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Say you’ve finally got your QSR business up and running. You hired a team of experts to build it for you, got a scrumptious menu, and a skilled kitchen crew to keep the business afloat, but the results are still lacking.
What is that ‘essential ingredient’ in every restaurateur’s recipe for success that you’re missing out on? Let’s find out!
The food industry is exploding and QSRs are at the forefront of the revolution—with technology helping restaurateurs make better decisions, serve more people, and bring new ideas to life.
Consumers now want everything on their palm-sized mobile devices, which means you have to have the best mobile ordering experience that will make them keep coming back for more.
In this run-down, we’ll discuss the best-in-class loyalty and engagement platform ‘Punchh’ as well as end-to-end digital ordering solutions ‘Olo’ and ‘NovaDine’ that have become the staples of restaurant app development today and why you should integrate them into your QSR mobile app too.
Olo – A Go-to for Mobile Ordering and Delivery
But why so? The answer lies in its diverse features that offer convenient and seamless order and delivery management for QSRs.
Own a Multi-Location QSR Brand? Olo Got You Covered!
Olo’s software-as-a-service (Saas) is designed to provide advanced digital ordering for restaurant app development. As a restaurateur running a large chain, we know there’s a lot on your plate.
Olo’s administrative dashboard enables control and visibility into location management in a restaurateur-friendly way. But there’s more to it than an intuitive interface for the users.
Orders placed through your QSR mobile ordering app and any aggregators are streamed directly into your POS system, so you can manage them easily. Olo has been making it easy to manage digital orders and deliveries just like that.
‘Order API’ Integration with Your Custom QSR Mobile App Made Easy
Olo’s robust API makes it easy for QSRs to create mobile ordering apps that extend their digital restaurant to customers wherever they might be.
To turn a simple app into a highly efficient online ordering mobile application, QSRs can collaborate with a restaurant mobile app development company and connect the existing app to Olo via an API to seamlessly transact orders into their existing systems.
Olo Dispatch for Convenient and Scalable Delivery
Scaling restaurant delivery is a great challenge, even for restaurateurs running a large chain.
Olo takes care of this problem by giving QSRs a competitive edge through its Dispatch capability. With Dispatch incorporated into your online order and delivery system, customers order from ‘your app’ but Olo uses third-party services to deliver it for you. In this way, you get to benefit from the scale of third-party services without having to pay them a substantial commission on each sale.
The platform also integrates with today’s growing number of Digital Service Providers (DSPs), enabling restaurateurs to offer an extensive delivery network.
Olo Rails for Efficient Third-Party Order Processing
Around 90% of people look for restaurants online before placing an order, even when they prefer to dine in. Most of them resort to a Google search to find a good place to eat or order online. Partnering with Google means Olo’s Rails will be integrated with Google Maps, Search, and Assistant – resulting in a surge in search traffic volume and orders coming in from those channels. Orders placed through Google apps will be sent directly to the QSR’s POS and order stream.
In Short, Olo is Compatible, Reliable, and Secure
As an open architecture platform, Olo offers flexibility and ease of integration with any QSR’s existing technology. Its user-friendly software integrates seamlessly with any QSR POS system, CRM systems, and loyalty programs, even when the QSR has many different POS suppliers and off-POS software.
That’s not all—the software is compatible with any KDS (Kitchen Display Systems) and back-of-house operations. Additionally, Olo leverages Cloudflare’s WAF (Web Application Firewall) and DDoS mitigation to ensure its sites are more secure from many forms of online attacks.
Novadine: Enterprise-Class Digital Ordering Solution
NovaDine’s comprehensive set of solutions was introduced after analyzing a simple question: how can restaurants achieve their visions of hospitality while also being profitable in this shifted world?
And the analysis culminated in one simple approach ‘digital transformation’.
In today’s digital world, meeting customer expectations of a high-quality hospitality experience is the number one concern.
Which makes it clear that winning business owners will be the ones who invest wisely in digital operations, marketing, and technology.
NovaDine provides numerous services to support business owners in their restaurants’ digital transformation.
Online Ordering
Prior to COVID-19, mobile ordering was a rapidly expanding trend, but COVID-19 has further accelerated this trend.
One of the numerous benefits of using the NovaDine system for your QSR business is how quickly and easily it can be deployed. New features can be quickly and easily integrated into the platform without difficulty or downtime during the process of restaurant app development.
Moreover, as a restaurateur, you can either integrate the system with your pre-existing POS system or use it as a turnkey stand-alone solution.
Take a look at the key ingredients that help Novadine outshine other end-to-end mobile ordering solutions:
POS Integration
A Point of Sale (POS) system is the heart of any restaurant business, helping them to run smarter and keep costs down.
Novadine’s marketplace integration facilitates a more seamless and efficient operation by tying together POS, online ordering, and a strong mobile presence.
Some of the prominent features Novadine offers in terms of POS integration include:
On-Demand Delivery Apps
We’ve seen a surge in on-demand delivery orders, such as NovaDine, that help brands solve problems efficiently and accelerate business growth.
NovaDine also offers a delivery-as-a-service feature that integrates with your restaurant’s in-store POS system and delivery service providers such as Postmates, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. This feature is a money-saving option for restaurants because it foregoes third-party marketplace fees. There’s no additional transaction fee per order.
Contactless Curbside Pickup
Through NovaDine’s contactless curbside pickup, customers are automatically assigned available pickup slots for their orders, and the restaurant is notified when a customer arrives to pick up their food order along with the slot to drop it in.
The good thing about this feature is that it holds the functionality of a locker system, without any additional expense.
After a customer places the order ahead of pickup, arrives at the location, selects curbside check-in, and enters information regarding the parking slot number and vehicle details, the NovaDine system creates a unique customer ID alert. It then notifies the POS by either generating a ticket or displaying a notification on the kitchen monitor.
Now that we’ve walked you through these two amazing digital ordering solutions, let’s also crack another code for you that relates to a better ROI, boosting sales, and a loyal customer base.
All of this (and more) can be achieved through a loyalty and engagement platform. And while we talk about an amazing loyalty and engagement platform, all we can think of is ‘Punchh’.
Power of Punchh to Increase Loyalty Sales for QSRs
Punchh is a leading customer loyalty and engagement solution that helps restaurateurs understand their customers and use real data insights to serve them best. An AI-powered platform that builds meaningful relationships and dramatically increases lifetime customer value through data-driven one-to-one customer engagement.
Optimizing for Loyalty
Punchh makes use of forward-thinking analytics to help QSR brands connect with their customers at a deeper level.
It enables them to collect data from all potential touchpoints in order to design and distribute personalized offers and communications across consumers’ chosen channels at the most appropriate moments, hence increasing lifetime loyalty and value.
Punchh also launched WiFi marketing to help brick-and-mortar restaurants identify potential new customers and market to them in real time. It provides seamless integration with Punchh Marketing Cloud to catalyze retailers’ capabilities to identify and engage potential customers.
A Pinch of Digital and a Dash of Loyalty for a Successful QSR Mobile Application
McDonald’s international sales rose more than 20% during the first quarter. This included growth in the company’s largest international markets and surpassing expectations for revenues in those regions. But how did they do it?
McDonald’s recently inked deals with major third-party delivery providers, including DoorDash and Uber Eats. The company also credited its loyalty program, MyMcDonald’s Rewards, for bolstering sales during the period. And it said marketing promotions involving core menu items also contributed to sales during the period.
Key takeaway? You got that right! A perfect blend of digital ordering and loyalty programs was the secret ingredient McDonald’s used in their recipe for outstanding sales in the first quarter of 2022.
We don’t have to press on this anymore about how a digital ordering solution paired with a loyalty and engagement program can transform your QSR mobile app into a digital extension of your restaurant.
If your QSR business is looking to create or enhance its mobile app, reach out to CitrusBits for a free consultation. We’ve worked extensively with Olo, NovaDine, Punchh, and other popular third-party service providers, building best-in-class digital restaurant solutions for many of the best QSR chains in the U.S.
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