Tips towards getting Digital in your restaurant

If the digitisation of restaurants was already a necessity before the crisis, today it is a real emergency. Who knows what the “future” has in store for us? In this context of uncertainty, where social distancing and health rules are still in order, restaurants must accelerate their digital transformation.

Bouncing back from the crisis: 3 levers to explore

After the strategic aspect, we suggest you look at the practical part. During the months of lockdown, some brands performed exceptionally well, either because they had anticipated their digitalisation or showed agility and creativity and knew how to reinvent themselves. Below you may find some inspiration.

1.  Invest in social networks to keep in touch

Faced with social distancing, social networks have emerged as an easy - and free - way to continue to connect with customers. While running social networks during lockdown has been a real challenge for all restaurants, some have found the right words and the right ideas.

Share your cooking recipes.

Can’t customers come to you anymore? What if your kitchen went to your customers? This was the bias of some brands during the lockdown, who used social networks to share recipe ideas with their communities. In addition to maintaining the link with your customers and not falling into oblivion, it is an excellent way, I find, to promote your know-how and to be part of a sharing process.

Organize a competition

Another way to stay connected using social networks is to organize a competition.

In addition to maintaining the connection and keeping customers interested, social media was also a valuable communication tool for restaurateurs during the lockdown. What could be better than a Facebook publication, an Instagram story or a YouTube video to remind - or let people know - the existence of your connected services and to generate traffic on your online ordering site or your page dedicated to clicks & collect?

2.  Invest in online ordering

Online ordering is one of those connected services that have enabled certain brands to continue to exist during the crisis. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number of establishments chosen to invest in online ordering has increased considerably in recent months.

Invest in your online ordering site

When some choose to outsource online ordering and door-to-door delivery, others prefer to invest in their tools using trusted third parties.

While for some brands, it makes sense to use platforms such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo, for others, it is essential to have your own tools. The only way to maintain its independence is to control its image and keep control of its database.

This issue of restaurant independence is more popular than ever. Crisis or no crisis, should or should we not give in to the large delivery platforms? It is important not to put all your eggs in one basket but to diversify your sales channels to not find yourself in a situation of interdependence, like certain hotel establishments that have chosen to entrust 100% of their digital strategy to players Booking. As a result, it is impossible today to turn back as they have become so dependent on the turnover generated by these third-party platforms. So, suppose you are planning to go into online sales and home delivery. In that case, you should probably diversify your investments and bet on both your tools, which will give you greater control and greater independence and consider partnerships with trusted third parties to boost your online visibility and recruit new customers.

3.  Dematerialize your menus

If there's one thing that goes from hand to hand in a restaurant, it's the menu! So, to avoid having to clean and disinfect your menus after each customer, there are now dematerialization solutions, such as sanitary QR codes.

The principle is simple: smartphone in hand, the customer scans the QR code stuck on the table and in a flash, he has access to your card. More hygienic, this virtual menu also has other advantages.

In particular, you can offer additional suggestions to your guests (a wine to accompany a specific dish or a menu for a few euros more, for example), an excellent solution to increase the average ticket.

You can also add beautiful photos and illustrations of your dishes to make it easier for customers to choose and make their mouth water. You can change your menu with just a few clicks, save you printing costs with every menu change, and even provide a multilingual version of your menu.

With this dematerialized menu, you also offer more fun and interactive experience to your guests and modernize the image of your establishment.

For all your baking needs, be sure to follow Bakers Maison Australia for more tips and recipe content via Social media @bakersmaison and visit our website at www.bakersmaison.com.au for all our bakery and pastry products!

8th July 2021