As a restaurant operator, Click and Collect is one of the real heavy-hitters in your digital ordering arsenal. But to realise its full potential, you’ll need to adopt a carefully planned, holistic strategy for success.
Luckily, we love that kind of thing.
We’ve outlined some of our top strategies for finding success with Click and Collect, from quick-wins to long-term. Read on to see our top tips, or you can download the full guide here.
The benefits of using Click & Collect
- Increase footfall and throughput. With customers coming into the restaurant for only a brief time to collect their orders, reduce queues at the same time as taking more orders over peak.
- Stay ahead of demand. During busy periods, you can see the proportion of orders that are needed to be ready in advance and can plan for this. You can also change the amount of orders per time period, so you’re never overwhelmed.
- Save money on commission fees. Growing your Click & Collect customer base can help you switch customers from third-party delivery platforms, where you have to giveaway a portion of your profit.
Step 1. Connect, Click, Collect!
It’s important to direct your traffic to where it counts most: your menu. We recommend forgetting the concept of being ‘too much’, and adding your Click & Collect link everywhere online. Remember: if your customer can’t see it, they can’t click on it.
Your website
- Add an ‘Order Now’ or ‘Click & Collect’ button to your website navigation.
- Include clear ‘Calls-To-Action’ across your website.
- Add promotional banners to your homepage .
- Experiment with a pop-up message when customers arrive on your website (e.g. ‘Did you know you could order online and collect in-store?).
Google My Business
- Claim your listing on Google My Business, which allows you to manage your business profile. Then, add your menu URL to the ‘menu’ and ‘place an order’ section — you can also share your online ordering site through the Posts feature of Google My Business.
Social media bios
- Make it easy for customers to order scrolling by adding your URL across your social media platforms:
- Update your ‘link in bio’ and description on Instagram – use menu building tools such as Linktree and Shorby to add multiple links and calls to action into your Instagram/social media channels.
- Add a “Shop Now” button to your Facebook profile.
- More in the full guide.
Step 2. Make it worth their while
Offering a special discount or exclusive offer is one of the best ways to tempt first-time Click & Collect customers. As you’re encouraging customers to change their behaviour, you often need an incentive to make changing their usual habits worth their while.
Think 10% off for a first order, promotions for specific days of the week e.g. a free coffee or fries, or you could incorporate any other discounts and promotions you have running.
McDonald’s are currently promoting their My McDonald’s app by giving exclusive daily offers to anyone who registers an account and downloads the app for a month. The app then encourages delivery and C&C orders through these offers – who could say no to that many nuggets?
You can then use email marketing, social media and in-store promotions to spread the word.
Unlock growth with loyalty and subscriptions
Loyalty and subscriptions are a perfect compliment to Click & Collect as you can reward customers for every order they place online – firming up the habit.
Our points-based loyalty scheme is completely customisable, allowing you to design your offering from scratch and control the economics. LEON increased their Click & Collect customers by 233% when they added our loyalty and subscriptions features!
Use email and SMS marketing to spread the word
Now that you’ve added incentives to your tactical plan, use email and SMS to promote the offers.
In our experience, Click & Collect works best with your regular customers. We recommend focusing your marketing efforts on your most engaged customers, as there’s more chance of you unlocking lifetime value from them.
Vita Mojo integrates with a number of CRM platforms to help you build loyalty and keep your customers coming back.
All ‘opt-in’ data instantly feeds into your CRM account, making it easy to connect with your customers and send a message:
- Thanks for ordering, here’s a 20% off voucher code for next time!
- Have you seen our new menu?
Step 3. Promote Click & Collect inside your restaurant
QR Codes
Create a QR code that links to your Vita Mojo menu and display it in your physical locations. Print it on promotional leaflets in your restaurant, display it on posters, or even add it to your next email newsletter.
Tell customers about Click & Collect at the till
Train your staff to remind guests that they can pre-order their next meal online to save time. You could also give customers a promotional card or leaflet with every order offering an incentive like a free coffee or 10% off the first time they make a Click & Collect order.
Signage and promotional materials
Use your signage, promotional posters or even your food packaging to tell your customers about the benefits of Click and Collect. I am Doner created flyers which they hand out with kiosk orders. They’ve seen an ATV increase of 43% for Click & Collect orders, so it’s definitely been worth the extra effort!
Step 4. Make the collection experience a breeze
You’ve done all the hard work getting your customers to use Click & Collect for the first time. Now it’s time to make the collection experience as easy as possible (this really is the make or break for encouraging that next order!).
Introduce a clear and easy process for collection
Tossed, a true early tech adopter in the hospitality industry made the move to become fully digital in 2016. They now see 71% of Click & Collect orders come from repeat customers. They’ve focused on making the collection process seamless, which includes:
- Collection screens outside the restaurant with order numbers/names.
- A dedicated collection point in the restaurant.
- Staff greet customers warmly when they walk in and when they give them their food.
Customers in the queue will see people coming in and collecting their order in seconds. This in itself acts as an amazing advert for Click & Collect – food envy is real!
Engaging the team
Train and engage your restaurant team to become advocates of digital ordering. Training team members doesn’t end with a single training session at launch. It’s important to make sure that new starters have Vita Mojo training included as part of their onboarding to ensure it’s a fully fledged part of your restaurant operations. This way, they’ll feel comfortable using the system as well as recommending and reminding customers to use Click & Collect.
Get started with driving Click & Collect adoption
The best way to get going is to start with the quick wins first, and then you can refine your process over time. If you’re a restaurant operator looking to implement a Click & Collect function within your restaurant operations, take a look at our Click & Collect feature, or why not have a chat with one of our team who can talk through your current situation!
