Online Ordering: New BentoBox Features to Save Time & Increase Revenue

In the two years since we launched Online Ordering, we’ve helped our customers process nearly 5 million direct online orders and drive nearly $260 million in direct online ordering revenue.

Our branded online storefronts have always been easy to manage and optimized for high checkout rates, but just as a restaurant periodically upgrades its menu with new dishes, our team periodically upgrades online ordering with new features.

After speaking with restaurant operators about the features they wish they had in an online ordering platform, we’ve rolled out several enhancements over the past few months. Read on to learn more about each new feature, why we built it and how it works.

Design & Customization

Why We Built It: Branding and design help restaurants create a cohesive, ownable diner experience. However, most online ordering platforms prioritize their own brand over the restaurant's, which can be awkward when diners click from a fully branded restaurant website. We wanted to make that experience more seamless, so diners would feel like the restaurant — not a third-party — is processing their order. And we wanted to do it at no extra cost.

How It Works: With Design & Customization, restaurants can add custom fonts, colors and header layouts to their online ordering page. BentoBox designers work with restaurants to customize these designs, just like they do with the rest of the restaurant's website. In the examples above, Geno's Fish & Chips (left) and Someday Bar (middle) make great use of colors and headers to bring their brands through, while Weeyums Philly Style (right) shows how custom fonts can make an online ordering page far more ownable.

Diner Feedback

Why We Built It: Restaurants can’t resolve diner issues unless they know what went wrong. Unfortunately, third-party platforms often withhold diner feedback, depriving restaurants the chance to fix mistakes and improve operations. This gatekeeping sours a diner's experience, decreases their likelihood of returning and hurts the restaurant's reputation. If diners have feedback about their experience, restaurants should hear it.

How It Works: With Diner Feedback, restaurants can automatically ask diners to provide a 1-5 star rating and optional notes about their experience. Diners receive the automated messages via email and text 1-2 hours after their order has been completed. Feedback is stored in the BentoBox guest database, allowing restaurants to easily reconcile with guests via promo codes and digital gift cards.

Facebook & Instagram Ordering Integration

Why We Built It: Direct online ordering provides many benefits to restaurants — but to realize those benefits, they need to drive more diners to their websites instead of third-party marketplaces. Facebook and Instagram, where many diners follow restaurants, are great places to drive that web traffic. But this approach will only work if restaurants make ordering through Facebook and Instagram user-friendly.

How It Works: Restaurants can connect Online Ordering directly to their Facebook and Instagram accounts. This allows them to place an "Order Now" button on their pages and an “Order Now” sticker in Stories. Diners can order directly through those links, and the orders are processed through the same direct online ordering system as website orders. This way, restaurant operators avoid the hassle of bouncing between platforms.

Modifier Groups

Why We Built It: Editing and updating menu items with modifiers is one of the most tedious parts of managing an online ordering store. If a restaurant offers fries as a modifier for 40 different entrees, it would need to create fries as a modifier 40 different times. More importantly, if it sells out of fries and needs to 86 them, or it wants to increase the price of fries, it would need to make those updates 40 different times. This wastes time and increases the risk of human error, which can lead to negative diner experiences.

How It Works: Rather than managing modifiers at the item level, Modifier Groups allow restaurants to manage them independently and apply them to multiple items. In the example above, they would set up fries as a modifier once, then assign it to all 40 entrees that offer fries. If the fries sell out or need a price increase, the restaurant would just change it once, and the update would apply to all 40 entrees. The guest experience doesn’t change, but behind the scenes, the process is far more streamlined.

In-House Payment Processing

Why We Built It: Integrations are helpful because they bridge different technologies from different companies. However, if restaurants can use best-in-class technologies from the same company, rather than needing to manage integrations, it does create time and cost efficiencies. Ever since BentoBox joined forces with Fiserv and Clover, we’ve searched for ways to create these efficiencies for our customers. Payments (powered by Clover), which restaurants can use to access an end-to-end payments solution, is one of those efficiencies.

How It Works: Rather than needing to integrate with third-parties like Stripe or Square, Clover provides simple payment processing for all online ordering and e-commerce transactions on BentoBox. You don’t need a Clover POS to access Clover Payments, but if you have one, you can use this to create an end-to-end payment solution across POS and online transactions. New customers also get access to simplified pricing rates, which allow them to absorb a single transaction fee across multiple credit card providers.

Online Ordering: New BentoBox Features to Save Time & Increase Revenue

Design & Customization

Diner Feedback

Facebook & Instagram Ordering Integration

Modifier Groups

In-House Payment Processing

Deliver Smarter Hospitality

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