The restaurant industry – quick service restaurants in particular – is proving to be a hotbed for the newest digital signage technology. Restaurants have begun using them to replace outdated menu boards, as well as for self-service kiosks and other interactive applications customers can use. The driving force in the adoption of digital signage is its intuitiveness, convenience, and array of uses.
These days, technology allows customers to place and pay for orders with their phones, find directions to the establishment, and record how many calories they burned during their walk there. Devices are all interconnected and everything is recorded in real time, so any delay can seem like an eternity to customers. Point of sale systems are now a requirement for any successful restaurant, but digital signage can be extremely helpful in improving their efficiency and productivity. When digital signage is integrated with a restaurant’s POS system, updates can be made in real time and customer needs can be met more quickly than ever before.
The Main Benefits of Digital Signage
- Real-time updates
There’s nothing a customer dislikes more than ordering something that is out of stock or no longer on the menu. Instead of having to update the menu boards – or create new ones – digital signage allows for real-time updates. This means restaurants can show when items are unavailable, as well as special deals or promotions. Menus can even be swapped out depending on the time of day. These changes can be handled by a POS system, or even remotely with an iOS or Android app.
In addition to keeping customers happy, real-time updates increase the productivity of a restaurant. Manually making menu changes can be more time consuming, and the ordering process can take longer if a customer doesn’t realize their item of choice is not available.
- Cost savings
Cost is often the one thing holding back restaurant owners from purchasing digital signage. The good news is that the cost of plasma and LCD displays has decreased dramatically in recent years. While the price of other types of signage might have lower initial costs, digital signage can be more cost-effective in the long run. Not to mention, the improved efficiency offered by digital signage saves money every day.
- Upsell
Instead of relying on employees to remember to upsell, digital signage can do the job automatically. With an integrated POS system, digital signage can display items that compliment customer orders – prompting them to make larger purchases. While static images can display special promotions, digital signage has the ability to tailor these promotions to individual customers. Digital screens also offer higher resolution images of items on the menu, which often leads to higher sales; customers are more likely to purchase additional items if the food or drink in question looks appetizing.
- Entertain customers
Another benefit of digital signage is that, unlike static menu boards, changing images and media can be more eye-catching and entertaining for customers. Creating displays that are visually attractive will keep customers interested and more connected to the brand you are trying to establish. Customers want nothing more than to avoid long lines – but long lines are often unavoidable. Digital signage that can display trivia, news, or even videos can make waiting in line much more bearable.
Digital signage makes it easy for restaurants to valuable advertising space as efficiently as possible. A variety of things can be done to maximize the impact digital signage has on customers, so it is important to always test out new ideas. Every restaurant –and especially QSRs – should be taking advantage of digital signage because it offers so much more flexibility than traditional menu options.