The Four Important Reasons why Restaurants should have a Website with Food Ordering Application

Food Industry is clogged with delivery apps and platforms, few of which have emerged to become mammoths that almost make it mandatory for the Restaurants to join in.

The fact that these Apps have successfully been able to bring business to these Restaurants, has been a strong reason for such strong subscription to it. As a matter of fact, who will not like to avoid the hassles in setting up and managing a delivery network? Having a delivery team, investing on the delivery vehicles and managing adherence to delivery standards and norms, has always been a strong concern in the Restaurant Industry. In the wake of all these, delivery aggregators definitely offer an opportunity, though at the cost of exorbitant commissions.  

However, should we look around for the elephant in the room which is, if this is enough for the Restaurant Business? Are the Restaurants missing out on Branding in this run for economies?

Delivery aggregators are cluttered and offers almost no space for Restaurants to focus on brand building. So besides investing on the physical space, Restaurants need to invest in the online space. This refers to having an engaging, creative and brand building Website, equipped with a food ordering application.

Why should every Restaurant have its own website, preferably with it a Food Ordering & Delivery Application?

1. To Communicate
2. To Build the Brand
3. To Save on Costs
4. To grow Customer Loyalty

Objective 1: To Communicate

Every time you open the Delivery Aggregator app, you will get a list flashing right in front of you that shares a list that has the Restaurants you ordered from recently and the dishes that you ordered recently. Each List item would flash any Price offering it would have for you.

Think of it, that doesn’t the Biryani Joint whom you have been regularly endorsing, have nothing to tell you except about the 20% discount. As a Customer, there is no personalized Thank You message or Informative message that you receive from this Restaurant. This just goes out to say that the Restaurant is not particularly interested in indulging in any communication with you.

Yes, a point to be noted is that the delivery aggregator does communicate, but the tone of the communication is more from a delivery perspective and absolutely nil from the “Food’s Experience” perspective. If that is the case, then the Thai Restaurant ends up losing you for the next time since there was no direct interaction where you could inform that the prawns in the Yam wun sen kung dish were not that succulent as desired.

Objective 2: To Build your Brand

Food is a business that should satiate the heart more than the Stomach. And fairly so, Eating Out or for that matter, Eating from Outside is an experience which is predominantly shouldered by the food than the ambience.

This is not to write off the contribution made by the ambience towards the experience. But food is the key rider of a Restaurant’s performance. Having said that, food is also cuisine and taste based which means that the likelihood that a particular cuisine or dish is chosen is driven by factors beyond the realm of anticipation.

All this leads to the need of Brand Building to ensure that the hungry customer decides in favour of eating from your Restaurant as opposed to the other choices. This is possible if there is a distinctivity and consistency created with regards to the Restaurant. For example, if it is a South Indian Restaurant then let’s see what could be the reasons of selecting Restaurant A as opposed to the 10 other choices in your vicinity.  One, that A has to be distinctly best than the others and second, that A has been consistently distinct in the past. This can lead to continued patronage, the ultimate desire.

Now it is one thing to be distinct and consistent and yet another thing to promote that you are distinct and consistent. This is exactly where Branding spreads its wings and the fact that it needs the space to do the same. If a restaurant has its own website, then there is an individual platform where a Restaurant can put forth attractive and informative promotional messages.

A Website can offer a plethora of options to put engaging Call-To-Action points that can translate into an order. At this point, if the Website is equipped with an Ordering Application then the visitor is encouraged to place an order.

Objective 3: To save on commissions

Restaurants have evidently benefited from the orders received from all these delivery aggregator apps. However the trade-off with the huge commissions cannot be overlooked.

Restaurants end up shelling as high as 20-25% of the bill amount as commission. In case of new restaurants, the commission can be even higher. This definitely distorts the cost structure. A web application or mobile app can deal with this concern to a considerable extent. Of course, there is an element of investing in a delivery structure, but with scalability the benefits will extend to the future.

Objective 4: Customer Loyalty

Most often than not, we feel that the Restaurants we approach for in a delivery aggregator is not communicating with us. As a patron if you try to draw a perspective, you shall realize that there is rarely a personalized conversation that the Restaurant tries to have with you.

This goes out to say that the Restaurant in an aggregator platform is almost reduced to an option to choose from, and not as a destination. This leads to a lack of interest on the Restaurant’s part in valuing my continued patronage.

With the right online food ordering application, a restaurant is able to generate reports of Customers, their frequencies, order preferences and behavior. These information can act as a feed to Customer Relationship Management strategies directed at building continued patronage.

A right Technological Partner is a key in arriving at this holistic solution. An extensive solution with careful planning of a Website and combining the food ordering application with it is paramount for these objectives to be achieved. These days service providers work with the Clients to deliver the most extensive solutions tailor-made to specific requirements.