Boost Restaurant Customer Satisfaction With Online Ordering
Your restaurant’s dishes earn rave reviews, and your service is second to none. You monitor and respond to your online comments, and you don’t skimp on the small touches, like offering free bread and greeting regulars by name. So what else can you do to boost your restaurant customer satisfaction?
One answer, surprisingly, lies in your to-go business: Implementing your own online ordering system will improve your customer experience and strengthen loyalty.
While your diners undoubtedly enjoy coming in to your restaurant to eat, takeout is an easy option for occasions when customers are pressed for time or feel like staying in. When that’s the case, they want the convenience of ordering online.
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In fact, 41% of adults of all ages (and 55% of millennials) say that the availability of online ordering makes them more likely to choose one restaurant over another. Even older demographic groups have embraced online ordering: 60% of baby boomers like to order online, and 40% want to order through restaurants’ mobile ordering apps. Here’s why customers love online ordering so much.
Online ordering increases restaurant customer satisfaction in 3 key ways.
#1: Customers can order when it’s convenient for them.
Online ordering gives your customers the convenience of ordering when and how it’s easiest for them. Rather than waiting on hold, your diners can just go to your website, app, or Google profile and place an order when they have the time.
If someone is in a rush and wants to pick up their favorite weeknight dinner on the way home from work, they can order ahead while they have a break at 3 and swing by your restaurant right at 6. Since everything is prepaid, all they have to do is dig in and enjoy.
#2: Customers have the time and ability to pick exactly what they want.
Without those rushed, noisy phone calls, your takeout customers can order out what they really want. Well-designed online menus that lay out modifiers and add-ons give them the ability to get specific. Meanwhile, the privacy of online ordering encourages customers to indulge a bit more.
A Duke University study found that when it comes to ordering takeout, online customers order larger, more complicated dishes than phone customers. The study’s author noted “We order very simple things when there are a lot of people around us, but then when it’s online, anonymous, we make different choices.” Good news for your restaurant, too: Online customers in this study spent 20% more than in-store diners.
#3: With online ordering, there are fewer errors.
Online ordering also helps increase restaurant customer satisfaction simply by reducing errors. No one wants to open up a takeout bag to find the wrong sauce or a missing entrée, especially when they’re back at home and it’s too late to remedy the problem. When customers select and confirm their orders on-screen, and those instructions are clearly communicated to your kitchen, there’s just less room for misinterpretation.
Plus, customers want to order online directly from your restaurant.
It might seem like it’s just other restaurant owners and industry insiders who have opinions about online ordering providers, but your customers also care. They don’t just want to order online—they want to order online from you.
The majority of customers already order straight from restaurants’ websites or apps instead of through third-party delivery apps, largely because it’s more convenient. Moreover, when customers are educated about the destructive commissions that third-party delivery marketplaces charge, they strongly prefer to order direct from restaurants in order to support them.
It’s time to give your customers what they want by getting your own commission-free online ordering system with ChowNow. Schedule a demo with an online ordering specialist today to get started.