April 29
Hotels, schools and offices have employed digital displays to announce events and provide entertaining and informative content.
It's not all that surprising then that digital technology is making its presence felt in the restaurant industry. Specifically, restaurants are increasingly relying on digital menus to aid their customers in ordering food. As you will read below, the benefits of using a digital menu board extend beyond a mere identification of food, drinks and prices.
Being Vibrant and Visible
With a digital menu display, that signature salad, sandwich or entree appears larger and with a higher definition than the paper displays. Imagine the chance to create a montage of dishes or put your menu items into motion. Colors and flavors associated with drinks and desserts have more vibrancy. Graphic fonts and styles further accentuate and afford creativity to your restaurant’s offerings and prices.
Digital menu boards also allow you to tell a story. With one section, you have a place to display videos that highlight your restaurant’s beginnings, inspirations and good works in the community. Such stories enhance your brand and lend credibility to your particular messaging and branding.
For instance, say your restaurant prides itself on using locally grown ingredients. With your digital menu board, you can profile through video and other images local farms and farmers providing you those ingredients.
Transforming Menus Instantly and Efficiently
With a digital menu board, the breakfast menu becomes a lunch menu with practically no human effort. At the stroke of a second, your lunch menu transforms to the dinner menu. By contrast, static menus require members of your staff to spend time reaching and even climbing to switch posters rather than serving customers.
Take advantage of the flexibility afforded a digital menu display in advertising your specials. The digital way eliminates the need for you to write on chalkboards or print out inserts of specials in your menus.
Planning on adding to or changing your menu? A digital menu board can allow you to avoid printing costs that come with paper menus or displays. The ability to quickly change your menu displays this way comes especially in handy if one of your dishes should lack appeal with customers or if you want to tailor a particular menu to a season, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Unlike paper, you don't have to throw away a digital menu. This means you're not spending your money on something that you can't keep. The number of uses you get out of a digital menu board for more than pay for the cost of it.
Easing the Regulatory Burden
Depending on your restaurant’s location, your city or town council may demand that you publish calorie counts for your foods. Such rules target especially the fast-food establishments The cost of compliance can become significantly burdensome if you must change a poster or paper menu every time you increase the amount of calories, however slightly. This can happen with new dishes or changes to the ingredients in your food.
Having a digital menu board allows you to reflect adjustments in calories or include the required information for new foods and beverages without the need to reprint posters or signs.
Avoiding Disappointed Customers
Imagine you see a meal or dessert that captures your appetite and appeal. You stare at the menu and, when it is your turn, you excitedly order it. Immediately, the order-taker responds that the restaurant has run out of that item. Such may frequently be the case with specials and homemade desserts.
A digital menu can stunt the growth of expectations that your restaurant cannot meet. Some restaurants connect their point of sale (POS) equipment with the digital menu boards. As a particular menu item approaches a low supply level or disappears, your system can instantly delete that item from the digital menu.
Building Connections with Customers
Your diners, especially of the millennial set, likely found your restaurant in your menu from either your website or social media page. Don't disappoint their sense of your restaurant’s image with just paper or static menus. When you go digital, you accentuate the modern and Interactive theme of your restaurant.
Images and videos, not merely list of dishes and prices, attract millennials. This can enhance traffic to your social media sites. Including a Facebook or Twitter icons on your digital board lens more weight to invitations that your customers comment about your wonderful dishes for restaurant atmosphere on Facebook or Twitter.
Your Customers Won’t Realize the Wait
Digital menus and the associated content have the effect of catching your customers’ eyes and attention. The prospect of being attracted by fonts, videos and vibrant images can make your customers forget that they're waiting in a long line or in a rush. By creating in your customers the perception that they're not waiting as long as they actually are, a digital menu display can keep customers who otherwise may give up on waiting -- and on your restaurant.
Embracing digital menus opens your restaurant to many opportunities to show your creative side, connect with diners and save time and money. Often, your menus and what you want or must convey to customers will change. When you take the digital path, you can promptly and efficiently adapt your menus to reflect the different information. Remaining static in your menu presentation can mean lost customers and sales.
Are you looking for a digital restaurant menu board? How to choose the best one? What are benefits of a digital menu display? Take a minute to learn more here.
