Digital Menus – The Key to Elevating Your Brand in 2022
We are over halfway into the year, and unfortunately the challenges we saw at the end of last year have presented new obstacles as the year has gone on. Fortunately, though, the hospitality industry is finding relief with the help of technology.
One of the main technologies helping the hospitality industry today is digital menus. Digital menus help your restaurant score big with benefits ranging from social media engagement and on the fly updates to flexible, more personal gifting to boost your gift card, customer loyalty, and guest retention programs. With a host of seamless add-ons, digital menus become as flexible as you need them to be in order to combat inflation, staff shortages, and supply chain challenges.
If that wasn’t enough, digital menus launch your business to the top of the industry to both retain talent and delight guests. Here’s how:
Activate Your Social Network
You only have seconds to capture people’s attention, and in today’s noisy world, it’s becoming harder than ever to make them count. Digital menus change that.
Digital menu programs such as BYOM streamline your marketing and get people talking. With features such as mobile-friendly formats and instant updates, guests and staff alike benefit from the seamless workflow.
Whether you need to update pricing to keep your margins or announce a last minute special to avoid food waste, digital menus give you the flexibility you need to keep your social network well-informed without extra effort from your team.
Holidays and events coming up? Digital menus are fast and flexible for the ever changing restaurant industry. Easily add holiday and event information, complete with engaging images to draw guests in.
Plus, your menu can be shared from one user to another via built-in sharing capabilities, empowering your followers to spread the word in real time. Maximize this feature by sharing your live menus in emails, on your website, through reservation texts, and more.
Images, Descriptions + Menu Design
Not only are digital menus easy to use, but they can be designed to look like a real menu (not a piece of technology). The menu look maintains the dining ambiance that guests know and love, while enhanced features such as enticing images and informative descriptions encourage upselling and provide an overall enhanced guest experience.
Guests will never be left wondering what their order will look like because a beautiful image of the dish is provided. They can skip Yelp and Instagram for their inside look and go straight to the source!
As sales go up, so do server gratuities. The benefits of digital menus go beyond simply guest experience and operations to include attracting and retaining talent as well. In today’s market, digital menus are a competitive advantage on multiple fronts.
Add Virtual Gifting
A great addition to any digital menu is virtual gifting. Guests will enjoy this new way of giving gifts and it helps bring in more revenue for the restaurant. This not only elevates your brand in big ways, but it’s an amazing way to help showcase gifting in a new light.
Better than the typical online or egift card, virtual gifting is a new sustainable and personal way to give a custom gift. It provides an experience that plastic gift cards can’t offer and it’s something different for the consumer to enjoy. Add it to your menu and incorporate it as a part of your loyalty program—there are so many different ways to utilize digital gifting!
With the help of tablet menu rollouts and virtual gifting, you can take your restaurant’s brand to whole new heights.
These programs are budget-flexible: Start with just online menus, add the gift card integration to add a new revenue stream to your social media, or introduce tablet menus in increments to fit your needs. Financing options such as leasing and vendor support are also often available for restaurants to receive the benefits of tablet menus before they have the upfront budget for a fully digital menu program.
Curious to learn more about the best start for your restaurant? Our team of experts is well-versed in hybrid and fully digital programs and is happy to help. Contact us today to see the difference using digital menus will make for your brand:
