Why We Built an Online Ordering Solution for Restaurants
Published March 27th, 2022
After years of existence, online ordering for restaurants is still a rapidly evolving segment of the restaurant industry. It provides convenience for customers (who now expect restaurants to offer online ordering), an additional and upward trending revenue stream for restaurants, and it expands the restaurant’s presence from their brick and mortar storefronts into the virtual world.
But getting it right, so that the online ordering system works for both the customer and the restaurant, was a difficult balancing act.
We found that the same pain points were impacting the decisions made regarding delivery and takeout services for all types of restaurants: franchises, groups, and independent locations, ranging from quick service concepts, to ghost kitchens, to fine dining venues. As a result, we designed a white label, restaurant online ordering system that specifically addressed and solved the issues raised by the restaurants we spoke to.
Servicing Both the Restaurant and the Customer
The customer is king when they’re sitting inside a restaurant and they’re also king when they’re ordering online. 3rd party order and delivery providers recognize this and put the customer experience at the top of their list, followed by their own profitability, with restaurant’s falling last in line in their list of priorities.
Before companies like DoorDash, GrubHub, and Ubereats came along and created this greatly improved online ordering experience, restaurants were using antiquated online ordering systems that offered a clunky and often frustrating experience for the user. It has been found that the majority of customers, 70% in fact, would prefer to order directly from restaurants rather than through 3rd party service providers. But setting up and maintaining a proprietary restaurant online ordering system that also offers an exceptional customer experience was an expensive and time consuming task. So restaurants kept using 3rd party solutions.
Another huge benefit for restaurants was that these 3rd party services also took care of the customer support side of the off-premise orders they facilitated. Dealing with these customer service issues, and training their staff on the procedures to do so properly, had always been a huge headache for restaurants. As a result, restaurant owners were willing to send their own customers away from their website, lose the valuable customer data, and pay a fee of 15-30% for the privilege of having this problem taken off their hands.
Some restaurants have even chosen not to enter into this world on online ordering, reducing their exposure to the way customers order in the modern world, resulting in them missing out on the gains of their competitors and not realizing their full potential.
The customer is king when they’re sitting inside a restaurant and they’re also king when they’re ordering online. 3rd party order and delivery providers recognize this and put the customer experience at the top of their list, followed by their own profitability, with restaurant’s falling last in line in their list of priorities.
Before companies like DoorDash, GrubHub, and Ubereats came along and created this greatly improved online ordering experience, restaurants were using antiquated online ordering systems that offered a clunky and often frustrating experience for the user. It has
been found that the majority of customers, 70% in fact, would prefer to order directly from restaurants rather than through 3rd party service providers. But setting up and maintaining a proprietary restaurant online ordering system that also offers an exceptional customer experience was an expensive and time consuming task. So restaurants kept using 3rd party solutions.
Another huge benefit for restaurants was that these 3rd party services also took care of the customer support side of the off-premise orders they facilitated. Dealing with these customer service issues, and training their staff on the procedures to do so properly, had always been a huge headache for restaurants. As a result, restaurant owners were willing to send their own customers away from their website, lose the valuable customer data, and pay a fee of 15-30% for the privilege of having this problem taken off their hands.
Some restaurants have even chosen not to enter into this world on online ordering, reducing their exposure to the way customers order in the modern world, resulting in them missing out on the gains of their competitors and not realizing their full potential.
The customer is king when they’re sitting inside a restaurant and they’re also king when they’re ordering online. 3rd party order and delivery providers recognize this and put the customer experience at the top of their list, followed by their own profitability, with restaurant’s falling last in line in their list of priorities.
Before companies like DoorDash, GrubHub, and Ubereats came along and created this greatly improved online ordering experience, restaurants were using antiquated online ordering systems that offered a clunky and often frustrating experience for the user. It has been found that the majority of customers, 70% in fact, would prefer to order directly from restaurants rather than through 3rd party service providers. But setting up and maintaining a proprietary restaurant online ordering system that also offers an exceptional customer experience was an expensive and time consuming task. So restaurants kept using 3rd party solutions.
Another huge benefit for restaurants was that these 3rd party services also took care of the customer support side of the off-premise orders they facilitated. Dealing with these customer service issues, and training their staff on the procedures to do so properly, had always been a huge headache for restaurants. As a result, restaurant owners were willing to send their own customers away from their website, lose the valuable customer data, and pay a fee of 15-30% for the privilege of having this problem taken off their hands.
Some restaurants have even chosen not to enter into this world on online ordering, reducing their exposure to the way customers order in the modern world, resulting in them missing out on the gains of their competitors and not realizing their full potential.
ActiveMenus: Built to Service the Restaurant and the Customer
ActiveMenus offers a new solution for restaurants, enabling them to have their own, branded online ordering platform, both web and app based, that offers the amazing and seamless experience that their customers have come to expect from their previous experiences. Restaurants using the ActiveMenus services can also access built in rewards systems for their customer -of whom 45% said that mobile ordering or loyalty programs would encourage them to use online ordering services more often- as well as an automated marketing system that tailors marketing materials and special offers to individual customers using that all important customer data.
The ActiveMenus online ordering software for restaurants is designed to offer a seamless and exceptional user experience across all restaurants, but it has especially been designed to provide an unparalleled user experience for the customers of multi-location restaurants and franchises as well as the customers of multi-concept and multi-location restaurant groups.
ActiveMenus also offers customer support as an additional feature to all of the restaurants who use our services. Through this service the ActiveMenus team receives and handles all customer complaints related to the orders placed through our digital ordering solutions. Managing everything from placing new orders and their redeliveries, to customer refunds. This keeps these issues out of the restaurant’s hands and allows them to focus on their orders and their customers.
ActiveMenus offers a new solution for restaurants, enabling them to have their own, branded online ordering platform, both web and app based, that offers the amazing and seamless experience that their customers have come to expect from their previous experiences. Restaurants using the ActiveMenus services can also access built in rewards systems for their customer -of whom 45% said that mobile ordering or loyalty programs would encourage them to use online ordering services more often- as well as an automated marketing system that tailors marketing materials and special offers to individual customers using that all important customer data.
The ActiveMenus online ordering software for restaurants is designed to offer a seamless and exceptional user experience across all
restaurants, but it has especially been designed to provide an unparalleled user experience for the customers of multi-location restaurants and franchises as well as the customers of multi-concept and multi-location restaurant groups.
ActiveMenus also offers customer support as an additional feature to all of the restaurants who use our services. Through this service the ActiveMenus team receives and handles all customer complaints related to the orders placed through our digital ordering solutions. Managing everything from placing new orders and their redeliveries, to customer refunds. This keeps these issues out of the restaurant’s hands and allows them to focus on their orders and their customers.
ActiveMenus offers a new solution for restaurants, enabling them to have their own, branded online ordering platform, both web and app based, that offers the amazing and seamless experience that their customers have come to expect from their previous experiences. Restaurants using the ActiveMenus services can also access built in rewards systems for their customer -of whom 45% said that mobile ordering or loyalty programs would encourage them to use online ordering services more often- as well as an automated marketing system that tailors marketing materials and special offers to individual customers using that all important customer data.
The ActiveMenus online ordering software for restaurants is designed to offer a seamless and exceptional user experience across all restaurants, but it has especially been designed to provide an unparalleled user experience for the customers of multi-location restaurants and franchises as well as the customers of multi-concept and multi-location restaurant groups.
ActiveMenus also offers customer support as an additional feature to all of the restaurants who use our services. Through this service the ActiveMenus team receives and handles all customer complaints related to the orders placed through our digital ordering solutions. Managing everything from placing new orders and their redeliveries, to customer refunds. This keeps these issues out of the restaurant’s hands and allows them to focus on their orders and their customers.
Delivery: Linking the Restaurant to the Customers
Delivery is a difficult undertaking even for the most popular and cash-flush of restaurants, and many restaurants, for this reason, choose to outsource delivery services. Other restaurants want to manage delivery in-house but delivery logistics can be nightmarish, especially when a large amount of orders come in and delivery times begin to suffer. This eventually leads to a brand losing customers because the restaurant isn’t meeting customer expectations.
Before a restaurant has reached that point in their delivery lifecycle there is the complex process of setting up and marketing a delivery service. This includes working out your delivery zone, knowing what you’re actually allowed to do in your locality, how to pay your delivery drivers, hiring delivery drivers, what insurance you need, what you’re going to deliver, and more. 3rd party services handle all of these headaches for restaurants by taking the concept of delivery off their hands. Many restaurants opt for this option instead, and pay the 15-30% premium for doing so.
Those that do create and use their own, in-house delivery service find that they’re competing with the likes of DoorDash and Ubereats for drivers. This is because the driver experience when driving for these companies is so much better than it is driving for the restaurants themselves. Working for a third party service provider makes it easy for drivers to receive orders and make deliveries, they also receive their payments quickly through the app and the driver’s earnings are gamified, which only adds to the draw. restaurants simply can’t compete with this superior working experience and, as a result, they find it very difficult to hire and keep drivers.
Delivery is a difficult undertaking even for the most popular and cash-flush of restaurants, and many restaurants, for this reason, choose to outsource delivery services. Other restaurants want to manage delivery in-house but delivery logistics can be nightmarish, especially when a large amount of orders come in and delivery times begin to suffer. This eventually leads to a brand losing customers because the restaurant isn’t meeting customer expectations.
Before a restaurant has reached that point in their delivery lifecycle there is the complex process of setting up and marketing a delivery service. This includes working out your delivery zone, knowing what you’re actually allowed to do in your locality, how to pay your delivery drivers, hiring delivery drivers, what insurance you need, what you’re going to deliver, and more. 3rd party services handle all of these headaches for restaurants by taking the concept of delivery off their hands. Many restaurants opt for this option instead, and pay the 15-30% premium for doing so.
Those that do create and use their own, in-house delivery service find that they’re competing with the likes of DoorDash and Ubereats for drivers. This is because the driver experience when driving for these companies is so much better than it is driving for the restaurants themselves. Working for a third party service provider makes it easy for drivers to receive orders and make deliveries, they also receive their payments quickly through the app and the driver’s earnings are gamified, which only adds to the draw. restaurants simply can’t compete with this superior working experience and, as a result, they find it very difficult to hire and keep drivers.
Delivery is a difficult undertaking even for the most popular and cash-flush of restaurants, and many restaurants, for this reason, choose to outsource delivery services. Other restaurants want to manage delivery in-house but delivery logistics can be nightmarish, especially when a large amount of orders come in and delivery times begin to suffer. This eventually leads to a brand losing customers because the restaurant isn’t meeting customer expectations.
Before a restaurant has reached that point in their delivery lifecycle there is the complex process of setting up and marketing a delivery service. This includes working out your delivery zone, knowing what you’re actually allowed to do in your locality, how to pay your delivery drivers, hiring delivery drivers, what insurance you need, what you’re going to deliver, and more. 3rd party services handle all of these headaches for restaurants by taking the concept of delivery off their hands. Many restaurants opt for this option instead, and pay the 15-30% premium for doing so.
Those that do create and use their own, in-house delivery service find that they’re competing with the likes of DoorDash and Ubereats for drivers. This is because the driver experience when driving for these companies is so much better than it is driving for the restaurants themselves. Working for a third party service provider makes it easy for drivers to receive orders and make deliveries, they also receive their payments quickly through the app and the driver’s earnings are gamified, which only adds to the draw. restaurants simply can’t compete with this superior working experience and, as a result, they find it very difficult to hire and keep drivers.
ActiveMenus: Delivery That Works for Everyone
At ActiveMenus we’ve created a delivery solution that rivals the big companies in both service to the restaurants and the driver experience. Our app offers all the automation and features that keeps the drivers happy and restaurants that use our turnkey online ordering solutions can opt to take advantage of the ActiveMenus delivery logistics solution or not, but it’s not all black and white.
The ActiveMenus delivery solution also offers a hybrid approach, allowing restaurants to call on our network of delivery drivers to support their in-house team of drivers when there are large influxes of orders that will adversely affect delivery times and their brand image. This means that restaurants can manage the last mile delivery themselves but also call on the ActiveMenus network of delivery drivers when they need them.
At ActiveMenus we’ve created a delivery solution that rivals the big companies in both service to the restaurants and the driver experience. Our app offers all the automation and features that keeps the drivers happy and restaurants that use our turnkey online ordering solutions can opt to take advantage of the ActiveMenus delivery logistics solution or not, but it’s not all black and white.
The ActiveMenus delivery solution also offers a hybrid approach, allowing restaurants to call on our network of delivery drivers to support their in-house team of drivers when there are large influxes of orders that will adversely affect delivery times and their brand image. This means that restaurants can manage the last mile delivery themselves but also call on the ActiveMenus network of delivery drivers when they need them.
At ActiveMenus we’ve created a delivery solution that rivals the big companies in both service to the restaurants and the driver experience. Our app offers all the automation and features that keeps the drivers happy and restaurants that use our turnkey online ordering solutions can opt to take advantage of the ActiveMenus delivery logistics solution or not, but it’s not all black and white.
The ActiveMenus delivery solution also offers a hybrid approach, allowing restaurants to call on our network of delivery drivers to support their in-house team of drivers when there are large influxes of orders that will adversely affect delivery times and their brand image. This means that restaurants can manage the last mile delivery themselves but also call on the ActiveMenus network of delivery drivers when they need them.
A Final Word
The ActiveMenus restaurant online ordering and delivery solutions are designed to empower restaurants by enabling them to offer an exceptional and branded online customer experience that rivals that of the big tech companies.
Using the ActiveMenus solution a restaurant also gets back all of their valuable customer data and they can opt-in to services such as customer support, loyalty rewards programs and automated marketing services, as well as full service or hybrid delivery solutions.
Ultimately our goal is to make restaurant online order solutions work for both the customer and the restaurant, and empower the restaurant to provide the services and experience their customer demand, along with the high standard customers have come to expect from online services.
hello@activemenus.com
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Tampa, FL 33629
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