Whether it's showcasing drive-thru options or giving your dining room a fresh and right new look, digital signage can make a huge difference to cafés and restaurants. It can make the customer experience so much better, while boosting revenue and increasing visibility. From a simple display that lets customers know about your options to an interactive screen that lets customers order before they even reach the counter, digital signage has some amazing opportunities for your restaurant.
What is Digital Signage?
Digital signage goes beyond the familiar printed menus, chalkboards or even illuminated signs. Instead of static images and text, you get a vibrant digital screen that blends information with eye-catching video and animation. Digital signage could take the form of exterior notice-boards encouraging customers to come in for a bite, a bank of screens behind the counter with today's menu options, or small tabletop devices that make ordering easy and fun.
Promote Your Business
Nothing makes your business stand out like beautiful high-quality digital video signage outside your premises. You can advertise your specials and new dishes to patrons before they've even stepped inside, as well as expanding awareness of your business to everyone passing. Digital signage gives your business a professional look and encourages people to try it.
Build Your Brand
Inside and out, digital signage helps you create a cohesive brand identity without constantly having to update posters, printed menus or conventional signage. If you've got multiple premises to manage, digital signage software gives you an ability to run the playlists from a central location remotely. The same information and media can be sent to every location at once, meaning that you'll never have to worry about outdated or mis-matched signage or materials in any of your locations.
Promote New Items, Specials, and Discounts
Digital signage lets you promote daily specials more easily. Instead of having to print out additional paper menus or posters, you can just send the information through from your PC or tablet. It will be displayed on all your signage, even if you have multiple branches.
Update Menus on the Fly
In the food and hospitality industry, you need to be flexible and agile. Digital signage software lets you give your customers information that's up to the minute. If you've added a new item today, you can put it on your digital signage right away. Instead of a footnote on a chalkboard, a brand-new dish can get top billing. Conversely, if an item has proved unexpectedly popular and run out, you can instantly update your signage. This avoids disappointment and creates a more streamlined impression.
Make Life Easier for Customers With Interactive Menus
In the hospitality industry, the customer experience is as important as the food itself. By making the ordering process quick and simple, you can give customers a more pleasant experience. As well as saving your clients time and effort, you can also take some of the pressure off your busy staff. Interactive menus can be placed at the entrance, or offered as small tabletop devices. Here, customers can enter their orders and take a receipt instead of having to queue for counter service or wait for staff to take their orders. Interactive menus also offer a way to promote dishes or drinks that might interest them.
Go Mobile With Apps
Your digital signage can interact directly with your customers' own mobile devices. Information can be delivered to smartphones or tablets, allowing customers to order using their own devices as well as your interactive menus. This is a great way to cut waiting times and make life easier for everyone. Digital systems can welcome customers to your business, remind them of any special offers, and relay other useful information.
Keep Customers Engaged and Entertained
Have you ever noticed how time passes much more quickly when you're distracted or entertained? It's the same for your waiting customers. Perceived waiting times have been demonstrated to be much shorter when customers have something they can watch while they're in line or seated and waiting for their food. Your digital signage can show dynamic videos, images or online feeds and that can include entertainment or useful information for your customers to view while they wait for their food. You can show ads for your food, drinks and services like delivery options or party bookings. As well as promotions, digital signage can be a great addition to your decor. Music, short videos or appealing images such as landscapes can help create the ambience you want in your restaurant.
Orders and Staff Instructions
It's not just the restaurant customers who can benefit from digital signage. Your staff will also appreciate clear, helpful information delivered where they can easily see it. Digital signage in staff areas can play all sorts of roles. Because it can easily be connected to the ordering and payment systems, digital signage can display exactly what needs to be prepared and plated, whether it's an eat-in order, a takeaway or an order for delivery.
Keep Your Staff Informed
As well as clear information about orders that your staff will value, you can also use digital signage to remind staff of safety procedures and company standards. This has the effect of making your business a safer and more streamlined one. Staff discounts and deals, upcoming staff events and other positive information can be displayed using digital video screens, helping to create a more positive working environment. Encouraging messages and videos showcasing the "Employee of the Month" can also be displayed, improving morale and encouraging teamwork.
In recent years, digital signage technology has developed in leaps and bounds. It is now more affordable, better looking and easier to use. Signage no longer requires complicated technical knowledge to operate. User-friendly web-based software makes it simple to get the most out of your signage, running everything from an ordinary desktop computer or tablet. Many systems now use standard Android platforms, allowing them to be run easily and without unnecessary additional hardware. Whether you're a small business with one or two locations or a large chain with hundreds of restaurants, it's time to find out what digital signage systems can do for you.
Look DS service can bring you an outstanding experience in managing your digital signage network. It will give you an ability to cover all your possible needs, from creating of digital menu boards to building of interactive scenarios. The solution is cloud-based, that’s why you will no need to make the huge investments into your own server infrastructure. Look DS works from the box. Just open our CMS using any web-browser you want, create the playlist and send it to your screens, Look Magic will take care of the rest.
