Digital Menu Boards: The Secret Weapon for Restaurant Sales

Although technology will never completely replace the need for humans in quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, digital menu technology can greatly assist your current sales force. Tossing in dynamic video, vibrant imagery, and timely details not only enhance your team’s efforts, but it could be the secret weapon to boosting restaurant sales overall. 

“The conversation I usually like to have with a lot of our clients is about how they’re interacting with and engaging their guests from the moment they walk through the doors,” said Patrick Berner, QSR and fast-casual consultant with WAND.

“For example, do they hire employees to greet people at the door, walk them through the menu, talk to them about their menu offerings, make suggestions, things like that? Obviously the answer is ‘No’ … their margins are already slim and it would be tough financially for a restaurant to hire another person to focus on those duties. Instead, they cross-train the person who works the register to try and upsell a cookie or a beverage, but most times when somebody approaches the register, they already have their mind made up on what they’re ordering, so that’s not as effective,” Berner said.

When used correctly, digital menu boards are doing a job, just as an employee might do. “When you present the right content and the right message to people who are walking in, you can capture their attention and influence their purchase before or while they’re in that decision-making process,” said Berner.

Blending industry expertise, strategic marketing, specialized creativity, and advanced technology, digital menu boards tie all the other promotional efforts together and help enhance the customer experience, as well as increase sales and boost the bottom line.

In the past, all an operator could do was organize their menu in a static presentation and hope for the best. Now, with digital menu technology, they find out what works and what doesn’t, make quick adjustments, and use their in-store menus as one of their most effective selling tools. With technology that combines creativity, resources, and real-time capabilities, operators can seize upsell opportunities, influence customer behavior, and boost sales in new ways.