Photos courtesy NEC Display Solutions
By Ben Hardy
In May 2015, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario voted to pass the province’s Bill 45, the Making Healthier Choices Act. Scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2017, the act will require all restaurant chains and other food-service providers with 20 or more locations operating under the same (or substantially the same) name within the province to display the calorie counts for each variety, flavour and size of their menus’ food and drink items, as well as standardized portions.
If any quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain or food-service provider does not comply with the act, it can incur penalties of up to $10,000 per day. And despite these steep fines, many restaurateurs may view the act as an unnecessary burden, cutting into their valuable time and profits. What they may not recognize, however, is the opportunity to conveniently and cost-effectively comply with the new regulations by switching from static to digital menu boards.
Further, by deploying digital signage, they will also be all the readier to implement any future menu updates or promotions.
Building better customer relationships
Digital menu boards have proven highly effective in recent years at capturing customers’ attention and increasing sales.
There is still a ‘wow’ factor with eye-catching, engaging content, including full-motion video, animation and bright colours. Even if customers have by now seen a lot of digital signage around them, the medium continues to reduce their perceived wait times in lineups, leading to a happier clientele.
The medium offers the flexibility to show different meals at different times of the day on the same board and allow managers to make other modifications at any time. These may include newly introduced and/or higher-profit-margin products during high-traffic periods, for example, or already-popular items to draw in more customers during typically slow times.
Self-serve kiosks are also beneficial to some QSRs, as they make it even easier to tailor and present additional food and beverage suggestions directly to customers through a point-of-purchase (POP) display. A customer ordering a sandwich, for example, can be prompted to add a salad that complements it.
Not only are helpful recommendations welcomed by many customers, but they can also upsell them on more expensive items. This capability has been exemplified by new McDonald’s ‘build-your-burger’ kiosks, which let people customize burgers with additional patties and toppings, for a correspondingly higher price.
Aside from the sales opportunities themselves, restaurant managers have started to see digital signage as a way to build a closer relationship with customers. The dynamic nature of the medium means a vast array of creative possibilities. Mouth-watering images of food and beverages may trigger initial interest, while subsequent images of comforting features like a fireplace can motivate people to stay longer and feel more at home. In this context, customers may also appreciate digital signage presenting nutritional information about menu items, as a helpful service.
