How to Use Digital Signage In Restaurant To Get More Sales

‘You eat with your eyes first. ’ Ever heard of this phrase? In these times, when attention spans are shorter, there is no better way to catch a diner’s attention than with a vibrant digital signage. Not only by bringing in your best dishes to the center, but also by providing updated information, a digital signage restaurant can do a lot more than you can imagine. Yet, many restaurant owners use outdated print boards and paper menus to capture the visitors. Well, to be honest, you are missing out on a big engagement and walk-ins. 

Considering all this, we are here with this blog on how to use a digital display in restaurant to get more sales and drive revenue. 

Benefits of Digital Signage in Restaurants

A Digital signage brings many opportunities and benefits with it. Let us look at some of them: 

• Great Customer Experience

Installing digital signage in restaurants brings with it a great customer experience, providing a visually appealing view to the visitors. This captivates the visitor’s attention, and they feel welcomed and entertained. This keeps them coming back for more because nothing beats the power of engaging modern technology.

• More Engagement and Interaction 

By adding digital signage in restaurants to display menus, special offers, and other fun social media content, you spark engagement at the place. This enhanced engagement will not only make the dining experience more fun but also encourage visitors to participate in and share their experiences and become loyal customers. 

• Dynamic Content Reach

With digital signage installation, you can display a wide variety of content on the screens, from dishes to live videos and behind-the-scenes footage. This instantly grabs the attention and enhances your brand image as well. 

• Real Time Promotions 

You can easily display your offers and promotions on your menus and new launches in real time and keep your customers updated. This ensures that your customers all see the latest content, and you can maximize your sales throughout the season. 

Types of Digital Signage in Restaurants

There are certain types of digital signage for restaurants. Let us look at some of them: 

• Menu Boards

The static menu board is outdated, and nowadays, digital menu boards are used by cafes and restaurants for display. These cafe digital signage can be updated instantly in real time and can be read easily by your customers with engaging animations. Diners get more attracted to the colorful displays and have high definition displays, fonts, and more features that make their experience memorable. 

• Tabletop or Countertop Displays

Tabletop and countertop displays are transforming the way restaurants deal with their customer orders. It allows customers to view the menu, descriptions, offers, images, and more right on the table and order from there. Like menu boards, they are also updated in real-time, so customers always see the most up-to-date information. This digital signage in restaurants leads to more customer engagement and satisfaction, without having to wait in long queues. 

• Drive-Thru & Outdoor Boards

Drive-thru and outdoor boards have enhanced the QSR journey worldwide. These digital signage in restaurants are placed at various drive-thru and outdoor locations to enable instant interaction with customers. They combine the restaurant menu with captivating visuals, real-time updates, and other features to give customers an interactive ordering experience. Outdoor digital signage is often weather-resistant to withstand extreme temperatures. Such digital signage plays a huge role in attracting customers, streamlining ordering workflow, and boosting sales. 

Strategic Placement of Your Restaurant Digital Signage

To create maximum impact of your digital signage in restaurants, consider these strategic placement positions for it: 

• Choosing High-Traffic Zones

Digital signage in restaurants must be strategically placed in the high-traffic areas or point-of-sale locations to get the maximum output. Choose areas such as entrances, drive-thrus, corridors, and more to drive engagement. These areas catch the attention of the visitors easily and get better exposure for your restaurant. 

• Store Front Windows

Dynamic restaurant content, such as discounts, promotions, new launches, daily specials, and more, can be dynamically displayed on the storefront windows. The real-time content displayed on digital signage in restaurants captures maximum attention and provides a great experience. You can also display here the complementary products and other upselling elements for extra revenue. 

• In Dining Areas

This is the most apt place for placing your digital signage as it sparks conversation related to your restaurant at the table. Plus, you can display here your live social media content, user-generated content such as customer reviews, to build customer trust and loyalty. This creates a dynamic experience for the diners and helps create a memorable experience for your customers while they enjoy the food. 

• Near the Counter 

By placing digital signage near the counter, you can help reduce the wait time and create a lasting experience for the customer. This allows customers to view the daily specials, updates, promotions, and offers easily. Additionally, it streamlines the ordering process and also simplifies the work pressure of the restaurant staff. 

Digital Signage in Restaurants: Design Principles 

Follow these principles to run a successful digital signage in restaurants: 

• Brand Consistency

Brand consistency means your digital signage should showcase your restaurant messaging and other elements in a similar vibe. This means your signage and restaurant logos, patterns, colors, fonts, and more should belong to the same world. Maintaining consistency across your digital signage makes your brand stand out and unforgettable to the users. This combination builds trust and establishes your brand reputation in a great way. 

• Clear Fonts

Your fonts and their colors should be in a high resolution and adjustable contrast so that viewers can easily read them without any interruption. Be it outdoors or indoors, the readability of your content is an essential element. Don’t pick harsh colors; instead, opt for subtle fonts and colors to grab the viewer’s attention. 

• Engaging Visuals

A picture is worth more than a thousand words, especially when you are hungry. Consider adding visually pleasing digital signage content ideas including mouth-watering animations of the dishes to spark the urge to order instantly. This not only creates a dynamic ambiance but also encourages impulse buying to order complementary dishes simultaneously. 

• Real Time Updates

Outdated menu and late updates create chaos and confusion. So, consider a tool that gives real-time updates. With real-time updates, you can update your promotions, daily specials, seasonal specials, and more. This keeps your customers informed and updated all the time. 

• Proper Lightning

Great digital signage in restaurants is nothing if you can’t see it. Be it sunlight, rain, or night, your digital signage should shine and must be visible to your customers. Ensure that you keep the proper lighting, such as LEDs, high contrast, and good backlight, so that your content always remains visible. 

• Keep It Simple

Less is more in digital signage, too! Do not overload your screen and make it content-heavy. Consider a clean layout, few visuals, and pop-ups, plus only the relevant information on the screen. This makes it easy for customers to make decisions and enhance their overall experience. 

Connecting Digital Signage with Tech Systems

To create a maximum impact, try connecting your restaurant’s digital signage with these popular tech systems: 

• POS & Menu Management Integration

Integrating your digital signage with point of sales (POS) and menu means dynamic content updates and no errors. Your customer will never get confused regarding the orders and available menu items. Imagine if a few items go ‘sold out’, so you don’t have to update it manually, it will reflect this automatically on the screen. This will not only reduce order errors but also allow the staff to focus more on service rather than manual updates. 

• Scheduling Platforms

Breakfast menu, lunch menu, snacks, or dinner, all your menus will be updated automatically on your screen. How? By connecting your digital signage with scheduling platforms. Besides menus, you can even schedule other content changes such as specials, happy hour deals, and more. This will allow staff to manage the workflow easily and enhance the customer experience. 

• Analytics & Reporting

Imagine how amazing it will be if you are able to catch which dishes attract the audience and what promotions spark more sales? All these things will be possible with analytics and reporting integrated with your signage. Getting insights such as sentiments, engagement, and more will help you refine your restaurant marketing strategy. 

• Interactive Features 

Give your guests a next-level experience by adding an interactive feature to your restaurant displays. You can add gamification elements, real-time reactions, display their fun moments on the screens, and more on your restaurant signage. This interactive digital signage will spark curiosity and create lasting moments for your guests while they enjoy food. 

Case Studies & Success Stories

Check out these interactive success stories of digital display in restaurants and get inspired by them:

• Pizza Hut Interactive Table Top

Pizza Hut is taking a huge leap in this competitive marketing by setting up innovative touchscreen tables in its restaurants. This collaboration with Chaotic Moon Studios has transformed the way customers are ordering food. The Pizza Hut tagged this concept as ‘the concept car of pizza ordering’ and is winning the hearts in their community by building this level of fun and interaction. 

• Starbucks Real Time Updates

Starbucks looks forward to cutting its wait times and aiming for four minutes for drive-thrus and 12 minutes for mobile orders. With the powerful real-time updates and other integrations, it is improving their customer experience and reducing their staff workflow as well. Moreover, the coffee chain is further exploring the use of new technologies and algorithms to improve the overall work environment and efficiency. 

Conclusion

Digital signage in restaurants stands out as a powerful tool for both enhancing your customer experience and managing your staff workflow. From placing it in high-traffic areas to maintaining design principles, digital signage is transforming the way brands communicate and build their community. We hope you are now aware of the importance of digital signage in restaurants and are ready to create an impact by installing it in your restaurants. If you are looking for a perfect tool for this, then go for Social Walls. It comes with great gamification elements, themes, layouts, real-time updates, and a lot more. 

Check it out today, and let your restaurant’s digital signage shine with Social Walls.