“No phones at the table” might be a parent’s favorite motto to keep their teenagers engaged in dinnertime discussions. But restaurants can majorly benefit from welcoming smartphones and other tech into the dining room. When used as a tool to reach customers, they can help to drive loyalty, enhance dining experiences, and improve operations.
Innovative restaurant brands are integrating technology like custom short links into any and every interaction with their guests because they can help solve some of the restaurant industry’s toughest challenges. Let’s explore why and how to use short links so you can start raking in clicks and customer connections.
How tech helps reinvent dining experiences
Standing out from competitors. Managing labor challenges. Attracting, retaining, and delighting guests. Restaurateurs work toward these goals every day, on top of completing the many other tasks of daily restaurant operations. And while technology isn’t a cure-all for every challenge they face, it offers a powerful digital shortcut and tool to give them a leg up in virtually every area of running their restaurants.
In the State of the Restaurant Industry 2024, the National Restaurant Association reported that more than three-quarters (76%) of operators say that technology gives them a competitive edge. (That’s especially good news when 45% of operators expect competition from other restaurants to be more intense in 2024.)
From communicating with guests and staff members to promoting new offerings and simplifying processes, technology like short links can:
- Unlock new levels of efficiency to help when you’re a few pairs of hands short
- Drive awareness and brand affinity with guests
- Reveal audience data and insights to help you strengthen your marketing
- Keep your menu front of mind the next time guests are hungry
Build short links into your workflows, and tap into their potential to transform any dining experience.
11 ways to level up dining with short links
No matter what channels you use to connect with your guests, short links are the ideal action step to give your guests a better experience and to give your team the data you need from each engagement. Try these 11 use cases for short links to foster convenience and customer satisfaction.
1. Drive app downloads and loyalty
Customers aren’t just hungry for your menu selections—they’re also hungry for ways to cash in on their frequent visits through offerings like loyalty programs. In fact, the State of the Restaurant Industry 2024 found that 81% of consumers who aren’t enrolled in a loyalty program say they’d join if one was offered. From the moment they enter your restaurant till they leave, use short links to encourage guests to download your app or join your loyalty program.
Share a simple, memorable short link on table placards, menus, or printed receipts. Once they’re connected to your program, you’ll gain a whole new way to drive loyalty and encourage them to keep coming back through discounts and special offers, not to mention email or SMS marketing.
2. Online menus
QR Codes aren’t the only way to drive guests to a touch-free menu experience from their mobile devices—you can share a short link instead or along with a QR Code. With quick and easy digital access to your menu, guests can decide what they want from the “comfort” of their smartphone and even bookmark the address for their next visit or future online orders.
Short links on menus are also a great tool for providing ingredient lists and allergen information for guests with special or dietary needs. Send them to a dedicated page on your website sharing more about each dish so they can make an informed and safe choice for their meal.
3. Simplify table reservations
Make every reservation more efficient for guests and staff alike. Let diners skip the line by displaying a short link they can visit to put their name on the waitlist during busy hours. Then, once they’ve gotten in the virtual queue, text a short link for them to keep tabs on their progress and wait time or to update them when their table is ready.
This process doesn’t just drive convenience for your guests—it simplifies the seating process for your host team, too. Instead of having to shout out names, they can use short links and text messaging to stay organized and reach guests quickly.
4. Online ordering
When your guests want to dine with you on the go, they’re looking for a smooth, seamless, and quick pick-up, so use short links for guest communication during and after online ordering. Ask guests for their phone number during checkout to text them an order confirmation, time estimate, or notification that their food is ready. In each text, share a short link that lets them review their order, add items, or check their status.
You can also use short links internally to boost your analytics efforts. Use custom short links from any referring channel to your online ordering (like your Google listing or third-party vendors) to gain additional information from each order. Review click details like device types and location to understand your audience and cater the ordering experience to their preferences.
5. Promote new offerings and special offers
Debut menu items or limited-time and seasonal offerings with a splash by using short links. Send campaigns to your loyalty program members across channels—from SMS and email to app notifications and social media. Short links can drive interest, traffic, and delightful dining experiences with:
- Coupons and discounts
- Mouth-watering item descriptions
- Fun branded content
- In-the-moment online ordering
Best of all, short links give you the inside scoop on which of these offers is most exciting to your audience. With real-time analytics on every click, you can instantly review guest interest to inform whether to bring back an offering in the future or create more items like it.
6. Invite them to a secret menu
Few things tempt restaurant patrons quite like exclusivity and novelty. Draw guests’ attention by sending short links to access and order from a secret menu offered only to loyalty program members or app users. Email, text, or send push notifications with branded short links to your most exclusive offerings. You can even help them invite their friends to the club with a referral short link to the secret menu to drive app downloads and loyalty membership.
7. Drive traffic during slow times
Are you using your slow hours to your advantage? The State of the Restaurant Industry 2024 found that more than eight in 10 adults would take advantage of discounts for dining on slower days of the week or off-peak times of the day. That’s a massive opportunity for restaurateurs to make the most of the hours outside the rush to drive business and benefit customers.
Send a short link via SMS or email to tell customers about discounts or even special items available during off hours, or provide a coupon code they can redeem after lunchtime but before happy hour starts.
8. Re-engage dormant guests
Don’t lose track of your guests when it’s been a while since their last visit. Use their preferred method of communication, whether email, text, or app notifications, to reach out with a short link to bring them back into your restaurant. Share a discount, free item or delivery, or new offering to remind them of all that you have to offer—and kickstart their cravings for your food.
9. Survey your patrons
Whether you’re checking on the service quality at your restaurant or workshopping new menu ideas, an interactive survey is the perfect way to engage your guests and keep your experience top-notch. Send a short link via email or SMS, so they can complete the survey straight from their mobile device.
Plus, if you use Bitly short links, you can dive deep into analytics to review how many clicks you receive and compare that to how many responses you receive. Use that feedback to refine or shorten the form, reassess who you’ll survey, or adjust the incentive for completion.
10. Plug an upcoming event
Celebrating a holiday or launching a new look at your location? Share the details across channels using short links, from paid ads and organic social to direct channels.
Encourage guests to make a reservation, buy a ticket, or pick a time slot to attend your next exciting event with short links. Then, review the data they bring to understand audience interest or even make space for additional attendance.
11. Schedule updates to employees
Short links aren’t just a customer-facing tool—use them to communicate with employees, too. Create custom short links to text or email team members with upcoming schedules and updates, training or policy changes, or to gather feedback anonymously. Simplify and streamline each digital outreach to your staff, so you can save time for more hands-on training or guest service.
Short links for dining: 4 best practices
Before you begin shortening and sending links to your patrons, make a game plan with these best practices to help you get started.
1. Arm yourself with analytics
Every tactic or channel you use to engage and market to customers only gets more effective when you lean on data to learn and improve your approach. With short links, you gain insight into each of your campaigns to see what’s working, when people are clicking, when they take action, and which offers are most compelling. Use this information as your secret weapon to bring people into your restaurant, sell more menu items, and better engage guests at every turn.
2. Lead with your brand
If you’re using short links to connect with your guests, don’t miss out on the opportunity to make each one reflect your business and brand.
With Bitly’s Growth Plan, for instance, you get branded links to make sure your audience knows they can trust every link you send. Drive brand connection and affinity, and inspire more clicks by placing your brand name in a custom domain with every link. (The only thing better than a bit.ly link is one that puts your brand in the spotlight!)
3. Choose the right link shortener
Before you can start creating and sending short links, you need to pick the solution that will meet the needs of your restaurant—and its customers. Consider factors like:
- Custom domain capabilities
- The volume of short links you need
- Your budget and price point
- Analytics parameters
- Ease of use
- Integration with other apps
- Central management of other tools like QR Codes and link-in-bios
Researching solutions? Check out what Bitly short links offer and our pricing plans to see what you can unlock for your dining experience.
4. Place short links strategically
Once you start using short links to engage guests, you’re sure to uncover all-new ways to fold them into your marketing and any interaction with your audience.
If the idea of using short links everywhere seems overwhelming, start small. Add them to your menus for digital viewing or ingredient lists first, and replace long, unbranded, or less trackable links in your ads or social posts. Over time, you can grow your strategy and approach so that every link you send is branded, trackable, and trustworthy—that’s how you can maximize your impact.
Connect to your diners with every click
Every day, you work hard to provide great food, high-quality service, and a unique dining atmosphere for your guests. Go the extra mile and set your dining experience apart from competitors with easy, convenient pick-up and engaging marketing, all powered by branded short links your customers are excited to click.
The more you engage your audience through tech, the more they’ll come to expect something exciting (and mouth-watering) everywhere they encounter your brand. Send short links to make each meal a masterpiece.
