The time has come: your hospitality business decided to go digital and implement a couple of contactless order & pay solutions. It’s supposed to be a new great era for your venue, significantly reducing costs and increasing overall revenues. What’s more, your efficiency will improve and your staff members will be happier.
Everything sounds amazing, yet some questions pop up. How should I approach this digital transformation? How to make sure all details are going smoothly? When will this pay off? And it’s completely normal to feel slightly concerned about these significant changes. At Ordamo®, we’ve talked to many hospitality businesses with different operating models – it may be difficult to find one digital size fitting all, but there are a few rules of thumb that will lead you to success.
To help you with kicking off contactless ordering, we prepared this guide with some steps to follow. Good luck!
Select your tools and solutions carefully
Currently, competition in the market of contactless hospitality solutions is abundant, and there are plenty of suppliers to choose from. For instance, you could go with an external website, a third-party app, an in-house solution, and many other options. In addition, your contactless ordering strategy can expand to tools such as tablet menus, self-service kiosks, or even waiter robots!
However, the variety of innovative hospitality solutions doesn’t mean that your business has to go with each and every of them. Knowing your customers and their needs can help you select the right solutions and tools. Perhaps a QR code to aid order-taking is enough? Maybe your guests are better served (no pun intended) with a tablet menu or a self-service kiosk? A multi-device solution could also be the way forward – just make sure efficiency is at the heart of every decision.
Explore functionality
As mentioned earlier, there is plenty of competition in the contactless ordering market. In most cases you’ll find that each supplier has something unique and exciting to offer. In other words, it’s all about functionality rivalry! Basically, no two providers are the same: they’re constantly looking for new ways to make your customer experience unique. Therefore, while having your initial conversation with a potential supplier, don’t hesitate to dig deeper into details!
Of course, making the most of functionality doesn’t mean that you’ll need all features available in the market right now. First and foremost, you have to think about the context of your hospitality business and what matters to your guests. If you’re still unsure about the functionality you require, or would love to test new things, look for demos and trials to find out more about what exactly works for your venue.
Take some time to adjust
Although contactless ordering technology is driving many hospitality businesses forward, positive change isn’t likely to occur overnight. The kickstart of using contactless order & pay could be harder than expected. From technical difficulties to changing customer habits, there are a lot of details that should be taken into account while thinking about the overall strategy.
To smoothly manage the process, you’ll need not only a defined roadmap but also realistic goals to achieve. And, flexibility is key: try several strategies to see what works best for your guests and staff. After all, contactless ordering is not only about growing revenue but also about added convenience for everyone involved!
Communicate with your guests
Now that nearly all boxes are ticked, you are about to enter the fun part: showing off your brand-new contactless ordering solution to your guests! To make the most of this kickoff, spread the word across as many channels as you can. For example, going contactless can be a great social media update or a piece to cover in your venue’s newsletter. And obviously, promote this option right in your venue: make sure that any type of announcement (stickers, posters, flyers…) are visible and distributed widely.
Additionally, keeping your guests engaged with contactless ordering is important. Keep them in the loop in terms of new features. Introduce special offers for first-time users or special occasions (happy hour? Sunday roast?) when ordering digitally. Be open and transparent should technical difficulties arise. Contactless ordering is your playground – and you can have plenty of fun while making things easy, efficient and more profitable!