Restaurant Digital Signage: 5 Highly Effective Use Cases

You’ve seen the technology used everywhere from McDonald’s drive-thrus to CREAM ice cream shops. The digital signage industry is growing like crazy, and restaurants are on the frontier. There’s a good chance you’ve come across digital displays in your quest for hunger. Restaurants are looking to digital signage for more than just a low-cost alternative to traditional signage. They are hoping to break open a new marketing tool for interacting with their customers like never before. But what opportunities are available to your business? Here are five effective ways to use digital signage in your restaurant!

1.) Decrease perception of wait time

Long wait times can be a major issue for small restaurants or restaurants in high-population density locations. Studies have shown that:

”Any information provided during the waiting period can reduce the uncertainty of the wait and lower the level of stress experienced by consumers. Moreover, the uncertainty waiting time will influence customers’ emotional responses, and then the customers’ emotional responses will affect their service evaluation to this restaurant.” – University of Massachusetts

The ability to showcase live waitlists through digital signage allows you to conveniently inform guests of their spot in line. This also provides you with a prime spot to either upsell menu items (which we’ll get into next) or collect third-party revenue from advertising.

2.) Draw attention to the latest promotions

Advertise your latest additions, promotions and marketing campaigns with image or video advertisements. Have a weekly happy hour you’d like to drive more traffic to? Let your customers know! Not only does it spread the word, it works. According to a study by Capital Networks, advertising a menu item through digital signage can boost sales for that item and even prevent its sales from declining. Digital signage can also be a great tool for upselling menu items, especially those nearing the end of their seasonal cycle. By positioning your display near the point of purchase, a suggested sell can have a notable impact on your revenue.

3.) Get your customers sharing on social media

With Instagram becoming the second most popular social network for teens, it’s now more important than ever to encourage guests to bring out their inner foodie. Social media walls are a great way to build your following on social and get your customers posting to your hashtag or handle on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Yelp. Not only is it fun for customers to see their posts reach the screen, it also means free impressions for your business. La Taqueria, a popular San Francisco restaurant, attributed a 28% increase in sales to the exposure generated by their social media wall alone.

4.) Present your menu in new light

Digital menu boards are all the rage, and for good reason. The benefits of using a digital menu board make it a no-brainer for all restaurants in 2015. With the ability to instantly update your menu, you will ensure that customers are seeing the latest, greatest list of your offerings. Updating traditional signage can be a headache—not to mention expensive. Converting over to a digital menu will eliminate the question, “Is it time to update my menus?”

5.) Bring your online efforts into the store

Many brands are attempting to build their online brand from inside the restaurant. Showcasing your restaurant’s website or blog is a great way to do so. Attracting visitors to your website will open up great opportunities for collecting customer email addresses and other relevant information. This is highly valuable for creating programs that drive repeat business, which attributes to two-thirds of the average restaurant’s sales. Interested in learning more about Enplug digital signage for restaurants? Get started

Read more: 4 Innovative Bar & Restaurant Digital Signage Examples

*** Enplug digital signage software was co-founded by CEO Nanxi Liu and CTO Tina Denuit-Wojcik in 2012 to enable organizations to use customized real-time streaming content to create engaging external and internal communications.