As we watched the world begin to change, we approached Caspian Grill to encourage a better web presence anticipating the shift of consumer dependence on online resources. After launching the website a few months ago, we have enjoyed watching Caspian Grill thrive.
Put Your Menu Out There
For restaurants, having your menu present on your website is critical to attracting customers. Make sure the menu is easy to locate. Be sure to included pictures and pricing on your menu. Reports found 70% of consumers say they’d rather order directly from a restaurant than a third party. With 60% of U.S. consumers ordering takeout or delivery once a week, the fees charged by third party entities like EatStreet and Grubhub begin to add up. These consumers would rather conduct direct transactions with the restaurant, avoid fees, and support the restaurant instead of third-party entities.
Offer Online Ordering
Having an online point of sale has become expected from restaurant consumers over the past 19 months. Digital ordering and delivery have grown 300% faster than dine-in traffic since 2014 and orders placed via smartphone and mobile apps have become a $38 billion industry. Further, customers who placed an online order with a restaurant were found to visit that restaurant 67% more frequently than those who don’t. Customers using their smartphones or mobile apps to place orders make up 11% of sales in quick-service restaurants alone. The number of restaurants actively using Online Ordering increased by 169% from February 2020 to April 2020. Consumers know they have options available with the convenience of online ordering and are more likely to gravitate towards those restaurants. In order to compete with other businesses in your market, online ordering is essential to attracting and keeping customers. Considering that 34% of consumers with spend between $25 and $50 on a single order, online ordering can be a determining factor in the success of your restaurant.
Do It In HTML
Using a PDF menu seems like a simple way to get your menu online, but restaurants miss out on business because they are not showing up in online searches. Having your menu in HTML means that your restaurant is visible to consumers who are using search engines to find area restaurants or searching for a particular cuisine. This use of key words will put your restaurant at the top of the search results increasing visibility and making your website easier to locate. Internet searching only increased during the pandemic. As an easily accessible entity of information, consumers turned to the internet to find restaurants instead of going to them directly which means many customers are looking at menus online before they decide on what they want for dinner.
Talk About Your COVID-19 Safety Protocols
As more and more people are getting vaccinated and the world is starting to reopen in many ways, it is important to continue to address the measure taken to keep customers safe.
Be sure to include your business’s COVID-19 safety procedures on your website. This tells your customers that you are making their health and safety a top priority. In turn, they will feel safer choosing to do business with you. Continue to update these measures according to the CDC, FDA, and OSHA addressing the latest guidance concerning dining indoors, updated mask use, employee vaccinations, cleaning and sanitizing, hand washing, policy for ill or exposed employees, and ventilation practices.
Tell Your Story
Your website allows you the opportunity to tell your story. People want to connect more than ever, and food has always allowed people that avenue to connect others and their culture. The recipes that made it to restaurants were cultivated in family heritage, and that rich history is something that your customers want to connect with. Use your website to share this story with our customers.
Final Thoughts
Caspian Grill is an example of how the restaurant industry is permanently pivoting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The food delivery industry in the United States is estimated to have generated $26,527 million in 2020 and statistics show that 69.9 million people in the US will regularly use ordering platforms by 2024. For a business in an industry that has faced dramatic change recently, these are numbers that cannot be ignored.
