Off-premise dining – Part 2 – Online Ordering Portal
Off-premise dining – Part 2 – Online Ordering Portal
One part of the off-premise dining experience is the ordering process. Other workflows are coming around it. The ordering process should be seamless and easy to follow for your customer. Same time, it should take lots of information from the customers. And it will take some works in your restaurant.
When I say lots of works, I mean promoting your ordering portal. And the actions take place behind the scene, as well as digital marketing.
Online ordering portal
The online ordering (OLO) system provides the digital way to customers to order food. The OLO might sit on your website, or a third party might host it. A customer can order from a desktop computer, a tablet, or a mobile phone. The portals can work either through an internet browser, or an App.
You are involved in every step of the order process when you use your OLO Portal. From setting up the menu to facilitating the order, as well as processing the payment. You are responsible for communicating with your customers. Like, answering the calls, and updating the order status, are all your responsibilities. And your OLO system should have the capabilities to handle these functions.
We can define two separate workflows in OLO for the customers and restaurants.
The customer side workflow is as follows:
- The Customer login to the ordering portal
- The customer fills up the information and delivery address
- The Customer punches order in
- The customer chose the payment method and sent/complete the process
- The customer can call the restaurant for modification after processing the order
The restaurant side of the workflow is as follows:
- Once the customer completes the payment in the portal you receive the order
- If your OLO portal integrates with your restaurant POS, the order should appear on the POS screen.
- OLO system should post the received order to the kitchen display or kitchen printer
- The kitchen ticket should show the order type, like take out or delivery for the packing process
- Restaurant pack and dispatch the order to the customer
- If the POS and OLO are integrated, the customer payment should appear in the POS. If the two systems are separate, you need to complete the payment in your POS.
- The driver should notify the cashier at a contactless payment at the delivery point. You will have a smoother payment process if your payment system integrates with your POS.
- Your OLO system should be able to show the status of the order to the customer
The OLO feature should support the least workflow I mentioned above. You will have an easier time with digital marketing if your OLO system provides more features, and collects more data.
Core features in customer side
One critical part of an OLO system is the user interface. The customer should punch orders in the shortest steps. Any complication on the user screen will make them leave the portal!
The speed of loading the portal front page and reaching to the menu is critical. The front page and menu page should be optimized for the best speed.
The next critical feature of the OLO is navigation capabilities. Navigation of the menu items should be accessible on all devices. Item selection, defining the quantity, and modifying the selected item should be effortless.
Your customer leaves the contact information and address for the delivery process. Your OLO system should have a CRM process to handle customer information. You can have better market segmentation if you collect more data from your customers.
Customers might order through social media, messaging systems, and chatbots. The OLO can collect more information from the customers if it integrates with different ordering channels.
One of the ways to integrate with social media is to allow the customers to register and log-in in your OLO through a social media captive login process. In this way, you will have customers’ validated information. The customers will have a faster registration process. And you will improve your social media presence.
I repeat the speed of the entire OLO process is one of the primary keys to success in the off-premise dining.
It is helpful to provide the order type to the customers. Customers should be able to select delivery or pick up, as well as the restaurant location to pick the order. This feature will help you in packing. And, you can consider it as an extra service to the customers.
Your OLO system needs to provide a location setting feature to your customer. Your system needs to either handle the order routing to a branch or let the customer pick the location.
Again, we are trying to create the best possible experience for the off-premise dining. It’s better to select the order type and pickup location at the beginning of the ordering.
Same as order type, the customer should have options to select the payment mode. There are many payment portals available in the market. Each of the portals also has individual costing.
Some of the online payment processing like PayPal, Venmo, and Google pay might cost less than the local payment processors. But, you need to see which online payment is popular in the market and available to the customers.
Core features in the restaurant side
The way the customer access to the portal to put order needs to be flexible. Accessing the website from a desktop is one option. If the ordering portal is developed as an adaptive website, then the customer can access the same ordering platform from mobile or tablet. In this case, a simple internet browser is enough for the ordering. This method costs you less than developing and deploying an OLO App.
Having an OLO APP is attractive to some restaurateurs. Technically, it is possible to cover all essential features of OLO in both apps and a Web page. But still, some restaurateurs prefer Apps for brand awareness. The real question is, how many APP a customer should download on a mobile to order from restaurants? This point is up to debate!
Another features an OLO system should provide the driver management features. In the best-case scenario, driver management should contain the following features:
- Optimizing the driver timing
- Tracking the driver location
- Providing the destinations map to the drivers
- Interaction capabilities between the drivers and the restaurant’s dispatcher
- Contact-less payment processing
- And, quick customer feedback collection on the delivery spot
Besides the online ordering portal, the customer might call for a delivery order. Having an integrated caller ID module with the POS and OLO is helpful.
Adding all the possible ordering channels means a sophisticated OLO solution. And that means more costs for the technology. To smooth the costing of an OLO system, you need to find a SaaS system to operate the OLO.
As explained, the OLO system collects lots of data. Having the capabilities to analyze the collected data is the next step in your OLO process. Analyzing the data for market segmentation is one use-case of your data. The MIS (Management Information System) to control costs is another use-case. Understanding the customers’ taste will help you with menu engineering for off-premise dining. Leverage the data will help you to achieve a digital transformation. The decision-making process, based on a data-driven solution, will give you an edge comparing your competitors.
Payment processing
Last but not least is the payment processing at the end of the ordering process.
The online ordering portal should be flexible enough to offer different payment services. Regular debit and credit cards, as well as cash on delivery, are part of the daily practice.
What about other digital payment methods, like PayPal and Venmo? There are a couple of dozens of online payment services. You need to know what is popular in the region and offer more methods of payments than cash and cards. The demography of the market is a critical factor here.
The demography of customers is changing as well as their money handling habits. It’s better to think about it and be ready to apply the changes when it is workable.
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