Running a restaurant can be challenging. You need to maintain the quality of the food, ensure safety, and maintain hygiene to satisfy your customers.
In today’s post-COVID era, customers are not only coming to your restaurant to dine in, but they are also ordering online for delivery or takeaway. That’s why you need to ensure you have a proper setup for food ordering.
That means you compete not only with other restaurants but also with the cloud kitchen and food truck in your locality. So, you must go the extra mile to become the go-to restaurant for online food ordering.
But maintaining an online food ordering system isn’t as easy as it sounds. This is the particular area where restaurateurs usually slip and make mistakes
Are you making those mistakes? Continue reading to learn about those mistakes and ensure you don’t make any of them.
These are some of the common mistakes restaurant owners should avoid. While some are minor and can be fixed quickly, others may actually harm your business.
Making Your Customers Wait
In the online food ordering system, customers have to wait a bit longer unless they are opting for takeaway. The wait time may vary depending on how far they live from the restaurant.
If your food arrives later than the estimated time, you will likely receive a poor rating and even lose a customer.
That’s why it’s important that you consider the time it takes to reach the customers’ address from your restaurant and include it with the estimated delivery time. Also, consider an extra five minutes for any unexpected delays.
Not Having a User-Friendly Platform
With lots of options and a lack of patience, the last thing your customer will tolerate is a faulty platform or app.
Customers are generally in a hurry when they order food online. That’s why it’s crucial that your online food ordering platform is simple and easy to navigate.
Ensure your food-ordering platform (app and website) has a simple, clean design with a prominently displayed order button. If the platform or app doesn’t offer your customers that ease of ordering, they will likely leave and never come back.
Not Having A Special Delivery Menu
You don’t want to deliver a hot beverage and want it to arrive cold and split at the customer’s house, do you?
Given certain food items’ ingredients, quality, and states, it’s better not to put them in your takeaway or delivery menu.
As you know, your online orders will have to pass a certain amount of time before reaching customers’ plates, so it’s crucial to understand how the menu needs to be optimised.
You can easily solve this issue by creating a different menu for your online orders. Make sure you put items that are easy to deliver and can be adequately packed.
Ignoring Customer Response
One of the major challenges customers face during online orders is unresponsive customer support. If customers face any issues, such as delayed delivery to low food quality, they can turn to you for a solution..
If you don’t address their issues on time or if your app is too complex for customers to file a complaint, they are highly likely to be frustrated and leave your platform.
You should provide multiple options for your customers for any queries or complaints, such as live chat, emails, or phone calls. Ensure your tone is polite and professional, and strive to redress the issue immediately. You can also offer compensatory food items to ensure customer satisfaction.
Limited Payment Option
Customers become frustrated when ordering food online because they do not have enough payment options. If your portal only provides limited payment options, it will be difficult for your customers to place orders and make payments.
For customers’ convenience, make sure your website and app support multiple payment options, such as credit card, debit card, digital wallet, and even cash on delivery.
Not Making Reordering Easy for Customers
One of the many reasons people order food online is the convenience it provides. Most of the time, your customers will end up ordering their favourite item again and again.
If your platform or app doesn’t have a reordering option, they will have to go through the same hassle of finding the items every time they order from you.
You can fix this problem by displaying the items they have ordered recently with a reorder button. It will let them reorder their favourite items with just a few clicks.
Messy Packaging
Packaging is one of the most crucial factors to consider when it comes to online delivery. As a restaurant owner, the last thing you want your customers to receive is a damaged package with spilt food.
Bad packaging not only makes a wrong impression on your customers but also degrades the quality of the food during delivery.
That’s why you need to pay attention to customised packaging, which is presentable, preserves the quality of the food, and contributes to a pleasant customer experience.
Not Using Digital Marketing
When customers make online orders, they provide personal information such as phone numbers and email addresses.
If you, as a restaurant owner, don’t use this data to your advantage, you will miss the opportunity to drive repeat sales and build a long-lasting relationship with your customers.
You can use their personal information to create personalised campaigns. For example, if one of your customers orders only during weekends, you can send them a discount coupon that they can use during weekdays. Doing so will make them order during weekdays and increase your sales.
Wrapping Up
Running a restaurant with online food ordering systems requires different strategies to ensure more orders and foster loyalty.
Since the number of customers ordering food online is growing day by day, it’s essential that you become extra cautious about not making the mistakes mentioned above.
If you overlook any of these mistakes, your customers may have a bad impression of you and even leave. That’s why you must take strategic steps to ensure a satisfactory online food ordering system for your restaurant. If you are looking for a one-stop solution for your restaurant’s online food ordering system, look no further than ChefOnline. They will provide you with a solution that will cater to all your needs.
