With winter knocking around the corner, people are more likely to spend time indoors than outside. This trend occurs every year, so restaurants and diners need to have a strategy to adapt to it. If you’re new to the restaurant industry, this timeframe is essential in determining sustainability for the first few years.

Looking to optimize your online order and delivery service? Check out these four ways restaurants can promote online ordering and delivery this winter.

1. Create an App

Having a website might not be enough these days to generate orders online. Most people consistently browse the internet via their smartphones, so creating a phone app as a platform to take online orders is an absolute must. Achieving quality app design can be a long and tedious process of testing versions and glitches. Considering the long-term benefits phone apps will bring to your business, it becomes cost-effective.

Here’s a list of the significant advantages that an app can bring to your business:

Increase upsell opportunity: Apps can be a great way to upsell particular menu items. You can bring attention to offers and discounts quickly by making them pop up as deals of the day when customers open the app. This helps boost your revenue if used properly.

Easier data compilation: Gathering data on customer behavior and spending patterns is crucial for developing your marketing strategy. Apps make this easier by collecting and compiling relevant data when taking orders, eliminating the need to organize them before analysis.

Increases productivity: Using an app to collect online orders means less burden on your staff. This often translates to increased staff productivity, which increases the overall efficiency of your business’s operations.

2. Update the Menu

With the change of season, the taste buds of your customers will change along with the weather. For this reason, adding seasonally appropriate comfort foods to the menu like hot soups and sandwiches and hearty pasta dishes is a must if you want to see an uptick in order volume. Make sure these are delivery-friendly options; otherwise, you’ll end up with unhappy customers complaining about messy deliveries.

Get a bit creative, and try adding unique twists to traditional dishes. Try doing different pasta, hot drinks, and gravies to give your customers an unforgettable experience. Do not ignore sweet dishes; pies and puddings make for a delicious finale after a satisfying appetizer and main course.

3. Improve Your Speed

The success of your delivery set up lies in two factors—your menu and your delivery speed. When it comes to food, customers demand speedy delivery as most food items lose flavor once the heat wears off. Meeting this demand becomes increasingly important during winter when food can get cold in a matter of seconds if not stored properly during delivery.

If your delivery speed is slow, your business is susceptible to criticism and bad reviews, which often has a massive impact on your reputation. This often leads to a decrease in order volume, which might be challenging to overcome, given many options customers have at their fingertips these days. To ensure speedy delivery, here are a couple of steps you can take when setting up your delivery operations:

Train your staff properly.
Try using data at hand, such as traffic updates, to forecast accurate delivery times to customers.
Make sure you’re employing delivery personnel with in-depth knowledge of your target geographical area.
Always make sure your equipment and vehicles are maintained properly.

4. Get the Right POS

Ensuring quick and secure payment is an essential part of online order and delivery services. If your payment process is slow or not secured, then customers likely won’t order from you a second time. Combining a quality POS tool with the tips already discussed above, you can provide customers with an excellent experience.

The right POS can integrate with your app or other mobile order apps, making it easy to update the menu and speed up operations. Employing your restaurant delivery POS software with excellent service and delivery personnel can do wonders for your business.

Get Your Business Ready for Winter

The loss in foot traffic during winter has always been a bane for restaurant owners. By understanding and utilizing the power of the internet properly, you can make up for that lost revenue easily through online order and delivery. If your business isn’t ready for the coming season, you might want to start taking the necessary steps right away.