Up until about a decade ago, if you wanted to know what was available at a local restaurant, you had to get a paper menu, call ahead, or actually go to the restaurant. However, the modern era’s dependency on the internet has changed that. Online menus are more common now than ever, and even if a restaurant doesn’t allow carry-out, online orders, or delivery, it’s pretty common for them to have an online menu.
Why is that, and why should you be implementing an online menu if you haven’t already?
Well, the most obvious answer we get based on customer analytics for restaurants and that is – it helps you meet your customers’ demands. They’re used to going online, seeing what’s available, and knowing what they want before they sit down to order. However, it goes much deeper than that.
An online menu gives you some key information that can really benefit your restaurant. Here’s how.
1: Web-Based Metrics
When someone sits down in your restaurant and reads the menu, you can’t really gauge their interest too much. You have to rely on sales to do that. However, that misses out on various bits of crucial information such as which items are catching their attention the most if they’re looking through specific parts of the menu more, whether or not your website is directly generating sales or getting customers through the door, and more.
All of that information is automatically collected and organized on a website. You just need a tool to make the analyzing process faster and combine it with your in-store data in real time.
2: Understanding Customer Engagement
This goes along with the recorded metrics from your site. In fact, most of the benefits of an online menu go along with that.
You get real information about which products are enticing your customers the most. Every time they click on a menu item to learn more about it, that gets recorded. If they go into the dietary information, that gets reported. You also get to see when customers leave your site and whether they come back or not.
This gives you valuable data that can influence your future menu changes in a positive way.
3: Gauging Marketing Campaigns and Interest
Even if you just post your menu online, and don’t even offer online ordering or delivery services, you can use your site to gauge how your marketing attempts are performing. Websites track where visitors are coming from. If you have something like a blog or ads on other sites, you’ll be able to see if those marketing materials are working with your customer analytics for restaurants.
This can be crucial because you can slowly adapt your marketing approach depending on which online marketing campaigns are garnering the most interest and which ones are falling flat.
How to Get Started with Restaurant Data Analytics
Luckily for you, you don’t have to be a tech genius to start implementing restaurant data analytics into an online menu setup. Like we said earlier, you just need a tool.
At Fox Metrics, we offer software solutions that can handle all your data gathering, analytical, and implementation needs without you having to do much legwork.