So you’ve taken the plunge and decided to switch to a digital menu board at your drive-thru, fast-food restaurant, or cafeteria. What can you do to ensure you are using it to its full potential?
During the initial phases of preparing to implement digital menu boards, be sure to think about the full scope of your design and it should be a perfect fit with your brand’s current design cues and brand message. Don’t forget who you’re talking to!
1. Focus on combos or prepackaged meals. Customers, whether in a drive-thru or in line inside, tend to get nervous when asked what they want to order. Devoting enough space to combo meals helps customers make a quick decision and can help you sell more products.
2. Make it readable. Customers often report that menu boards are too high or the writing on them is too small. There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to see the menu when you’re hungry, except maybe spending money on digital signage just so no one reads it. Place your menu board in a conspicuous location and make your font large enough to read, even by someone who just walked in without their glasses.
3. Be smart with images. Our eyes are drawn to images, so make them count. Especially in food service, it’s important to have images of your products available, particularly the products you want to sell more of. Do you want to sell more desserts? combos? Drinks? Give them more photos. Consumers will take notice.
4. Change it. With the rise of digital signage, menu boards are now more dynamic than ever. Changes to electronic boards can be done much faster and at a lower cost than with traditional boards. Take advantage of this opportunity and give some space to the changeable options! Don’t change the whole screen regularly or people will get confused, but leave some space to make use of your dynamic menu panel: use it to display special offers, promotions or seasonal messages. (Know your audience) Think about the placement of your digital menu board. Are visitors rushing by, on a stairway or waiting at a work site? How will this affect your ability to promote them? Consider what the most appropriate font size will be for the given conditions along with how quickly the text and elements need to move or scroll.
Many customers stop to look at the menu each time they enter. Spending time and thinking about how your restaurant or drive-thru menu board is organized can really make all the difference!
