Sponsored by MENU Technologies
Amplified by the endless COVID-19 lockdowns, today’s consumers view convenience as a priority when choosing a brand to shop with. According to a NASDAQ survey, 83% of consumers said convenience while shopping is more important now than five years ago. With life slowly returning to normal, shoppers are finding themselves busier than ever and are turning to retailers that help save them time and effort.
When it comes to the restaurant industry, there is not a single technology more convenient to consumers than digital ordering solutions. Digital ordering solutions provide consumers with the convenience of ordering their favorite meals from the comfort of their own homes, or wherever they may be. A 2021 Statista report on the number of digital consumers shows that roughly 230.5 million Americans (about 70% of the U.S. population) were online shoppers in 2021.
As in-store shopping becomes a less viable option to a large segment of consumers, brands of all shapes and sizes today need the combination of enterprise-level front-of-house solutions with stand-alone back-office eCommerce solutions from a single provider, because a single handshake matters. Digital ordering solutions, like MENU, allow restaurant guests to order their favorite meals directly from their preferred channel, including mobile, web, kiosk, or conveniently scanning QR codes.
What is MENU you may be asking? MENU is the state-of-the-art omnichannel eCommerce platform that powers all digital ordering channels – from fully customizable first-party channels on mobile, web, or kiosk, to any third-party ordering channel, such as delivery marketplaces. These capabilities enable restaurants to improve accuracy and efficiency as well as boost sales and enhance the customer experience across all ordering channels.
Consumers today crave a consistent and personalized experience whether they are shopping in-stores or off-premises. This means that brands must provide the same inventory, pricing, branding, offers, and more throughout all ordering channels to fully satisfy their guests. With MENU, brands can create that consistent customer journey across all ordering channels by properly branding mobile apps, web apps, and kiosk solutions, as well as covering all order types and providing add-ons, combos, and cross-selling. MENU creates consistent, convenient, and smooth digital ordering and payment experiences, whether it is via mobile, web, kiosk, or at a point of sale.
Additionally, as consumers interact with brands across various channels, they expect to have the same personalized experience everywhere, from their order history for easy reordering to their payment methods and product recommendations – no matter if they are on the go and ordering from their smartphone, in the office and ordering from their computer, or already in the store, ordering at the kiosk or POS. Delivering this experience allows brands to drive sales as well as holistically understand their consumer across all online and offline touchpoints.
Although multiple shopping channels improve the customer experience, on the other side of the counter, omnichannel shopping presents significant challenges for restaurant staff. With so many consumers choosing off-premises ordering over traditional in-store shopping, most restaurant brands lack a POS system with integrations for supporting all digital ordering channels.
A significant challenge restaurant operators have with online ordering solutions and multiple shopping channels is that staff members must manually enter orders into the point-of-sale system because not all integrations are on one device. Before the age of cloud-based point-of-sale systems, restaurant staff would utilize disparate solutions, like legacy POS systems, forcing them to use multiple tablets and screens during the ordering process because these solutions do not support a range of integrations on one device. Not to mention restaurant operators would have to use multiple systems to manage menus, resulting in errors and inconsistencies between product availability and channels. The task of meticulously switching between screens for manual order injection and menu management is a growing pain for restaurant brands because these once-necessary tasks were incredibly time-consuming and extremely error-prone, resulting in longer customer wait times for meals and decreased order accuracy. Although these woes may sound minuscule to the untrained eye, order efficiency and accuracy are the key ingredients to creating the ideal customer experience.
Now, with the MENU and Brink POS integration, restaurant brands can receive all their digital orders from first-party and third-party channels in their POS, avoiding the hassle of utilizing multiple tablets and eliminating errors resulting from manual order entry. With MENU Link, brands will have a seamlessly integrated mainframe from POS to order, allowing them to manage third-party ordering channels from a single backend system. Restaurant brands can also boost order volumes and enhance profitability with a fully integrated all-in-one Dispatch suite, designed for brands to engage with and manage their own fleet or third-party delivery drivers.
A tech overload at the front-of-house station is no longer necessary when you have solutions that not only complement one another but seamlessly work to streamline all first and third-party channels on one interface, ensuring data consistency across all order touchpoints. Not only does this improve the employee experience, as staff members have a single process to manage and prepare all orders regardless of the channel they were placed through, but it also improves the customer experience because guests can order from preferred channels accurately and efficiently. Removing the manual order entry process allows restaurant brands to focus on what they do best: providing an exceptional customer experience every time.
As online ordering continues to become the preferred way restaurant guests order their favorite meals, brands must implement innovative and convenient solutions, like MENU and Brink POS, that streamline the ordering process. Operators that choose to adopt these new integrations will ultimately benefit from the continuous innovation of our product lines, including new powerful tools like MENU Link, loyalty integrations, omnichannel support, and of course, Dispatch suite. Welcome to the next evolution of your restaurant brand, and it's all coming soon from MENU and PAR Technology.
To learn more about MENU’s digital ordering solutions, visit www.menu.app.
