Online Ordering has moved from a nice feature for a restaurant to offer their online brand to a necessity that customers are expecting.

With more and more customers engaging with restaurants before they ever step into the restaurant, it’s more important than ever that restaurants have a unified brand online and that online ordering comes with it. The question that often comes up next is:

How do I get online ordering right for my restaurant and for my customers?

• With so many types of online ordering solutions what should I look out for?
• Does the online ordering solution fit my restaurant or am I trying to fit my restaurant into the solution?
• What’s the online ordering experience I should put in front of my customers?

With so many types of online ordering solutions what should I look out for?

Online ordering should be a seamless experience for your customers and be powerful enough to fit into your restaurant. Your customers shouldn’t be needlessly downloading apps, having to search for your restaurant among other restaurants in your area or have disconnects between where they view your menu and where they place an order.

Your restaurant needs a solution which is flexible enough fit into your restaurant, work the way you work, grows to meet the demands of your restaurant and centralizes what your brand does online.

Powerful enough to handle how your restaurant works, simple enough that your customers can place an order in less than a minute.

Does the online ordering solution fit my restaurant or am I trying to fit my restaurant into the solution?

Don’t underestimate the need to have a solution fit your restaurant. Find the solution which offers the customizations to control all aspects of the online ordering experience (both for you and your customers) and works with your restaurant to get it right.

Some things to keep in mind when finding the right online ordering solution:

• Can you define ordering types (delivery, pickup, curbside)
• You choose how to get notified of an order and get notifications at any point in the order process
• It’s your customers, so you choose how they get notified
• If you offer delivery can you fully define delivery zones (easily draw on a map)
• Not only can your restaurant control the payment types but funds are released to your restaurant the same day
• Efficient order handling ensures that time is not wasted when viewing or managing orders
• Easy and powerful menu builder so changing prices, removing product from ordering, takes seconds

What’s the online ordering experience I should put in front of my customers?

At the end of the day online ordering is for your customers, to make it easier for them to order from your restaurant. Find the online ordering solution which best fits into the places where customers are already viewing your menu. Are they on your website? Then let them order without leaving your website. Did they find you through social? Ordering should be one-click away at most.

Remove the barriers that make ordering cumbersome for your customers. No need to download an app per se — they should be able to order from any device (phone, tablet, kindle, laptop) with the same experience, fewest steps possible to place the order and make a payment.

Online ordering should be simple and intuitive for your customers. No need to “figure it out”.

For more delivery solutions, check out our One Source Restaurant Operations guide.