5 Minutes with Trevor Tyler from the Eureka! Restaurant Group
With twenty-five locations across California, the Eureka! Restaurant Group operates a series of modern restaurants ...
As many breweries, bars, brewpubs, and restaurants reopen and business owners strategize around how to successfully run their companies in a pandemic climate, finding the best way to safely and efficiently display menus has become essential.
If you’re the person making a decision about menu displays for your organization, you’re probably asking yourself several questions. Should you start or continue using paperless QR codes? Go to a digital menu board? Or switch back to paper menus? The decision you make could have huge repercussions on whether or not you attract new customers, retain loyal ones, and boost your bottom line.
For the last three months, the CPG Restaurant Group has been leveraging Untappd for Business’ QR codes and digital menus to help organize and implement drink and food menus in a safe, contactless way across their two Cheesie's Pub & Grub and Whiskey Business establishments in Chicago, IL. With over 45,000 menu views at Whiskey Business and both Cheesie’s Pub & Grub locations combined over three months, the CPG Restaurant Group reports that their experience with Untappd for Business has been overwhelmingly positive. For them, Untappd for Business QR codes have helped reduce printing costs and improve their bottom line, with whiskey sales for all of their locations increasing by a combined fifty percent.
But the PJW Restaurant Group, which operates twenty-six locations across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has gone a different direction, using Untappd for Business software to create custom digital and print menus. In the last year and a half, they’ve racked up 300,000 menu views, almost 15,000 check-ins, and just under 10,000 unique users. However, like the CPG Restaurant Group, PJW reports that their experience with Untappd for Business has been very beneficial for a majority of its businesses.
Because businesses are unique, each of them have different needs. Below, we take a look at all three menu options available for Untappd for Business partners, along with the pros and cons of each.
What We’ll Cover In This Piece:
QR Code Menus - What Are They? Pros vs. Cons
Print Menus - What Are They? Pros vs. Cons
Digital Menu Boards - What Are They? Pros vs. Cons
How Do You Choose?
What Are They? Essentially square barcodes, QR code’s are graphics that customers can scan through their device of choice (usually a smartphone) to pull up a digital menu. With Untappd for Business, QR codes are generated through the main platform through the Untappd for Business dashboard.
“By scanning a QR code, any customer with a phone can pull up an Untappd menu to see the different offerings and what's available,” says Alex Labonge, Enterprise Account Executive at Next Glass, the parent company of Untappd for Business.
PROS:
CONS:
Overall: For businesses with a younger clientele, QR codes can be the perfect way to safely display your menus. If you have an older customer base, then QR codes may not be the best solution.
What Are They? These old-fashioned versions of a menu are printed out for customers to pick up and read at their leisure, either at their table or up front at a POS system.
PROS:
CONS:
Overall: Labonge says that paper menus might be more appealing to mom-and-pop shops that don’t need to frequently change their menus. But bigger businesses or those focusing on sustainability might want to explore QR codes or digital menu boards to keep down their ink and printing budgets and to keep from wasting paper.
What Are They?: An included service for Untappd for Business subscribers, digital menu boards are menus displayed on TVs throughout your establishment. The only requirement to make the digital boards work is an Amazon Fire Stick that plugs into an HDMI port on the back of the screen. You also need an internet connection.
PROS:
CONS:
Overall: Digital menu boards can be a great option for sports bars, establishments that have a younger to middle age audience, or those with manageable tap lists.
So which menu type should you use to display your offerings? It all comes down to knowing your space and audience.
Spacewise, if you have a gigantic bar or restaurant and you only have a single tiny TV screen, then digital menu boards probably aren’t the best option. But if you’re a small beer bar looking for a safe, contactless way to display your current tap list, then digital menu boards can be great.
Of course, you have to be in tune with your clientele. Who is coming into your space?
“If you’re trying to appeal to the younger generation that’s always on their phone, just give them a QR code to make the flow seamless,” says Labonge. “But if you're appealing to a more high-end whiskey or craft beer bar where people aren’t often on their phones, we’d encourage different items.”
Knowing your brand, your audience, and what you’re trying to achieve are things to consider first and foremost when deciding which menu type is right for you.
See why more than 20,000 venues around the world use Untappd for Business for menus, analytics, and promotion of their venue. Schedule a demo or start your 30 day free trial – no credit card required.
If you have other questions or need help deciding which menu type to use, the Untappd team can help! Reach out today!
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