Do People Order More Food Online than Over the Phone?

When your customers order over the phone, have you ever noticed that they often feel rushed – and that your employees hurry them through their orders so they can get back to preparing food? Not only will online ordering greatly add to the convenience of your delivery and carry-out ordering process for both your customers and your employees – but it will also increase the amount of food that your customers order as well.  Online ordering allows your customers to take their time when they order, and it gives them an online interface so you can push them towards specials, combos, and upsells.

Allow Customers to Take their Time

When your customers order over the phone, they have to speak to one of your employees in order to place your order. Even if your employees are perfectly trained, the stresses and speed of restaurant work means that your customers are going to feel slightly rushed when they order over the phone – so most people that order over the phone have their order together and you don’t have a good opportunity to tell them specials or to convince them to add additional items onto their order.  Even companies that have “scripts” for their employees to follow when they answer calls (things like asking if the customer would like to add a desert at a promotional price), the scripts aren’t always followed to the letter – and the over-the-phone transaction can come off as a bit harried and impersonal. When the option is provided, more than 70% of customers prefer to order online rather than over the phone – a testament to the reduced complexity of ordering online, and the ability for customers to manage their order without feeling rushed. This is even more important when your customers are ordering large orders, such as for catering and parties, and ordering over the phone would take a long time… and still wouldn’t end up being as accurate as if the customer was able to just select from your mobile website or application.

Provide the Whole Menu

According to Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub, a majority of food orders in the United States are still placed with paper menus and phone calls. This method of ordering makes it difficult for restaurants to make changes to their menus, since any change would require a re-printing of the entire menu and would confuse patrons that order from the store with the older paper menus. Paper menus are also difficult to navigate quickly, and they can’t be “programmed” like online menus to show specials and to automatically calculate the value of promotions and combos. Your online ordering process will put your up to date menu right on the mobile devices of your customers – so they can order with confidence, knowing that the prices and the menu items are all correct. You can also create combos, promotions, specials, and discounts – and you can rotate them as you need to, so your menu is never stale and you can respond quickly to what your customers want.