SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Some 56 percent of American consumers will order takeout one or two nights a week this holiday season, according to new survey from Jacent Technologies, a supplier of ordering solutions for the restaurant and hospitality industries. That's quite a jump from last year's results, Jacent said.
"We are hearing from more and more restaurants that decreasing the amount of time it takes for customers to order by phone is critical to their business and to building brand loyalty, so these results were not surprising to us," said Trevor Stout, chief executive of Jacent Technologies. "What is surprising to us is the number of consumers that order takeout on a regular basis during the holiday season, and how quickly they will turn to another restaurant if they are put on hold."
The survey found if customers have to wait more than two minutes on the phone, they'll hang up and call your competitor.
Other survey findings include:
- 13 percent more people plan to order takeout this year during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day than in 2005.
- 78 percent of respondents have in the past opted to not place an order because they had to wait on hold for too long. Sixty-nine percent of these respondents haven then called a competitor.
- 67 percent say that they are only sometimes or rarely asked about the specials when ordering takeout.
- 36 percent of diners are never told the specials of the day when ordering, and only 31 percent are sometimes told the specials.
- 69 percent of respondents indicated they will act on the information about specials, at least some of the time.
