The first week with a digital menu: day by day

Example scenario. The restaurant described below is made up and serves only as an illustration. The plan is a guideline, not a promise of results.

Imagine a restaurant with about thirty seats, where the owner has just made a digital menu. The menu is ready and published. What remains is the most unpleasant part: getting guests to open it, understand it and not come back with the question “Do you have a paper one too?” Here is how the first week could go.

The day before launch: preparation

Do not launch the menu on a Friday evening if the restaurant is full on Saturday. Choose a quiet day when you are on site.

• Read the menu from start to finish on your phone, not on a computer. That way you see what the guest sees: long names, missing prices, dishes in the wrong category.
• Check the prices of all items against the printed menu.
• Check the allergens for the dishes where you show them. If you are not sure about a dish, do not write a guess; ask the kitchen.
• Prepare where the link or QR code will go: on the tables, on the door, in the social media profile.

Day 1: launch and checking the link

The first day is for checking, not for assessment.

• Open the link from a phone that is not yours. Ask a colleague or someone you know. That way you check whether the menu opens without signing in and without an app.
• Turn off Wi-Fi and open the link over mobile data. Guests rarely use your Wi-Fi.
• If you use a QR code, scan it from different distances and in different light. Check the printed code too, not only the one on the screen.
• Train the staff before you open the door. Ten minutes and three sentences are enough: “The menu opens on the phone, like this”; “If the guest can’t, we bring the printed one”; “If the menu is wrong, we tell the manager and don’t argue with the guest”.
• Leave the printed menu at the bar or with the waiters. It is not an admission of failure but a safety net.

At the end of the day, write down how many times the paper menu was requested and why. The reason matters more than the number: it may be an old phone, mobile data switched off, or simply habit.

Day 3: the first fixes

After two days you have real observations. This is exactly the time for the small things.

• Go through the team’s notes. The waiters are the first to hear “where are the desserts?” or “I can’t see the price”.
• Fix the obvious mistakes: spelling, price, a missing photo, a dish in the wrong category. Changes stay as a draft until you publish them, so you can make them all at once and publish once. The link stays the same, so the code on the tables does not change.
• Do not rearrange the whole menu because of one comment. One remark is a signal; three identical ones are a reason for change.
• Ask two or three guests, if they agree, what they missed. One question is enough: “Did you easily find what you were looking for?”

Day 5: checking the daily routine

Towards the middle of the week the real test begins.

• Change one price or hide a dish that has run out, and check on your phone how long it takes before you see the change. That way you know how you will act on a busy day.
• Make sure that whoever works in your absence also knows how to make a change or who to turn to.
• If you have a lunch menu, check that today’s is up to date. There are details in the guide to a lunch menu without daily reprinting.

Day 7: summary and decision

The seventh day is for decisions, not for new features.

• Sort all the notes into three groups: fix straight away, fix this week, leave for later.
• Ask the team what they have most often had to explain. A repeated explanation means a problem in the menu or in the instructions on the table.
• Decide whether the printed menu stays nearby for another week. If enquiries about paper have almost disappeared, you can keep it only with the waiters.
• Write down what has worked and what has not. In two months it will be useful to remind yourself of it.

What not to do

• Do not announce “the end of paper” before the team is confident.
• Do not change the design every day. The guest has to get used to where everything is.
• Do not leave the fixes for “some day”. A wrong price in the menu is more visible than a missing photo.

If you have not made the menu yet, start with the guide to a digital menu for a restaurant. For the mechanics of a digital menu versus a PDF, there is a separate comparison.

In ISKA Menu, the free plan has no QR code, so a QR code for the menu needs Plus. The menu is edited from the portal and from a phone, and changes stay as a draft until they are published. New users get three months of Plus, after which the free plan remains; you have a paid subscription only if you choose it yourself. Current prices are on the pricing page.