Every day, restaurants face many problems, such as tracking customers, orders, inventory, and how much demand is expected, which creates more problems. The best way to enhance restaurant workflow is to employ an end-to-end management system.
60% Of restaurants go out of business in the first year, and 80% do so within five years. Despite these sad figures, 20% of restaurants do well in the long run. Restaurant owners either ignore warning signs or make numerous mistakes.
You can expand your restaurant business by learning from the mistakes of others and developing a solid business plan. There are numerous reasons why restaurants struggle to take orders. Some common issues and causes are:
1. Not Having Enough Funds
The cost of operating a restaurant is high. Food, labor, rent, utilities, and delivery costs are included. When an order is delivered, commissions are taken out. Many restaurant owners need help figuring out where to cut these costs. One way to mitigate these issues is through a perpetual online ordering system like OrderEm.
2. Complex Menu
A lengthy and comprehensive menu will confuse customers and reduce profits. It is good to consider how many items are too many for a good menu and how few are too few. Fewer dishes done well are more appealing. A more extended menu usually takes longer and requires more ingredients, requiring you to purchase more. Know how to craft an exquisite menu for your restaurant and increase sales with a modern online menu.
3. Ineffective Pricing and Planning
The price of each item on a restaurant's menu needs to cover all the restaurant's costs and make a profit. Your online menu and checkout process should be optimized to increase sales, look great, and operate flawlessly. So, use checkout upsells to improve the average order value as much as possible.
4. Not Keeping Track of Expenses
For restaurants to get customers, they need good marketing, which requires a good budget or new skills to reach their target market. Most restaurant websites and online ordering systems must track where customers come from. It's recommended to check the reports from the source of every online sale often. Use data to make business decisions and reports to keep track of your progress.
5. Lack of Interpreting Reports and Analytics
Restaurants can also fail due to management's inability to interpret industry metrics. Because of this misinterpretation, they overspend the company's budget, lowering profit margins.
6. Customer Experience
Every business must meet the needs of its customers. Customer satisfaction is the job of the delivery partners and the restaurant staff who work at the point of origin. Therefore, bridging the gap between delivery partners and restaurant owners requires a lot of work so that they can cooperate and proactively meet customer expectations.
If they have poor online shopping experiences, 88% of consumers say they will never return to the site again. Because of this difficulty in using the site, 70% of online businesses fail. Currently, UX testing is only being done by about half of businesses. 53% of visitors will abandon a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load, and 75% of the time, people will form an opinion about the legitimacy of a website based on how it looks.
7. Offer Gift Cards
Gift cards are an excellent way to entice loyal customers to increase their purchases and spread the word about your business to their friends and family. Purchasing and using gift cards through your direct order system should be simple. Make sure that gift cards are available on your website and function flawlessly online and offline.
8. No Option for Easy Tips
The ability of a restaurant to acquire and retain happy, motivated employees is critical to its success. Managing flawed software, failing hardware, and complicated integrations makes their job harder. Takeaway customers tip less, if at all, which is why workers hate online orders.
9. Unable to Manage Reviews
People who eat out today look at the restaurant's ratings and reviews before they go there. 91% of people will use a business with good reviews. Most people believe in restaurant reviews. Good reviews mean that the food and service are both excellent. Restaurants that care about their reputations must pay attention to customer feedback and implement strategies to encourage more diners to give positive reviews.
Get customer feedback often and use it to make your services better. Reviews have a significant impact on how people choose where to go. Customers come back when they see good reviews.
10. Lack Of Marketing
It's just as important to market your restaurant as it is to serve delicious food and provide excellent service. You will only gain business if you market your restaurant correctly. One of the main reasons most restaurants fail is that most restaurateurs commit this enormous error.
Conclusion
The good news is that you can avoid everything on this list if you try hard enough. A good way to order food is the most important thing you can do to grow your restaurant business.
The all-in-one platform for independent restaurants and a one-stop solution to all your needs, Orderem.com is a direct online ordering system for your restaurant that is so easy to use and intuitive that customers will choose to order from you instead of a third-party app. We've built an online marketing platform for your restaurant that includes everything you'll need to market it online.
OrderEm is an all-encompassing platform that will assist you in marketing your online business and managing your orders, sales, inventory, and other crucial data. You can exert complete command over everything using just one centralized dashboard.
With our highly configurable online ordering system, customers will find it very simple to place orders through your website, Facebook page, or mobile app.
Sell anywhere, online or in person, and simplify online ordering by providing takeout delivery, curbside pick-up, and any other services you can think of. OrderEm can provide effective marketing strategies and digital marketing tools, allowing you to acquire new customers and increase the number of repeat buyers.
OrderEm is designed to simplify managing a remote business by enabling users to monitor orders, payments, and inventory within a single dashboard. It also comes with professional templates and themes to choose from and lets you set up a unique brand identity.
OrderEm offers all the technology necessary to compete in the mobile and internet economies and provides the best customer service for restaurant software based in the United States. We are available every day of the week, 24 hours a day, including holidays. Not only that, but we also provide free coaching and events monthly. We can be reached by phone or through live chat, with support available around the clock.
In a nutshell, OrderEm streamlines the management of your online business, boosts your revenue, and assists you in developing a distinctive brand identity. It is a platform that meets all your online business requirements.