With costs rising across the board, saving money is a top priority for food businesses this year. The good news is that switching to digital menus can help: not only can they reduce your costs in a number of ways, but they even have the power to boost revenue, too. Read on to find out how digital menus can have a positive effect on your bottom line.
Reduce costs: say goodbye to printing
Even if you’re not printing menus often, it’s still a cost that must be incurred every time your offering is updated. In addition to the price paid for paper and ink, you’re paying for the time it takes, too. In contrast, you can change a digital menu whenever you want — even just to fix a typo — without paying anything.
Reduce costs: enjoy flexibility and resilience
A degree of resilience is especially important in today’s world, where supply chain issues are prevalent. It’s also ideal for restaurants with a focus on hyper-local, sustainable foods; nobody needs the hassle of printing new menus every day, and you’ll love the ease of being able to edit yours quickly when your local supplier runs out of lamb shanks.
Reduce costs: efficiently manage kitchen waste
Approximately 9.5 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK alone, costing the hospitality sector millions each year in waste management and disposal costs. When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food — including water, land, energy, labour and capital — also go to waste.
Because digital menus are easy to edit and can update instantly, they’re a valuable tool in managing stock and minimising kitchen waste. Let your chefs flex their creative muscles, coming up with smart ways to incorporate items approaching their expiry dates and use every part of the produce, meat and fish they’ve ordered. Seasonal dishes, daily specials and last-minute additions can all be added to the menu with ease.
With less money wasted on food that isn’t used, you’ll also be saving money on disposal, creating a more cost-efficient kitchen.
When it comes to the waste you can’t prevent, follow the food waste hierarchy to find the next best course of action.
Boost revenue: enhance the customer experience
Visiting a restaurant is about more than the food — and digital displays and menu boards have the power to provide a superior customer experience that is smooth, convenient and enjoyable.
Digital menus can streamline the ordering process and give more control to the customer, meaning they no longer have to wait for an available server. They can also provide customers with more information about your products, including dietary options and allergens, helping them to make more informed choices. Allowing customers to take charge of their own orders also eliminates any potential errors that can occur when orders are taken manually.
Studies have also shown that digital menu boards help reduce the perceived wait time at restaurants. Because customers have something to look at while they are waiting, time seems to pass more quickly.
All of this combines to give a superior customer experience, making repeat business more likely.
Boost revenue: make upselling a cinch
Digital menus can encourage sales in a number of ways. Suggest lucrative menu modifiers: a glass of port would pair beautifully with that cheese plate. Appeal to the senses: include mouthwatering photos of your most tempting desserts. Add timely specials that meet a particular customer need at that moment: during a cold snap, introduce a special price for a hearty soup and sandwich combo. Every little extra adds up to create bigger profits.
Boost revenue: extra marketing real estate
Don’t forget that your menu is a marketing opportunity. A distinct advantage of a digital — rather than physical — menu is that there’s more real estate available. You can use this platform to inform your consumers about daily specials, happy hours and other deals you’d like to promote.
You should also consider including a call to action that gets your customers to connect more closely with your brand while in the queue, or directly after their meal. Whether it’s a prompt to follow your restaurant on social media or sign up to a mailing list for future deals, your digital menu is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed. Consider integrating user-generated content (such as customer reviews or social media posts) to encourage stronger engagement.
Boost revenue: improve efficiency
Digital menus are simple to maintain and require little time investment — a key consideration when so many hospitality businesses are chronically short-staffed. Why spend precious time on tasks like printing when you can tweak your digital menu in a matter of moments… for free?
Digital menu boards can also streamline your ordering process. Allowing customers to place orders directly through self-service kiosks or other touchscreens helps to reduce congestion during peak times and improve overall efficiency. This makes it easy for staff to process orders more quickly and serve more customers overall.
In fact, Ten Kites customers report an average of seven hours saved every week through the automation capabilities of the software. A whopping 95% of our customers consider Ten Kites important for the success of their business.
Get in touch today to find out how Ten Kites digital menu solutions can help you boost your bottom line.