We love hearing about new
ways technology is positively affecting the restaurant industry. The current surge in online ordering sites
and mobile apps is certainly no exception:
busy diners everywhere are relying on takeout and delivery to fill their
stomachs, and if they’ve never heard of your restaurant, they won’t be ordering
from you. Enter sites like GrubHub.com, and other online directories of restaurants that
hungry, hurried diners visit to find local restaurants that provide takeout and
delivery services in their area.
GrubHub has over one million
users searching its database for restaurant menus in over 500 cities
nationwide. Users create a free account
and log on to instantly access reviews and menus and place their order with a
few clicks.
Seamless.com is another big
player in the online ordering phenomenon.
Seamless works with over 12,000 restaurants (covering over 80 different
types of cuisine) to meet the one-stop-shop needs of those hungry and in a
hurry. Both GrubHub and Seamless also offer
hugely successful mobile apps to truly capture diners while they’re on the go.
Who is using these apps? From busy moms (GrubHub has been named one of
the top 11 time-saving sites for busy moms by Good Housekeeping) to corporate lunch-goers (Seamless’ app was recently
awarded a coveted space as one the World’s Greatest Apps by Business Insider), customers everywhere are
increasingly turning to the convenience of the web. With the ability to get coupons, leave
restaurant feedback, and even track their orders, they have little reason to
check the Yellow Pages to search for their next bite.
Restaurants of all sizes can instantly cast a wider net by making their menus available through these apps. Small establishments that don’t have the resources to create an online presence on their own can now make themselves known to customers that would be in too much of a hurry to find them otherwise. According to Grub Hub, 89% of their customers have tried out a new restaurant using the Grub Hub service. And in the last year, over 1.6 million diners used Grub Hub to find food. That’s a lot of sales!
To sign up to be listed in
these directories is FREE to restaurants; most will ask you to pay a small fee
from the orders they direct to your business.
To get started, check out the links below.