There was a time when restaurant apps and websites were just a luxury feature for the restaurant businessmen as they considered that their business was mostly about to dine in and take away. With time, people have shifted towards technology and smartphones to do almost everything for them, including getting food. Nowadays, almost all the big companies in the restaurant business have their own mobile apps and websites. Why do you think they are making efforts to maintain mobile applications and websites for their business if it is not as profitable?
The fact is that people from offices and homes like the convenience of ordering food from a restaurant and getting it delivered at their doorstep so that they don’t have to move out and waste their time going to a restaurant for eating. A few years ago, ordering food was just a luxury feature that people used just for convenience or if they needed it during sickness when they could not purchase food for themselves.
Different famous restaurants have reported a significant increase in their sales after the development of their mobile application. Now, it is becoming a norm more than a luxury. You can easily find restaurant apps for almost all the famous restaurants in your mobile phone application store.
Websites VS Mobile Applications
Technological development and increasing convenience have made people a little lazy. They want to do everything in the easiest way possible. While it is not difficult to open your browser, search a website, and then order your food. However, people prefer mobile applications as they have the entire interface already stored in the form of an icon, and all they have to do is open it and alter their food directly. The mobile application also stores their payment information and the delivery location so you don’t have to enter it every time to place an order.
Approximately three out of four customers prefer to order through the companies on the authorized mobile application instead of third-party delivery applications due to lack of trust.Â
A mobile application has become a source of providing all restaurant-based services to their customers with just a click. When we say all restaurant-based services, we mean that you can book a table in a restaurant through your mobile application; you can order a portion of food for pickup from the restaurant so that you don’t have to wait for it to cook while you are inside the restaurant. Then there comes the all-time popular home delivery of food.
Website is no doubt very essential for a restaurant to mark its online presence, but when it comes to a mobile application, it is not just a tool for an online presence, but it also allows you to engage your customers from time to time. Customers receive notifications from mobile applications about the deals and discounts in the restaurants, impacting their decision-making.
Hire Complete Guide of Restaurant Business Mobile App Development & How to Grow in 2021
Here we have a list of utilizations that make a mobile application a must-have for any popular restaurant.
User-friendly Interface
Mobile applications are very user-friendly, and people mostly find them easy to use because they already have experience of using different other mobile applications; however, that is not the case with ordering websites. It is straightforward to select the favorite item from the menu section of the mobile application, apply any discount coupon that you have, and provide sections in which you can provide instructions to the restaurants regarding any changes in the menu.
Mobile applications save the time of users by showing them offers that are relevant to them. Users only need to enter their payment and location information once so that it can be used every time they place an order. This feature makes mobile applications much more convenient than the websites requiring you to fill long forms every time you try to order through them.
Restaurant App Functionality
If you want to enhance your brand identity and promote your brand on the Internet, then having a website is very important. Still, if you want to engage your customers and impact their decision-making process, you must have a mobile application.
Both the website and mobile application have their own advantages, and therefore you must have both of them to get the best results for your restaurant business.
When is the best time to attract customers if you have a restaurant business? It is lunch and dinner time! If you show people notifications through your mobile application when they are hungry, they are more likely to order food from your restaurant. This cannot be done using a website.
Cost-Effectiveness
Many companies provide you with low-cost mobile application development compared to websites, so you can get a mobile application at a much lower cost than the online website.
They allow you to control your online ordering system so that you can enjoy increased sales. Do you know what the best part is? They take care of the maintenance required by the application as well. All you have to do is subscribe to their monthly plans and leave the rest to them.
Marketing Advantages
You can post about your latest offers on your website, but there are chances that most of your customers are not watching your changes on the website every day, so your outreach will be limited. Potential customers want to take advantage of your deals, but they might miss them out because they will not be right in front of them. Most restaurant owners try to balance this deficit through social media pages. Well, you can do it too! But as know, everyone is doing it, so your deals might not just impress the customers. The mobile application can ensure that your marketing messages reach your customers within time to become effective in minimum time.
The time has passed when people spent all day watching television in their free time so even if you are ready to pay a big amount to the advertising agencies more people are using mobile phones than the ones who are watching television.
Restaurant App Features
The restaurant app is basically functioning in three different parts. The first one is the driver panel, then we have the admin panel, and the last one is the restaurant panel.
The Driver Panel
It has different sections that organize the number of orders, their details, and the locations at which the order is meant to be delivered. This organization allows the delivery man to systematically plan out the deliveries for minimum fuel consumption. Notifications keep the delivery man aware of new orders, and history tabs ensure that all the payments are cleared.
The Admin Panel
This panel has a different look compared to the one shown on the customer side of the application because the admin panel is responsible for communicating everything to the restaurant staff regarding the order. A Backup storage function is attached to the admin panel so that the data is secure in case of any technological malfunction. A map shows restaurant management about the delivery men’s location so that managers can keep an eye on them. Managers can post different deal and advertisement campaigns through their admin portals. Admin panel gets the information regarding all the incoming orders and outgoing food. Secure password and the biometric system can be utilized for the admin panel’s security so that unauthorized people cannot gain access to the restaurant application’s admin system.
The Restaurant Panel
The last panel is the one that is the most important for any restaurant because it allows them to update their existing menu and add new offers that are tailored to the needs of their customers. The notifications that the customers see are generated through the restaurant panel. The restaurant panel keeps a track of ordering history of all the customers and has a messaging system that allows the restaurant to interact with its customers. All the accepted payment methodologies are managed through the restaurant panel. Few restaurants provide loyalty programs to the customers who usually purchase food from them. Such programs are also managed by the restaurant panel to ensure that customers are using original discount coupons.
Need for Restaurant Application
In all the popular restaurants that already have mobile applications, customers are going to order food and trust service providers with their payment methods. People just love the idea of not having to interact with the restaurant staff and still getting delicious food delivered to their doorstep through the easy to use and efficient restaurant mobile applications. If you wonder which services of a restaurant are operating successfully online, then the answer is predictably pickup and delivery services because they are most appealing to the customers.
The demand for these restaurant services is expected to rise even more in the next 5 years. Using restaurant mobile applications is becoming the norm. Customers are trying different dishes from the same restaurants. When people try varieties of food from a restaurant, they are likely to stick to your restaurant if you provide quality food and services. You might be functioning just fine without a restaurant mobile application, but with it, the sky is the limit.
Are you looking for reasons to develop a mobile application for your restaurant? Then they are right below.
Use Growing Technology Access
Although the existing number of smartphones in use of people is impressive, the number is still expected to increase in the coming years. The overall time a person spends using his smartphone is also increasing at a significant rate. Don’t you think that such an excess of technology should be benefited from? When you have a user-friendly restaurant app, you will gain access to provide your customers with an interactive experience.
More Convenience More Customers
Most customers look at the menu through online sources before booking a table or ordering food from a restaurant. Some also look for restaurant reviews to see if available food choices are of good quality or not. Restaurants apps are better than any other delivery systems, but they are also straightforward to use and show your menu most suitably. Customers can book a table at your restaurant with the restaurant app’s help for a specific time so that they don’t have to deal with the inconvenience of unavailability of a table when they are in the restaurant. All the people are willing to pay a little more footwear food in delivery charges to experience the convenience. You can also provide free home delivery in nearby homes and offices to promote your restaurant. Easy to use restaurant app can help you gain more customers and beat your competitors by always being in touch with your loyal customers.
Online Payment Methods
Although it is not surprising that most people prefer to pay through the facility of cash on delivery, however, many others prefer to pay using their credit or debit cards for payment. The restaurants need to allow several payment methods to their customers to pay for the food with ease. Once the payment method is stored on the mobile application, people can order their food every time without entering the details again. People who pay through their cards are likely to purchase more food because it is human nature that we feel like we are spending a lot when we pay cash. Still, when it comes to electronic money transfers, we psychologically do not feel that we are spending a lot of money.
Add a Sales Channel
Before the popularity of restaurant applications, the restaurants used to allow their customers to make phone calls to order food to be delivered at their doorstep. The problem with this setup was that the restaurant must have multiple telephone lines and operators to ensure that the right orders are delivered to the right homes. If a potential customer calls to reach your restaurant and telephone line goes busy, the customer is likely to shift to some other restaurant and order food from them and in this way the restaurant with busy lines will face a loss. Mobile restaurant applications, on the other hand, provide your customers with uninterrupted interaction with the restaurant and an efficient management system with hardly ever goes wrong. The customer that has experienced good services and functionality of your mobile restaurant application is likely to order food from your restaurant again and recommend your restaurant and your application to their friends and family.
Brand Identity Building
Having a good brand identity ensures that your customers return to you again and again. It is essential to hire an efficient developer who can develop a mobile application for your restaurant, which suits your brand identity according to your restaurant’s color scheme and brand philosophy. Having a good restaurant application helps you maintain your brand image and make sure that everything is consistent. You must pay attention to your strong brand identity: logos, letter marks, and color schemes. A good developer also has to ensure that your mobile application is compatible with several mobile devices that operate on different operating systems.
Increase Your Reach
Do you know that even individual home cooks are now using mobile applications to sell their homemade food to their customers? If such small-scale food providers can earn a good income through mobile applications only without a restaurant, you should imagine how much it can benefit your full-fledged restaurant. A user-friendly restaurant mobile application will boost your revenue turnover and make your customer relations much better.
Notifications and Alerts
Notifications and mobile alerts are the best way that makes marketers capable of staying in communication with their customers. You should ensure that the notifications and alerts that your restaurant sends must be precise and attention gaining. Your notification should also contain a clear call-to-action to give your customers a clear message to order food or visit your restaurant. Do not send too many notifications to your customers because this will irritate them. Irritating notifications can make a customer uninstall your app, or they will block your notifications. In this way, your messages will not be conveyed to the customers.
Experience Automation
The restaurant market has now become a very competitive business, and you need to be proactive to beat your competitors and gain more customers. You might be wondering how you can take action before an event to take maximum advantage. The answer is that restaurant applications allow you to schedule different posts and offers, so using them can automate the process of updating your menu and offers.
Restaurant applications also allow you to send automated emails and SMS alerts to your clients so that they can track the order easily. In this way, you don’t have to hire an employee to generate emails and SMS to the customers every time they place an order. This automated messaging system can also be utilized to send thank you emails to the customers who have placed an order. You can also use them to send reminders to the customers who haven’t ordered from your restaurant for a while.
Report Generator
Restaurant managers need to be prepared to deal with any kind of problem fast. Restaurant applications allow managers to produce in-depth reports because they provide complete information without any data entry expert. Some restaurants have applications that allow the managers to generate graphs and charts that make it easy to compare and understand information.
Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are the special offers that allow the regular customers of the restaurant to benefit from exclusive discounts and deals. Loyalty programs increase the chances of customers ordering more frequently from particular restaurants. Mobile applications provide in-depth data that allows restaurants to easily manage loyalty programs because customers will gain points on every order. Mobile restaurant applications allowed the restaurant to appropriately keep track of their loyal customers and their activities.
Own a Delivery App
When restaurants want to provide their valuable customers with delivery services, they have two major options, the first one is to set your own delivery system in which you recruit delivery men and get a restaurant delivery app developed. Some restaurants leave their delivery services to the delivery service providing companies who act as third-party service providers, but they charge their commission from the restaurant. As food delivery is becoming normal, people order food at least 8 times on average from an online delivery system.
Restaurants that have their own delivery staff have the flexibility and cater to the customers’ requirements in a better way. Such restaurants also don’t have to deal with a different delivery man every now and then. Restaurants have complete control of their own delivery fleet, so they are generally more responsible and disciplined. As the restaurant market is very competitive, you must ensure that your delivery system is better than your competitors to take advantage of this food selling module. You need to make careful recruitment of delivery staff to ensure that they have all the good qualities of becoming a professional that can deal with diverse customers.
As we have established that you need to have a better delivery system than other restaurants to gain a competitive advantage, you might be wondering what you can do to enhance the user experience through your restaurant app. When you get a mobile restaurant app designed, you need to incorporate certain features that enhance the user experience. First of all, there should be a customer registration section so that every customer provides his information that can be used in the future to contact the customer and deliver food. The second most important feature is the favourite section, as users might want to add certain dishes to their favourite section to conveniently order them again.
There must be a tracking system in which users can track their delivery man’s location so that they know when the order will be at their door. After a user has successfully received the order, there should be a feedback section where the users can give suggestions and complaints to the restaurant. This helps the restaurant know where they need to improve. There should be in the app payment methods feature in which users can store their payment information so that they don’t have to enter it again and again. Finally, there should be banners of ratings and reviews where users can provide comments and stars according to their experience with your restaurant and the dish they ordered. User reviews help new customers understand your dishes better and impact the decision-making process of other customers.
Create a Restaurant Mobile App
Restaurant apps are driving factors of prosperity and customer experience. Almost 1 out of 4 mobile phone users have at least a single up on their devices, which are meant just for ordering food. The popular restaurants have already developed their own delivery systems and are getting huge benefits out of it. If you own a single branch restaurant, a chain of restaurants, or you are a home chef, you need to have a delivery system.
You might be wondering how much it can cost to get a mobile app developed. As the number of professionals increases the technology-related services are becoming cheaper, especially when you get them done through a company that provides you with multiple benefits and good quality services. Good companies ensure that you get a cost-effective mobile application that is quick and raises sales. You need to keep in mind that restaurant applications are very different than other E-Commerce applications because they have different features and requirements to provide customers with good services. Having just any restaurant application will not work well for you. Your delivery system must be better than your competitors.
You need to get your restaurant application developed by a very professional person specializing in designing applications for restaurants because a well-developed restaurant application can make the overall process easy and efficient.
You need to provide instructions to the developer that you need a mobile-optimized menu containing all your dishes from which customers can select one of their choices. Secondly, it must have a quick check out that allows the customers to pay through different payment methods, and then the application should show the expected time at which food will be delivered. Last is the reward section, which most of the companies do not consider being important. Still, it actually makes your restaurant application better than the others, so you must definitely have one.
Company Subscription Process
Different companies provide you mobile app development and maintenance services. You can search for the best service providers online. Most of such companies have a similarly straightforward process in which the very first thing you need to do is to subscribe from their home page and then select a payment plan suitable for you and your restaurant needs. The next thing is to configure for different operating systems like Android and the iPhone. Once you have selected a configuration, you will be asked to provide colors, menu layouts, and brand identity indicating necessities like logos and banners. At last, you need to order your restaurant app, and then you will be contacted by one of the company’s developers within no time to ask about further details.
Company VS Independent Developer
When you want to get a restaurant mobile app developed, you have two options to consider: the first to develop through a company. The second one is to contact an independent developer who has experience in making restaurant mobile applications. While both the methods can provide you with a good restaurant application, you need to consider the option that provides you with the best services in minimum time and at minimum cost.
Generally, companies provide you with a mobile restaurant application faster because they have multiple developers working on one project, which makes them able to provide you your project within less time than a single developer. Companies usually have a quality assurance team that makes sure that their products and applications do not crash and pass all the quality tests to provide you with an error-free and Bugsy restaurant mobile application. Independent developers are not accountable for the work that they do. You might not be able to contact them for maintenance; therefore getting services from our company would be a better idea because they provide long-term maintenance assurance. They have a reputation to maintain; therefore, they ensure that their developers provide you with high-quality restaurant mobile applications to please your customers.
Conclusion
Having your own food delivery system and restaurant mobile application is significant if you want to be one of the top-rated restaurants in the food industry. You can consult a company or a developing individual programmer who can create a user-friendly restaurant mobile application for you. Ensure that your restaurant application has all the necessary features to make it user-friendly and mobile-friendly for various operating systems. You need to have a website and a restaurant mobile application for maximum online engagement with your customers so that they remain loyal to your brand. Recruit the best team that provides delivery services to the customers because they will be the ones to contact the customers on behalf of your restaurant. You need to make sure that your website and restaurant mobile application are up to date because the world of the internet is changing dramatically every few months, so you need to provide app updates.
The maintenance of a mobile application can be tricky, especially when you don’t have a developer present all the time; therefore, consulting a company to provide you with development and maintenance services for a restaurant mobile application is the best thing that you can do to ensure your customers get in time services.
Don’t be worried about the cost you put in the development and maintenance of your restaurant mobile application because it will definitely pay you back in a better way when your sales rise, and your customers are delighted with the experience that they have with your well-managed delivery team. Just little effort and investment can take you a long way in the restaurant business game.
