If you own or operate a restaurant with a great reputation, part of your success may be linked to your stellar customer service or your own attractive nature. People may love to walk through your doors to see your smiling face, eat great food and enjoy great attention. However, you may be missing out on a lot of opportunities as more people than ever now like to shop online and then eat at home. So, should you sign up for one of those omnipresent food delivery systems or design your own online ordering solution?

Working with the Big Guys

There's no doubt that some of the better-known food delivery systems have taken off and especially during the pandemic. They market a high-end, interactive website that allows people to choose their preferred food, search for providers and then pay through the app itself. The system will then send a courier to your restaurant to pick up the meal and deliver it to the client.

Significant Fees

However, you certainly need to pay a rather significant fee if you want to take advantage of those services. Also, you won't have direct access to the customer, which is far from ideal for many people.

Marketing Opportunities

Restaurants survive and thrive based on customer connection. This translates into shrewd marketing, and if you had your own online ordering system connected to your website, you could then enrol them into a loyalty program. With their permission, you could keep in touch and offer specials from time to time or give them some advice, such as how to prepare their own meal using one of your secret recipes.

Captive Audience

If you did a good job and your customers were satisfied, they would be more likely to book directly with you whenever they felt those pangs of hunger in the future. In this case, they wouldn't use that other app and be tempted to buy from another restaurant entirely.

Point of Sale Integration

If you can develop your online ordering solution, you can link it to whatever point of sale system you have in place. This could help you with ordering and fulfilment and make it easier from an accounting point of view.

Considering Options

Take a look at online ordering solutions developed for independent restaurants and see if they would work for you. You might even want to run one alongside membership of those full delivery systems. Either way, take advantage of those who may be looking to eat at home rather than on-site.

For more tips and advice, visit a restaurant in your area.