Building a premium brand

Building a premium brand

‍

It’s important to acknowledge the large time and expense business owners invest into the front of house customer service. Yet for an  online shop, this area can be side-lined or placed in the too hard basket.  Like a large portion of the hospitality sector, websites, apps and  online ordering are not the core business, yet they play a pivotal role  in today’s operating environment. So how do you create a premium online  store that captures customer attention and drive sales? Let’s take a look at how the principles of day to day operations can incorporate an effective online brand. ‍

Business as usual for online ordering

Managing customer service is core business as usual for walk in customers. With a  little time and thought, your quality of customer service can be replicated through your online business (technology is great for that!).  Once the initial setup work is complete, your virtual store then passively goes about its business as an extension of your shop.  Having a  professional online store builds trust with the online customer segment  and can lead to long lasting results and reoccurring customer engagement.

Here are three easy steps to transform your online brand into a premium online ordering experience.  

1.     Use professional (food sexy) photos.

Your menu is full of colours and showcasing this is one of the easiest mechanisms to draw in customer curiosity. Although phone camera technology is significantly developing, you can’t beat high-resolution images that make your products pop. Using a  high-resolution photos ensure your brand is represented as a professional and quality product to which it deserves. As humans, we shop with our eyes and if we’re not being stimulated with a visual experience, it’s easy to get bored and head back to the search engine to find the next shop. Professional images also help remove potential doubts and can encourage the customer to try new items.

2.     Using well placed language to describe your menu.

Your online store wants to provide the customer a sense of care and stewardship as near to the dine in experience as possible. Using language that describes flavours, aroma and textures conveys a  professional and quality service. Good language will take the customer on a journey through your menu allowing them to feel through the options until something catches their eye. The Web restaurant store have a great list of words that can best describe your menu.

3.     Smooth customer experience.

Commonly known as User Experience or UX in the tech world, it is the experience  your customers have when navigating your online store. It includes everything from finding your shop menu, adding products to their cart,  make customisations, checkout and place order all, in a timely manner.  Your customer experience starts as soon as they land on your website, to checkout in the quickest possible time with the shortest amount of hurdles to jump. Options such as a Login or create account, although useful, can become a nuisance for customers that are looking for a fast  checkout process. If you can provide a clean and timely shopping experience, increase the likelihood for reoccurring customers, simply by the fact that you made their experience enjoyable.

Let your online store do the marketing for you

Technology has allowed us to shop with our eyes at an astounding rate of speed.  When it comes to customers landing on your site, first impressions can be the difference between a sale or not. Professional images of your menu is the one of the most important factors when it comes to a hungry customer making a decision to start shopping. So on reflection, could your online store be doing more for you?

‍

‍