Every industry is being transformed by the rapid penetration of the internet and mobile devices worldwide. When it comes to one of the oldest industries in the world, i.e. food and beverages, mobiles have managed to transform how restaurant owners manage their businesses and how connoisseurs are served.
As a restaurant owner, you might have contemplated investing in a mobile app at many points in time, but still, you might not have a mobile app. In this blog, we will help you clear out the dilemma related to restaurant mobile app development and let you explore the phenomenal benefits of having a mobile app in 2018.
Eating Out & Mobile Revolution: A Match Made in Heaven
No one can deny the fact that mobiles have increased the appetite of urban folk. Users around the globe are known to check out nearby restaurants and browse menus using their mobile apps before heading to a restaurant.
According to a study, more than 80% of the users browse menus online before eating out and as many as 94% of smartphone users check out nearby restaurants before booking or ordering.
No wonder restaurant chains are heavily spending on mobile applications. Not only growth in user base is motivating restaurant owners, but the impact of mobile app adoption is a determining factor. The impact is illustrated in the form of increased spending and a rise in sales growth over the years.
Source: AppInstitute
What can a Mobile App Promise?
A mobile app can promise great benefits for your restaurant business. No matter if you are a fine dining restaurant, a standalone QSR or a takeaway eatery, you can utilize mobile apps for your benefit. With a mobile app, you can:
Improve your local outreach
Mobile apps can be integrated with innovative technologies like proximity beacons to create localized offers and attract food lovers in a locality to the restaurant. Users can check-in via mobile app to get discount vouchers or you can use beacon technology to send push notifications whenever they are close by.
Enhance customer experience
A mobile app is a great enabler for a restaurant. By simplifying the ordering and booking process, you can improve a user’s experience and make your restaurant frequent among food lovers.
Develop a profitable sales channel
A mobile app is not just an online storefront, it is a profitable sales channel too for your restaurant business. By developing a food delivery app and implementing a mobile marketing strategy, you can improve your revenues and take your restaurant to the next level.
Optimize operations
Not only does a mobile app improve revenues and customer relationships, but it will also significantly enhance the efficiency of staff. Eliminating chances of errors due to human negligence, a mobile app will automate order management, bookings and streamline deliveries that would leave the staff with more time to delight guests at the restaurant.
How can mobile apps help you grow your restaurant business organically?
Mobile apps can turn out to be a great facilitator that can help in knowing your guests and serving them better. As smartphones are an absolute necessity, having your mobile app in the primary mobile of an individual can help in improving your offerings and reaching out to promote your restaurant, effectively.
A mobile app can be customized on the basis of your personalized business needs. You can choose to create a community of food patrons via a mobile app, launch a loyalty program, create a food delivery platform or integrate all these into a single bundle and launch a one-stop solution for customers to know more about your restaurant and become a patron. All in all, mobile apps can help in:
Increasing the customer base
Mobile apps are used all over the world by users to book reservations at their favourite restaurants and order food online. When it comes to a restaurant business, your customer base is an indicator of your popularity. The greater number of customers you serve in a day, the more popular and profitable your restaurant is. With the help of a mobile app, you can streamline the online table booking system.
According to a recent survey by Deloitte, users are inclined towards not making phone calls. From 2013 to 2016, the number of mobile phone users who didn’t make a phone call in a week has increased from 4% to 30%.
This doesn’t mean they are not booking restaurants, ordering food or completing their daily chores. They are just more used to using mobile apps to complete these tasks. With the help of a mobile app, you can digitalize your order and table reservation process.
Users can use your mobile app to book a table and can get real-time notifications regarding their bookings, and updating a change of plans will also help you solve the problem of no show leading to better and economic operations.
Enlighten, engage and encourage
The restaurant business is a lot about answering the queries of patrons on a day to day basis. Whether be it a phone call or in-person, restaurant managers are often seen spending hours every day talking to customers and answering the same things over and over again. A mobile app can help you save valuable time for your staff. You can cleverly include answers to the usual questions about your restaurant inside your mobile app.
Your operational hours, booking terms, the maximum number of covers, address, contact number, menu options, among other relevant information can be interactively placed in a single mobile app. Users can get information, interact with the user interface and connect directly to your restaurant without needing your managers and staff members to answer a call every time a user has a query.
Not only will it improve efficiency, but will engage your potential patrons and encourage them to visit the restaurant when their questions are solved instantly on their mobile itself.
Smart online operations
Takeaway orders are always a challenge for any restaurant. Surely, you might have faced the brunt of serving and dispatching the order right, at times. Though you might have trained your staff to take takeaway orders with precision, bad phone lines, faulty connections, different accents can lead to messy orders and thus, dissatisfied customers.
A mobile app can smarten your takeaway operations by opening an online channel for food ordering. Your mobile app can be used easily to order a takeaway without having to talk to a person and explaining the intricacies associated with food preferences, payment options, and delivery location details.
Customers can directly order and stay updated about the status with the help of push notifications. Also, you can embed AI learning capabilities to understand customers’ favourites, speeding up ordering and delighting them in the process. Issues related to payment processing, no-shows and loose change on delivery are also automatically eliminated due to online payment options with multiple payment modes.
Over To You
A mobile app can digitize your restaurant and prepare you for glory in 2018. As more and more players are entering the field, the F&B industry has become an increasingly competitive landscape. By adding mobile capabilities to your business, you can surely make a mark and improve your position in the current food ecosystem. If long-term growth and better guest experience are your motives, you must hire the best experts for a dedicated F&B mobile app for your business.
We at Intuz have accelerated the growth prospects of hundreds of businesses in the restaurant and hospitality industry and can help you be the forerunning leader in your region. So, what are you waiting for? Get a free consultation from us now.
