Digital menu boards are a modern solution for the age-old dilemma of how to effectively and inexpensively keep customers informed of what your restaurant has to offer. Static signs may have served you well for a number of years, but it’s time to up your customer service and engagement game by entering into the 21st century. Save money, save time, and eliminate the hassle of having to physically change out menu boards on a regular basis.
The future of restaurant franchising and ownership is digital. Customers respond better to digital menu boards and are more engaged by the moving images, changing text, and advanced graphics. You can also use digital menu boards to air various corporate advertisements for new products and services.
Here are a few important reasons why you should make the switch to digital signage and menu boards, if you haven’t already.
Increase Revenue
Digital signage and menu boards are a great investment that can help to significantly increase revenue for your restaurant. Approximately 70% of restaurants that take the leap and install a digital menu board see a rapid financial increase and return on investment within the first few years.
Digital signage allows you to advertise breakfast, lunch, and dinner specials seamlessly, keeping customers informed about what’s on the menu at all times. Advertise new menu items easily by scheduling specific ads at certain times of the day or night.
Decrease Waste from Static Signs
It’s time to make static signs a thing of the past. Every time you come out with a new menu item, service, or product, static signs need to manually be changed. They can quickly become outdated and that usually means more and more trips to the dump.
Installing state-of-the-art digital menu boards and signage throughout your restaurant changes all of that. It can help reduce your restaurant waste and shrink the size of your carbon footprint. Plus, there’s the added advantage of eliminating the need to physically climb up on a ladder to manually change out the signboards every time you have a new promotion or multiple times a day when you switch from the breakfast, lunch, or dinner menu.
That’s a lot of physical labour, not to mention a waste of time and money that can be put to better use. Then, there’s the dilemma of finding or creating a space to store all of those backlogged static paper signs. Making the switch to advanced digital signage for your restaurant takes away the storage burden and opens up more space in the back for actual products or expanding your kitchen.
Make Better Use of Employee Time and Skills
By eliminating the need to change out static signs or write up a new menu board by hand several times a day, you can make better use of your employees’ skills and valuable time while scaling your business. That time could be better spent training new employees, helping customers, completing back-end operational tasks, or even helping the kitchen staff when they’re slammed with orders.
Employee empowerment and education is a positive side effect of installing digital signage throughout your restaurant. It takes a lot of pressure off of your staff to constantly inform customers of your menu items and concentrate more on improving and expanding their customer service skills.
Digital Menu Boards Are More Visually Enticing
Static signs are so boring and as kitschy as handwritten blackboard menus are, they can also be difficult to read sometimes. Moreover, all it takes is for one of your staff members to accidentally graze against the blackboard while they’re working, and part of the menu can be rubbed off.
Digital menu boards are far more visually enticing. With all of the bright brand colours and logos, the descriptive words, and the pictures of delicious food, they’re also more effective at drawing in hungry crowds during on and off peak hours of the day.
If you have a drive-thru option, placing some digital signage outside of your restaurant location is also a great way to capture the attention of hungry passersby on a whim. Modern customers are all about visual appeal and they typically eat with their eyes first. Digital signage or menu boards are clear, concise, and they get right to the point, which is exactly what customers want when they’re deciding on what to order.
Digital Menu Boards Boost Customer Engagement
Say you have a new menu item or feature that you want to promote. Digital menu boards can be automatically updated, so that you can easily add these products in without having to change the whole menu schema or try to squeeze them into an already jam-packed static image.
Customers will see the new menu items immediately and become interested enough to either seek out more information or take a leap and order it right on the spot. In this way, digital signage and menu boards are great self-promoting conversation starters that instantly get customers interested in your new offerings with minimal effort put in by you and your staff.
Essentially, the advertised products sell themselves as long as you use effective advertising strategies like mouth-watering images and adjectives to create interest. Digitally enhanced images have the power to generate that interest. Of course, customers are aware that there’s some deceptive marketing involved, but those images will make them want your product regardless.
Easy to Manually or Automatically Update when Needed
Perhaps the biggest selling point of installing digital signage and menu boards in your restaurant is that they’re easy and efficient to operate. You can manually upload digital files as needed or schedule specific promotional items to appear on the screen in advance. And making last minute updates, edits, or changes is a cinch. Simply login to the digital platform and make the changes as they come up.
At Nauticomp Inc., designing and distributing customized state-of-the-art digital menu boards for local restaurants is our specialty. We can incorporate specific features like dust and waterproof capabilities, sunlight readability, and infrared lighting based on your requirements. Contact us today to learn more about our dynamic digital signage products and your customization options.
