily. As a result, you always have the ability to offer your existing customers something new and fresh, and potentially even attract new customers who may be interested in the specials you have on offer.
Get to know your customers
Tabletime enables you to get to know your customers by capturing data about who your customers are, when they order and what they order. With this information, you can start to become smarter about the way you structure your menu, the specials you offer and the way you market your business. By leveraging this data to inform your core service offering and also your marketing, you essentially help to drive foot traffic back through the door.
Let TableTime take care of ordering so you can get back to the basics
It’s no secret that restaurant owners are extremely time poor when it comes to running their business and so finding ways to improve efficiency is extremely important. With Tabletime, venue staff can reduce the time taken in processing orders manually by putting the control back to the customer. This allows venue staff to focus on doing the basics well – such as ensuring the restaurant is clean and well presented, and building a rapport with customers in the venue. By allowing the platform to process the orders and payments, the staff are free to dedicate more time to engage with customers and provide them with a better experience. If the basics are done well and customers have the option to order more conveniently, this will ultimately lead to happy customers returning again.
These are just some of the ways that an Order Ahead App like TableTime can bring customers back to your venue. If you want to know more or wish to partner with Tabletime, go to www.TableTime.com.au today.
