Exit41, a company that powers the food-ordering experience for a number of big-name restaurants, just announced that it wants to make Facebook Fan Pages more useful -- for both hungry customers and restaurants looking to measure the value of their social networking presence.
Most big restaurants have built Fan Pages on Facebook, but those pages don’t usually offer much in the way of features. For example, the Domino’s Pizza page includes some basic restaurant information, some promotional photos, and a coupon, but the only way to actually buy a pizza is to follow a link to the Domino's website.
With Exit41, restaurants can build food ordering into their Fan Pages. While I’ve seen food-ordering capabilities on Facebook, they're pretty rare. Exit41 doesn't just let you order food -- it also offers some nice integration with the social network. Once a restaurant is up-and-running with the new service, users can just click on the “Order Online” tab, where they’ll be presented with an interactive menu. You can say that you “Like” a specific menu item and broadcast that message to your Facebook friends. And you can see how many other users liked a specific menu item.
The experience isn’t perfectly tied into Facebook -- once users select their items, they get sent to the restaurant website where they have to complete the order.
As Fan Pages become more important, there are a number of tech companies offering to improve them. For example, Get Satisfaction allows companies to manage a customer support tab.
Joseph Gagnon, CEO of the Andover, Mass.-based company, said one of the big advantages that Exit41 offers restaurants is a direct way to measure the payoff from their Facebook Pages. Since adding the Exit41 order feature, restaurant chain Wow Bao said its orders went up 10 percent in five weeks. The Facebook ordering feature will be a part of Exit41’s standard subscription price, Gagnon added.
Founded in 1999, Exit41 says it has processed more than 20 million food orders. Its investors include GrandBanks Capital and Dace Ventures.