Maximise Your Menu: Dayparting With Digital Displays
In the world of quick service restaurants (QSRs), timing is everything. Dayparting – the practice of tailoring menus to specific times of day – has become a powerful strategy for optimising sales and meeting customer expectations.
With the help of digital displays and digital menu boards, QSRs can easily shift menu offerings based on demand, ensuring that customers see relevant options at any given moment.
But what exactly is Dayparting, and why does it matter for QSRs? We take a deeper look in this blog…
What is Dayparting, and Why Does it Matter for QSRs?
Dayparting involves making the right items available at the right times – think breakfast sandwiches in the morning, lunch deals at midday, and dinner combos in the evening. This approach not only enhances customer satisfaction by offering targeted options but also enables restaurants to highlight high-margin or seasonal items at peak times. For QSRs, where speed and convenience are key, dayparting provides a practical way to maximise the impact of menu offerings throughout the day.
Benefits of Digital Menu Boards for Dayparting
- Flexibility and Control: Digital displays make it easy to update menu content without the hassle of static signage changes. By using dayparting technology, QSRs can quickly switch from breakfast to lunch, promoting the right items at the right time.
- Improved Customer Experience: Seamless transitions between menus help reduce confusion at the order stage and create a streamlined experience. By displaying only relevant items, digital displays make it easier for customers to find what they want, reduce waiting times and improve satisfaction.
- Increased Sales Through Timely Promotions: Dayparting allows QSRs to strategically feature high-margin items, limited-time offers, or meal deals during specific dayparts. By using data-driven insights, restaurants can adjust these promotions based on trends, such as highlighting coffee deals in the morning or meal deals during the evening.
Technology Behind Dayparting for Digital Displays Dayparting is driven by automated scheduling and content management systems (CMS), allowing QSRs to pre-schedule menu updates for specific times.
Paired with real-time data analytics, these systems can even adjust offerings based on sales performance, weather, or seasonal trends. This technology gives QSRs a new level of control and precision in managing menu content, ensuring that displays are always optimised to meet demand.
Navori CMS
A robust CMS optimises digital displays for dayparting. Solutions like Navori’s CMS can automate menu transitions by syncing content with POS data, inventory, and even local events. By automating menu updates across multiple locations, QSRs can instantly remove out-of-stock items, highlight popular dishes, and tailor displays for each daypart. This setup enhances operational efficiency and ensures customers see the most relevant options, at the right time.
Dayparting in Action
Leading QSR brands are already using digital displays to enhance their dayparting strategies. For example, large fast-food chains are featuring breakfast combos in the morning, then seamlessly switching to their lunch specials at midday, before changing again to dinner-focused items in the evening. By analysing sales data, these brands fine-tune their dayparting approach, ensuring they maximise sales across all dayparts.
Take a look at inurface media’s work with Welcome Break – taking dayparting one step further using digital facades – to alternate restaurant space between ‘The Good Breakfast’ and ‘Chopstix’ dependent on the specific daypart. READ HERE
How to Implement Dayparting in Your QSR
- Identify Key Dayparts: Determine your busiest times and meal periods (breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night).
- Set Up Digital Menu Boards: install digital menu boards and CMS’ capable of automated dayparting, to easily transition between menus.
- Create Targeted Content: Develop content specific to each daypart, featuring items that are popular during those times.
- Use Data Analytics to Optimise: Leverage analytics to monitor sales and adjust menus as needed.
- Refine Over Time: Continuously review performance data and make updates to ensure that your menu aligns with customer preferences.
The Future of Dayparting: What’s Next?
As technology advances, dayparting will continue to evolve. The integration of AI-driven insights and hyper-localised promotions promises to bring even more precision to menu customisation. For example, we may start to see a lot more displays that adjust based on weather, time of day, or customer demographics, providing hyper-relevant offers that increase engagement and boost sales.
Conclusion
Dayparting offers QSRs an effective way to leverage digital displays, providing a flexible and customer-focused menu strategy that meets demand throughout the day. By adopting dayparting and investing in the right digital solutions, QSRs can create a more engaging customer experience, drive higher sales, and stay competitive in an ever-changing market
