How to turn a TV into a menu board
Five steps, with examples from our shop.
How-to
How to update a digital menu board (and keep prices right).
There are three ways to change a menu on a screen. Here is each one, what we do today, and a 5-minute check that keeps prices honest.
Why menus drift out of date
Menus change in small ways all the time. A flavor sells out. A price goes up by fifty cents. A holiday starts. If each change needs a trip, a print job or a phone call, changes pile up, and the board on the wall stops matching the register.
Customers notice first. A wrong price on the wall makes the counter slow, and a sold-out flavor on the board is a small letdown. The fix is not working harder. It is picking a way to update that takes minutes, and then doing one short check each week.
Three ways to update a board
1. Edit it yourself in a dashboard
You log in, change a price or a picture, and the screens update. This is the most direct way, and many companies offer it. The cost is your time: someone on your team has to know how and remember to do it.
A dashboard like this is Coming soon at Wow Menu Boards. We say that plainly. It is on our roadmap, and it is not live. Until then, we use way number two.
2. Send the change to a person
You tell someone the change, and they make it for you. This is how Wow Menu Boards works today. You send us a text or use the contact form: “Mango price is now 5.25, and add Coconut Sorbet.” Our team updates your board.
It takes you about a minute, and you do not need to learn a tool. It is also how we update our own five TVs at Sweet Aloha. The tradeoff is that a person is in the middle, so send the change before the busy time starts.
3. Sync it from your register
The board reads the menu from your point of sale system, so a price changed at the register changes on the screen. This removes the double work. It also needs a connection between the two systems.
Menu sync is Coming soon for us, with Clover first, then Square and Toast. We are not selling it as live. You can read how it will work on our Clover menu board page.
What a change looks like at our shop
Here is a real change. Every holiday season we swap one board. The layout stays the same, so regulars know where to look. We change the photos, the headline and one line of price. The headline reads “Holiday Calendars Are Here.” The price line reads “8, 12 or 24 flavors · from $35.”
For flavors, the routine is smaller. Pick the featured flavor on the same day each week. Take one clean photo. Write one line, the name and nothing else. Send it over and leave the rest of the board alone.
Want your changes handled for you? We set up your first screen with you.
When something sells out in the middle of the day
This happens most often on a busy Saturday. A flavor is gone at 4 pm, and the board still shows it. You have three choices. You can leave it and tell customers at the counter. You can send a quick message and ask us to take it off. Or, when register sync arrives, the item can hide on its own. That last one is Coming soon.
For now, our rule of thumb is simple. If a flavor will be gone for the whole day, send the message. If it is gone for an hour, tell customers at the counter. Do not spend a text on every small gap. And keep the board layout steady, so taking one line off does not move everything else around.
Keep prices right: a weekly 5-minute check
Put a repeat reminder on your phone for the same time every week. Then do these five steps. They take about five minutes.
- Stand where the line stands. Look at the board for three seconds.
- Check the prices. Compare five items on the wall with the register.
- Check the flavors. Does anything on the board sell out or hide in the back?
- Check the dates. Is a season ending next week? Put the swap day in your calendar.
- Send your list. One message with every change, not five messages.
Batching changes into one weekly message saves time and mistakes. If a price is wrong, fix it the same day.
A short note on what is live
Today, Wow Menu Boards is live in our own shop with smooth video, exact schedules, offline play and self-updates, with changes made by our team. The dashboard and register sync are Coming soon. Plans start at $12 per screen, per month on Basic. See all features, or read how to turn a TV into a menu board for the first setup.
Keep reading
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Run your shop's menu like we run ours.
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