Improving the Customer Experience With Digital Menu Boards by:Bruce Leach

As competition in the restaurant industry grows

, so does the battle to provide the best experience for customers, thus being the best in the business. Smart, savvy restaurateurs have approached everything from their food to their atmosphere in order to provide an outstanding experience for customers in their restaurants, so it is no surprise that menu boards have also come under scrutiny.

Updated Menu Boards Open Up New Possibilities

Old style menu boards ranged from chalkboards, to preprinted signs, to signs with sliding menu options. Chalkboards had great functionality for constantly changing menus, but were not pretty. Preprinted signs had no functionality for changes, but could be quite attractive. The signs with sliding menu options were time consuming and awkward to change around, plus they were not interesting. With the expansion of digital media into marketing, digital menu boards are popping up as an alternative to past options, allowing restaurants to experience eye-catching graphics combined with the possibility of quick and easy menu changes.

Consumers in all areas of the retail world want the information they seek quickly. Digital menu boards provide:

- Time sensitive information quickly - current specials are highlighted

- Day parting - menus can be changed for the time of day, so that a breakfast menu will not be clogging up the options at lunch or dinner time

- Up selling - encouraging customers to buy higher end menu items

- Current pricing - the software for these systems makes it easy to add, remove, or change menu items at any time

- Compelling graphics and marketing - drawing in new customers and reinforcing brand or store loyalty for existing customers

Effective Marketing with Digital Menu Boards

Traditional marketing methods are being replaced by digital technology in many retail industries. Restaurants have recently followed suit, as restaurateurs have discovered the power of digital marketing.

- Numerous, dynamic advertisements replace lone, static messages

- Targeted advertising increases sales dramatically

- Individual stores can control their own promotions or chains can control marketing through central computer systems, providing a true one-size-fits-all marketing solution

- Time, location, and demographics information helps target advertising messages

- Budget constraints are met by cutting out the printing and shipping costs of paper marketing techniques

- Store brand is reinforced with catchy messages

- Store dcor is enhanced with sleek, stylish flat screen panels and eye-catching graphics

Send More Powerful Messages with Digital Marketing

Digital marketing, whether it is flat panel screens advertising for retail clothing outlets or digital menu boards in a fast food restaurant, sends out more powerful messages to the customer. In addition, going digital allows for more messages to be sent out to the customer! Striking images inspire customers with the power of suggestion, resulting in drawing new customers to the store, encouraging customers to return repeatedly, and driving up sales - the ultimate goals of any business.

Although digital menu boards provide a mode to present a list of food items with their prices and are decorative focal point, they are also a way to connect with the customer and fulfill a powerful marketing role. This, in turn, improves relations between the restaurant and customer, resulting in an improved customer experience.

About the author

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