A food truck business needs more than just tasty food to be successful. It also needs an easy-to-use booking system that keeps customers happy and lines moving quickly.
In the busy world we live in now, having a strong food truck ordering system can make all the difference. This guide will walk you through the steps you need to take to improve the ordering process and help your food truck grow.
Why Your Food Truck Needs An Ordering System?
No more waiting for a customer to hand over cash or a hand-written order on paper for food trucks. Now, people demand speed, smoothness, and technologically savvy orders. There are many advantages in store for the modern ordering system:
Lesser Wait Time: Speedy service will make customers happy and ensure increased turn-over.
Right Order: A digital system reduces the error extent as it takes orders directly from customers' mouths.
Increased Sales: Upselling and cross-selling become easy due to digital menus and automated suggestions.
Improved Customer Experience: Multiple ordering options, including kiosks and apps, make your food truck more accessible.
Step 1: Choose the Right Ordering System
The first step to setting up your food truck ordering system is choosing a solution that best suits your business needs. Here are a few options:
1. Self-Ordering Kiosks for Food Trucks
A self ordering kiosk is the best way to manage large volumes of customers without overextending your workforce. Kiosks allow clients to view menus, place orders, and make payments independently.
Pros: Saves on personnel requirements, saves on service delivery time, and has an edgy feel
Cons: It is capital intensive, thus expensive to set up, and requires constant maintenance.
2. Mobile Ordering Apps
A food truck ordering app allows clients to order via their phones. They can order beforehand and collect at your truck's convenience, which means there will be less congestion around your truck.
Pros: Convenient to the customer, brand loyalty, marketing.
Cons: Set up an app development and marketing campaign to drive downloads on the same.
3. Online Ordering Platforms
Online platforms enable customers to order directly from your website or a third-party service. This is great for trucks that park in semi-permanent locations or attend events regularly.
Pros: Easy to set up and manage, allows flexibility in accepting orders.
Cons: This may involve platform fees and less control over customer experience.
Step 2: Design Your Menu for Easy Accessibility
After deciding on your ordering system, it is time to create your menu. A clean menu allows your customers to pick their favorite product within a twinkle of an eye, which is important for quick service.
Designing a Good Food Truck Menu
Categorize your Menu: Organize your menu with well-defined categories like appetizers, mains, sides, and drinks.
Use High-Quality Images: Pictures allow customers to make better choices regarding what to order and upsell.
Highlight Popular and New Items: Stand-out dishes must be highlighted so customers will be enticed to try them.
Customization: Offer options for personalizing the order, like toppings or spice levels
Step 3: Integrate Payment Solutions
Multiple payment options would be the perfect solution for the customers' diverse tastes and an efficient food truck ordering system must be ensured. Whether you apply a self-ordering kiosk to the food truck or use a mobile app, multiple payment methods must be available.
Usual Payment Options
Credit and Debit Cards: It goes without saying. That is for the cashless transaction.
Mobile Wallet: The latest hot trends for wallets include Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
Cash: A section of clients still prefer cash, though most prefer digital payments.
Contactless Payment: Make the checkout process quick by admitting tap-to-pay cards and NFC payments.
Step 4: Staff Development
The best ordering system is useless if your employees are not adequately trained. Teach your employees about the system's regular functions, helping customers, and troubleshooting frequent complaints.
Focus Points
System Functionality: Teach employees to take orders, handle payment, and monitor back-end processes.
Customer Service: Educate your employees on assisting customers using self-ordering kiosks and apps.
Troubleshooting: Teach your employees to troubleshoot technical issues promptly and be prepared to handle customer complaints.
Step 5: Market Your New Order System
You have your new food truck order system ready; now it's time to share the news with the world. Use online and offline marketing methods to inform customers about the new ordering options.
Marketing
Social Media Campaigns: Share your new system on social media using attractive graphics and special offers.
Get Personalized Signage: Install prominent, transparent signage on the truck and elsewhere, reminding the walk-up business that they can pre-order on your kiosks and through the app.
Set Up a Loyalty Program: Create a loyalty program that rewards customers for their loyalty in mobile orders.
Prepare Your Food Truck For Success
The right kind of food truck ordering system can create efficiency in running your business operations, higher satisfaction among your customers, and hence business growth.
Be ready to change your food truck business by starting a high-tech order-taking system for more repeat customers. Speak to experts today at eatOS and learn more about what a good ordering system can do for your business.
