Choosing the Best Digital Menu Board for your Restaurant

The importance of having a Digital Menu Board

Every restaurant and fast food business is going digital with its menu board. Not only is it easier to control and update your information, but it brings an instant improvement to the overall appearance of your establishment. But there are so many choices out there on how to do this, and not all are going to make things easier on you, your staff, or your wallet.

So, how to choose the best digital menu display solution for your restaurant?

The classic approach of using Digital Signage and its struggles

The first way some people try and achieve this is with a USB dongle, though it sounds easy enough, it’s a very low-tech approach and doesn’t do anything to make you more efficient. If you want to update your pricing it can be a total nightmare and leave your screens black for days.

First, you have to grab a ladder to remove your dongle (problem #1) and leave your screen blanks (problem #2) then you have to go to an external program and update and redesign your menu (problem #3). You may have hired a designer for your menu board, they have the working files, and now you’re at the mercy of their time (problem #4). Since it’s such a hassle you’re going to end up keeping what you’re showing on screen for a much longer period of time and your menu boards won’t change it up and become static (problem #5)… you might as well be using a printed sign at this point.

The high cost of hardware and installation charges

Some fall victim to digital signage vendors overcomplicating everything and selling you expensive hardware and ludicrous installation charges that come with a bird’s nest of wiring and the need for a dedicated computer to operate the displays.

Systems like these still leave you dependent on third-party design software and can still leave your screens blank during any updates. Not only that, something like this can cost you $3,000 — $5,000 in equipment and installation and requires you to be onsite to make any changes to your content. Plus, you’re again at the mercy of the vendor and what they’ll charge you should anything go down.

Honestly, you and your staff have enough things to do, and adding digital menu boards to your restaurant shouldn’t bring added work and another substantial expense. Going digital with your menu boards should make things easier and they very well can with the right service in place.

The cloud-based solution for your Digital Menu Board

First of all, you need cloud-based. Cloud-based technology has become so advanced and so fast. You should be able to design, update, and broadcast anything to your displays instantly from a laptop while sitting anywhere in the world, and that is what makes this technology perfect for digital signage. Cloud-based services for displays have everything you need to design, make updates, and manage your content to broadcast instantly to any of your displays at any location.

Whenever you’re choosing a technology you want to look far into the future and make sure your service provider will be able to support your future needs. Though you may not be currently doing Kiosks or touchscreen display ordering now, you know it’s coming, so choose a service provider that can be there with you through it all. Make sure it is easy to set up, you don’t need any added stress on your staff. Make sure it can support rich media, such as videos and animations, as you grow so will the sophistication of your content.

And how about all the efforts you’re putting into your social media? Good cloud-based service for displays should allow you to integrate with your social feeds so you can repurpose all that content for viewing in your restaurant providing that ever-so-important social proof to your patrons.