Article

Best practices for digital commerce success

Finding the right partner for enabling digital commerce and loyalty is really just the first step for a successful mobile strategy.

February 7, 2014

By Anke Corbin,
SplickIt.com

Mobile and web ordering, digital payments, digital loyalty and improving customer experiences through the use of technology are on everyone’s must-do list for 2014. With Pizza Hut stating that 40-50 percent of all orders are coming from a web or mobile device in January 2014, it’s no wonder that this is a major topic of discussion for restaurant executives.

Finding the right partner for enabling digital commerce and loyalty is really just the first step for a successful mobile strategy. It’s important to recognize that ‘build it and they will come’ doesn’t work. Even Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Starbuck’s invest a lot of money and effort into telling people about their digital products and enticing customers to try out the new services. It takes time and consistency.

We’ve found that restaurants that follow these guidelines will typically realize increased ticket sizes of 30-60 percent over walk-in traffic, gain significant operational throughput and efficiency and deepen their relationship with customers.  

 Employee buy-in

• Build excitement and support with your staff before you introduce any new technology. Reward your team with recognition and appreciation for sharing ideas on how to increase the effectiveness and results.
• Provide training upfront to reduce fear and uncertainty and provide ongoing on-demand support for questions as they come up.
• Set reasonable yet aggressive business goals and share with your team so there is something to strive for. Re-evaluate those goals to make sure they are indeed motivating quarterly.

Get the word out

• More than 50 percent of your customers will learn about your website and app while in your store. Make sure to have visible signage for where to pick up web and mobile orders, add promotional language on or in food packaging. Feature table tents throughout your restaurant and add window clings on sneeze guards and outside windows.
• Reward usage with a newbie promotion for first time users promoted in the app and on social media, in-store flyers, digital signage or anywhere you can.
• Many of our customers have completely eliminated phone-in orders during busy times, requiring customers to use their web or mobile applications to place orders and pay in advance and some even require digital ordering to earn loyalty points. Order mistakes due to bad connections, miscommunication and inconsistent customer service have been minimized and employees are able to focus on servicing customers.
• Prominently link from your brand site to your ordering applications.
• Utilize the behavioral data you get from your web and mobile customers to create engaging digital marketing campaigns. Treat new customers, frequent customers and lapsed customers differently with customized mobile and web notifications. Learn more about how to effectively increase engagement here. 

Commitment

• Technology adoption requires consistent promotion and internal support as mentioned earlier, it also requires a long term vision and commitment. Customers require time to get into a habit so don’t be surprised if orders trickle in the first couple of months.
• Make sure you have realistic expectations. We all know that digital commerce is growing in importance every day for customer experience and business opportunity, the time is now to realize increased ticket size, operational efficiency and a deeper connection to your customers.

Read more about mobile.