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Opportunities galore in Restaurant Industry Today!
Remesh Kuruppath
CEO- Netvarth Technologies Inc.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Has there been much change in the Restaurant Industry in the last 12 to 13 years with respect to their usage of Internet technologies? Overall, it is a NO! The limited attempts were Open Table's (NASDAQ: OPEN) capitalization early on restaurant reservations and Snapfinger.com’s presence in the Online Food Ordering for large chains. But the majority of restaurants in the U.S. belong to the category of solo restaurants and small chains. And their potential to use Internet technologies for marketing as well as for operations is not still addressed well by the IT industry. The IT industry can help these restaurants in Social Media Marketing with Facebook pages, Facebook Apps and so on. But very few restaurants are into making use such promotional opportunities.

Restaurants should be creating for the minimum a Facebook page and generate "Likes". They should update the page on a regular basis with special restaurant offerings and promotions. It is also important that the Restaurants should maintain a dynamic website and update it regularly. The Facebook page should be pointing to the Restaurant website. Restaurants need to systematically create and modify their menus on a regular basis. They also should be able to publish Special Occasion menus as and when needed. Still, a standard or leading IT provider hasn’t emerged in this area yet. Restaurants also need Web/Mobile Apps in real time interactions with the restaurant patrons/customers. Restaurants should have promotional discount programs including Printed coupons and eCoupons. This is a must to increase visibility and engage certain segment of the restaurant patrons. Restaurants also should avail the opportunity to take food orders online. This would allow them to attend to the orders offline unlike phone orders. A cost effective IT solution offering hasn't made in-roads into the industry yet!

Restaurant also should send regular Newsletters to their loyal customer base to keep them engaged and excited over the many different offerings at the restaurant. It is natural to suggest that Restaurants should offer Customer Loyalty programs because 20 percent of their customers account for 80 percent of their revenue. Restaurants also should allow their patrons to sign up as Frequent Diners and avail the many different customer loyalty programs. In short, restaurant owners and managers should be cost effectively use Social Media and other Internet and Mobile Apps to generate more visibility and as a result more revenue and profit. And this necessitates the IT industry to provide cost-effective solutions to address these.

Netvarth Technologies Inc is a provider of web based Restaurant Management System (RMS) through ForkWorld.com. It provides a wide range of solutions that manage data across multiple departments within a single repository. Using its Web-RMS a restaurant can change customer experience to another level while effectively managing business operations and reducing IT costs dramatically.

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