How Digital Menu Boards Build Customer Engagement and Increase Sales

Whenever you go to a fast-casual dining establishment, coffee shop, deli or a movie theatre concession stand, you see a menu board with a list of items, prices, and possibly photos of promotional offers and popular items. Menu boards are essential business tools for these companies because they can help speed up the ordering process and increase sales.

Traditional menu boards are printed. Production is a long, expensive process, and once the menu board is printed, you are stuck with it. Want to add a menu item or change a price? Well, print a new menu board or perform a “cut and paste” the old-fashioned way. There are menu boards that allow you to change items and prices by manually swapping out letters and numbers. This method is more cost-efficient but not as enticing to customers.

Menu content can be updated remotely at any time without disrupting the customer experience. Whether you want to add or remove items, update pricing, highlight different items based on time of day, or change text and graphics. Content updates can be created and updated through a content management system and distributed to menu boards over the network. And you don’t have to reprint or manually update a digital menu board.

Digital menu boards can also use video, animation, weather, news, music and other dynamic content to keep customers engaged, informed and entertained. When customers are engaged, perceived wait times are reduced, resulting in a better experience. When connected to point-of-sale systems, digital menu board content can be automatically updated based on the current customer’s purchase. Not only does integration with POS systems create up-sell opportunities, but it allows you to create sales reports in real time so you can better analyze performance.

Few would dispute the visual appeal of digital menu boards and the impact on the customer experience. However, the decision about whether to invest in digital menu boards typically comes down to ROI. According to research from JCO, 42 percent of quick-service restaurants recovered their initial investment in less than a year, and 89 percent recovered their initial investment in less than two years. ROI is largely driven by sales increases of 10 percent to 50 percent coupled with reduced total cost of ownership and simpler management compared to traditional menu boards.

Digital menu boards have the potential to deliver even more value for movie theaters. Beyond increasing sales of menu items at concession stands, digital menu boards can promote current and upcoming movies and deliver ads that are relevant to the specific target audience of each movie. They can also show customers how much time until each movie starts.

Digital signage has many other applications as well. Instead of using printed posters, movie theaters can use digital signage that not only displays video, but also includes an interactive component. For example, customers could scan QR codes to download trailers and coupons, purchase tickets in advance, and choose seats. They could also use social media widgets that encourage customers to check in, share photos and post reviews.

From small digital signs to massive LED video walls, Rahi Systems can help you identify, deploy and manage the right solution for the right environment. Let us show you how digital signage and menu boards can grab and keep the attention of your customers and increase sales.