Just a few years ago, omnichannel was a concept that was applied mainly by e-commerce and retail brands in an effort to align their channels and offer customers a better experience.
Today, it is a successful operational model that is used in more and more industries, including the restaurant industry.
The omnichannel approach goes further than just being present on multiple sales channels. It means aligning all your channels and making them work together to provide a seamless, streamlined customer journey.
With customers demanding convenience in every aspect of their interactions with your restaurant, it’s on you to provide a consistent brand image and customer journey both online and offline, for dine-in, pick-up, and takeout, and across devices.
That means that however a customer interacts with your restaurant, they will feel looked after and get a consistent experience.
So why should your restaurant embrace omnichannel? Here are 3 advantages of operating a next-generation omnichannel restaurant.
The more channels your restaurant has, the bigger the audience you can reach. Just imagine how many more customers you’ll be able to reach if you start offering delivery, takeaway, or drive-thru.
In the delivery space, especially, you can choose to partner with third-party service providers that each have a large audience of diners already. Working with multiple delivery partners, like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Takeaway.com, etc., allows you to be on multiple platforms and take advantage of their combined reach.
A delivery software solution like Deliverect can help you manage your delivery and online ordering operations more efficiently, making life easier for your staff and ensuring order accuracy. Deliverect consolidates your delivery orders and sends them straight to your POS or delivery manager app. Tickets are sent to the kitchen in a consistent layout.
When implemented correctly, omnichannel means having the right integrations between tech platforms, so you can capture more data in your POS system or delivery manager app. Once you onboard new customers onto your POS, you can collect data and start to use it to retain your customers and build loyalty programs.
As you integrate more channels, you will clean up your customer data and start to collect a lot more of it from your new sources. If used in the right way, this data can help you understand who your customers are and how to serve them better.
Improving your data flow also increases operational efficiency in the front and back office. Connecting Apicbase to Deliverect’s software, for instance, enables automatic syncing of your stock so it gets updated automatically following accepted online orders.
Harnessing the integration, Apicbase also receives sales tickets from Deliverect, so you can gain better insights into your food cost, margins and sales analytics.
When your systems are efficient and your data is clean, you’re also looking after your staff, so they can work more efficiently and focus on what’s most important. Happy, efficient staff will lead to more productivity, higher customer satisfaction, and ultimately, higher revenues.
Providing a consistent brand image and streamlined customer experience is really what the omnichannel strategy for restaurants is all about.
The goal of this approach is to create a seamless experience across all channels and touchpoints, giving the customer the same treatment regardless of how or where they place an order. This fosters brand loyalty and repeat business.
Aligning all your channels streamlines the user experience, but it’s also a valuable asset in customer service and support. Your support team will be able to find a record of the customer’s past interactions, orders and issues in real-time. This makes the buyer journey a lot easier for both your staff and your customers, improving brand loyalty and customer retention.
As digitization transforms the restaurant and food industry, businesses are relying on omnichannel strategies such as online ordering, takeout, delivery, and curbside pickup to encourage (repeat) business.
The challenge is to implement the right systems for your restaurant and get them talking to each other. If you can get this right, you can take advantage of the benefits of the omnichannel approach to provide a seamless customer experience, while optimizing your reach and data flow.
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