Open Dining: Online ordering made easy

Hey, all you restaurant owners out there that offer a takeout/delivery service as well as the experience to sit in your dining room take note. If your customers can book a table online then there’s no reason why the guy at home can’t order a meal online.

Open Dining offers an app that can give your restaurant this functionality in an easy to use format that could also have some impact on your bottom line too if you believe the research. According to the site, online orders can often be at least 20% larger than call-in ones so you might be missing a trick.

The app can be dropped into your own website without the need for coding. With your restaurant set up it’s quickly made available on the Open Dining platform with the menu submitted to Google and other search engines.

Customers using the online function are taken to an easy to use booking page where your menu is set out in category order with descriptions of dishes and prices and a simple tick against an item and the number required is all that’s needed. The page can also have boxes for any coupon code you may be offering as a promotion.

Check out is by secure credit/debit card gateway which can be plugged into your own merchant account so you have the cash even if the “diner” fails to show up for the order. The orders themselves are taken by a central hub and then either faxed or phoned through to you.

The app can also be added to your Facebook page for even more exposure and if you want to customize it and get orders sent straight to you then access to the Open Dining Platform open to you.

Conclusion
At 50 cents an order, which can be passed on to customers of course, this app will add another dynamic to a restaurant’s income stream.