You may have read about different industry verticals embracing the mobile app development solution. Be it eCommerce, entertainment, healthcare, food & beverages, education, etcetera, the list goes on. But when it comes to restaurant mobile app development, the question arises, how does a mobile app help restaurants? It’s a viable question. So, if we look into depth, it offers numerous benefits to restaurants.
Customers can view the menu and prices, check hours of operation, new deals, analyze reviews, and make reservations. On the other hand, a mobile application for the restaurant helps owners to manage their entire workflow. With Restaurant Management Application, one can manage their orders, reservations, online payments and enhance their services by analyzing customer feedback.
Registering on on-demand food delivery apps like UberEats and GrubHub is another option to offer online food delivery services. However, with such apps, you might have to pay a high commission rate and compromise delivery service quality. It can adversely affect your restaurant's reputation.
There are plenty of advantages a mobile app brings to a restaurant that it must leverage. Here is a list of a few of them that clearly explain why you need a mobile restaurant app.
Reasons why Mobile App Development for Restaurants is necessary
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1. To reach the audience within their location boundaries
It is a fact that localization leads to a progressive rise in conversion rate. And with a mobile restaurant app, you can strategize effective localized marketing using GPS location. For example, your app fetches the user's location and sends relevant deal information available on their location. This way, restaurant recognition and reputation also increase to an extent.
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2. To offer better on-site service with online orders
Not only for distant ones, but a mobile restaurant app enhances on-site customer experience as well. For example, due to COVID-19, people were only allowed to take away the order. Now, if numerous customers arrive at the restaurant at the same time, it affects service quality.
With an app, on the other hand, your customers can order and pay online from their place and pick up or simply get the order delivered. Besides, your staff also doesn't need to rely on customers' walk-ins. They can prepare food as any new order pops up on the app and proceed accordingly.
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3. Gain more customers using push notifications
Using the Push Notification feature effectively, you can fill your restaurant tables even on odd days. All you need to do is send a push notification to users via your mobile app about the special deals. For example, one of the San Francisco restaurants started notifying app users about their Margarita Monday happy hour and the tables started filling up on Mondays, too.
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4. App specific referral programs
Restaurants offer dozens of referral programs to retain customers. But customers hardly remember those punch-cards handed over by restaurants to redeem. Offering referrals on orders booked on a mobile app is a sure shot way of retaining more and more customers.
According to research, around 80% of customers return to a restaurant to redeem benefits from in-app loyalty referrals. Moreover, using Push notifications, you can even remind customers to redeem their loyalty points earned on the app.
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5. To gain better reviews and ratings on ranking sites
Customer review and ratings work as a reliable recommendation for other customers and an automated marketing strategy for restaurants. With a mobile app, you can benefit from this advanced word of mouth by setting up a timer on completing a transaction. It could be reservation, order, or online payment; you can ask users to rate their app experience.
You can also ask for sharing their opinion on social media by integrating social media. This way, you can boost the restaurant's reputation in your potential customer’s minds. However, customers sometimes feel sluggish to rate their experience and just neglect it. In that case, you can offer users a few loyalty points on rating their genuine experience over the app.
Furthermore, by receiving customer feedback, you get to know your service loopholes and work on the same. This way, with a mobile app, you can also improve your services.
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6. Option of mobile menus
Instead of depending on a mobile-responsive web page, an appealing menu front on the app is far better. Even a menu with photos of garnished dishes is enough to entice a gourmand. So, don't forget to ask your Restaurant App Development Company to make an accessible menu on the homepage of your app.
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7. Accurate business management
A restaurant management app also offers many features that come in handy to assess the overall business profit. You can manage your staff payroll, customer referral points, incoming orders, and other administrative operations on your smartphone. You can create streamlined marketing campaigns and analyze the same by integrating analytical tools.
Now, let us have a look at the must-have features to make your mobile restaurant app more user-friendly.
Must-have features for a Restaurant mobile app
Partnering with a custom mobile app development service allows you to customize your app design, functionality, and build features of your choice. However, the features that are required to function any restaurant app are;
- > A digital menu, including photos and detailed info about the ingredients
- > Calendar for Table reservation
- > Order placement & confirmation
- > Option for choosing takeout or home delivery
- > Online payment gateways (both the order payments and tips)
- > Loyalty program and promotions (special offers, deals, and coupons, etc.)
- > Customer support: in-app chat for complaints and suggestions
- > Push notifications (for timely and location-wise updates for offers)
Closing Thoughts
Having a mobile application for a restaurant is becoming a necessity, especially after the deadly coronavirus hit. The social distancing rule is going to stay around for a longer time, and you will definitely not want the virus to affect your restaurant. Therefore, more and more restaurants are either customizing or procuring ready-made mobile apps from a Restaurant App Development Company. What is your plan?
