Digital Menu Board Basics

Digital menu boards are everywhere. If you were hoping to be able to avoid them, we at RedyRef are here to tell you you’re out of luck. The pressure is on many quick-service and fast-casual restaurants to make the switch from standard static boards to digital menu boards or dynamic menu displays instead. It’s not just a matter of “keeping up with the Jones’” either. The fact is that making an investment in digital menu boards now makes good financial sense, especially when it comes to the pressure-cooker of tight restaurant margins (pun fully intended). Finding new ways to streamline processes while better tracking inventory, increasing customer satisfaction and engagement and -- let’s be honest -- just plain selling more food is imperative to keeping food service-based businesses afloat.

While there are clearly challenges to planning and deploying a new digital menu board program, the process does not need to be as difficult or complicated as it may first seem. The key to success is partnering with an experienced, vertically-integrated manufacturer like RedyRef. Come along with us as we explain over the following pages exactly how to create the perfect digital menu boards for your unique application.

Let’s start with the basics: why are restaurants adopting digital technology? Some of the reasons our customers have come to us for digital menu boards include:

• Ability to quickly update content, which can mean anything from adding specials to changing item pricing
• Potential to minimize future expenditures on new static, non-digital signage, whenever something changes
• Option to add additional content relevant to their consumers, from local community events to restaurant happenings
• Greater opportunities for agile testing in each market, from new items and pricing structures to store promotions
• Efficiencies created from integrations of digital signage and menu boards with point-of-sale (POS) systems and real-time inventory data, so out-of-stock items can be immediately taken off of the menu, avoiding the potential for customer disappointment and frustration.
• Signage, branding and messaging consistency throughout and between stores, from 1 to 1000, in drive throughs, online, in app form or in line. 

Visual representation of the menu allows for multiple options in terms of food presentation. Rotating slides, 360º views, and crystal-clear graphics often make items more enticing. It allows allows QSRs to focus on items that are more profitable than others, helping to increase overall margins.
Well-organized, attractive, easy-to-read digital menus make for a better customer experience, an easier, clearer ordering process, and a more positive impression of the company overall.

Join us next week as we continue this discussion in more depth.  In the meantime, if you're ready to partner with an experienced, vertically-integrated manufacturer like RedyRef, contact us today at (800) 628-3603 today or request a quote online and we’ll be with you every step of the way to ensure that your program meets every one of your business’ unique needs, from digital boards to dynamic displays.