How online ordering reports can be used to grow your business

The most valuable resource that any business owns is its data. Businesses use their data for a wide variety of reasons, but most importantly, they use it to make key decisions based on hard facts, and not just gut feelings. The sheer amount of data available in this day and age, though, makes it no wonder that the majority of small businesses feel overwhelmed when it comes to how data can be used to help them succeed. 

With so many other things to worry about, it's hard for people to set aside time for collecting, interpreting, and applying data to their business - and this is especially true in the food service industry. Luckily for food service business owners, there are online ordering technologies available that make the process of understanding and acting on customer data as simple and pain-free as possible.

Customer Order Reports

Knowing who your customers are and how they place orders with your business are two important building blocks of any growth marketing plan. By accessing customer order reports through online ordering technology, businesses can gain a better understanding of their customers’ ordering habits, and use that information to their advantage.

Customer order reports allow you to see who your customers are, what specific items and types of orders they place, when they order, where they order from, and how they place orders with your business. With this information in hand, you can easily set up marketing campaigns that ensure the growth of both your revenue and your order quantity.

Some order reports go as far as allowing businesses to view their top customers in terms of money spent and the number of orders they’ve placed. This data can be used to set up targeted marketing campaigns and loyalty programs, which are even more effective ways of reaching your most valuable customers.

Sales Order Reports

Online ordering reports focused on sales give business owners access to information about top-selling menu items, and popular promotions and discounts. By understanding which menu items are most popular, you can feature these items prominently on your digital menu and increase orders of the items that customers want most. Featuring top-selling items on menus also makes for a more streamlined ordering experience, as customers are more likely to find the food they’re looking for without having to dig through your entire menu.

At any given time, most businesses are running a handful of promotions and discounts to drive their sales. Sales order reports make it easy for business owners to see which of their promos and discounts are successful, and which ones probably need some rethinking. Knowing this information allows businesses to focus their attention on maximizing the benefits of successful promos and discounts, and it also allows them to apply the things they learn from successful promos and discounts to ones they might run in the future.

Other Order Reports

For businesses that offer delivery services, there are ordering reports available that generate a heatmap of the locations that are most popular for their delivery orders. 

With access to information about popular delivery areas, businesses can optimize their drivers’ delivery routes - saving both time and money. Businesses can also choose to turn off or limit delivery options for areas that produce less orders than others, or alternatively, they can choose to grow their orders in those areas with geographically-targeted marketing campaigns.

Another type of ordering report is an analysis of a business' revenue stream by payment type. These reports provide information on the payment methods that customers use most, giving businesses a deeper insight into their customer demographics and allowing them to adjust their payment processes as needed.

Key Takeaways

• Businesses should take advantage of the reports and analytics tools that online ordering technologies provide to make effective, data-driven decisions.

• Customer order reports provide insight into who your customers are, and they’re the foundation of any dynamic marketing strategy.

• Sales order reports allow businesses to understand which of their menu items, promotions, and discounts are most popular. Using this info for menu design and promo/discount planning can lead to meaningful revenue and order growth.

• Delivery heatmap reports are useful for optimizing delivery routes and marketing delivery services to the geographic areas surrounding your business.

• Payment type reports provide a deeper glimpse into your customer demographics and payment preferences.

Grow Your Business with Online Ordering Reports

The reports generated by online ordering technologies are powerful tools that can enable serious revenue and order growth for your business. With all of the complex problems that businesses face today, it’s important to have access to the information you need to make strategic, data-driven decisions.

Most online ordering service providers refuse to share customer data with their food service clients, which is why it’s crucial to partner with a company like Zuppler to gain full access to the data that your business generates. Zuppler provides business clients with complete control over their customer and operations data, in addition to the range of other online ordering services they provide.

Talk to a Zuppler online ordering specialist to get started with Online Ordering Reports on the Zuppler Menu Anywhere Platform today!