Why Opt For Restaurant App Development?

Food delivery has always been a convenient service, and everyone would agree that it is booming nowadays, considering the situation in the world. The statistic proves that in February 2021, sales for meal delivery services grew 119%, compared to the same period of the previous year.

Mobile app development for restaurants is at the top of the most frequently requested services among programmers. Is it possible for the restaurant to attract more customers when introducing their own app? How to ensure efficient food delivery app development? That’s what we plan on covering in this article.

Four leading food delivery apps, including DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub, and Postmates, have made a general revenue of $5,5 billion from April to September 2020. Around 60% of the US customers order food from restaurants each week, while 60% of restaurant owners mentioned that their sales increased since they started offering delivery services.

The lion’s share of Millennials and Gen Z’s, namely 59%, say they opt for off-site dining. Around 57% of them prefer home delivery because they want to watch movies and TV shows at home, enjoying the convenience brought by modern technologies. Besides, an app’s availability is beneficial both for customers and business owners, especially since people are trying to limit contacts and avoid public touchpoints.

Ordering via a smartphone allows customers to avoid touching the menus, and waiters have less direct contact with the visitors. Restaurant mobile applications can increase customer loyalty, provide different payment options, and more convenience since each position and special offer can be seen right away. The trend for ordering food online is expected to continue growing, rising up to $182,3 billion by 2024.

The Advantages of Restaurant Mobile App Development

With digitalization taking part in almost every sphere of our lives, businesses have to correspond to the emerging customer demands and come up with unique solutions to stand out on the market. An average customer uses a restaurant mobile app to:

• check the prices and menu before deciding to visit the place;
• make reservations;
• check the reviews;
• order food for takeaway or delivery

For sure, we can’t go without mentioning safety and time-effectiveness. When using an app, instead of actually visiting the place, a customer prevents having an additional in-person contact and doesn’t have to stay in the line, waiting to make the order.

So, when it comes to restaurant app development, emphasize its user-friendliness, smooth work, and convenient features. Let’s go through some of the most common reasons why businesses consider investing in a custom restaurant app.

Increased customer loyalty & referral programs

Collecting bonuses and seeing what they can spend on is much more effective than handing out simple cards with stamps. Besides, people tend to forget they have to bring that card every time they order something. With phones, the situation is the opposite; users almost always have them by their side.

You might want your restaurant mobile app developers to implement push notifications. In this way, the customers will be reminded about your restaurant, how many points they lack to get their “prize,” or that there is a special offer that brings an increased number of bonuses.

However, it’s not only about free meals and drinks. Customers will gladly use the app if they are promised exclusive deals from time to time, like the opportunity to try a limited meal or buy something with a significant discount. Even if the person has to order several times before getting the “prize,” he/she will still be motivated by reaping the benefits.

Also, your customers can refer their friends and family members to the restaurant, and when they do so, they receive additional points or discounts. It’s simple and based on how many people the customer actually invites yet significantly impacts restaurant development.

Effective order fulfilment

Sometimes, it’s quite a challenge to correctly hear or understand what the person is ordering since nobody cancelled a bad connection. The person responsible for answering the calls might write something incorrectly, and the customer will be disappointed by receiving the wrong order.

As for the app, the user just picks the desired positions from the menu, selects additional features, like the number of utensils, and mentions if there are any preferences. Thus, the person responsible for filing the orders will clearly see all the order details and can just make an additional call to check everything and inform about the delivery time.

Also, customers tend to fluctuate between the desired meals, confusing the restaurant’s employee, who can forget to clarify the payment method or address. So, there might be mistakes and additional calls. The custom restaurant app will prevent such situations and make things easier for each party involved.

Increased sales

It’s practical to implement marketing strategies, such as ad banners with photos and catchy descriptions of new dishes. The restaurant app developer can introduce the function that will check the user’s location before showing relevant deals. Many customers prefer quick services, which allow paying for the order right within the app.

You will also attract more visitors because they won’t need to call or come to the place to make a table reservation. Instead, they simply check the app’s availability and see whether there are free tables for a certain date. Besides, it makes the cancellation easier, giving the chance to still welcome visitors if the previous ones won’t come.

Social media integration

People often follow the “world should know what I eat” quote and post photos of their meals on social media. You can even ask customers to leave their feedback on their profiles to get additional loyalty bonus points. Besides, word of mouth plays a great role here because positive feedback will boost your positive reputation. And when potential customers hear about your place from their friends and google it, they will see the restaurant mobile app on the search page, which increases the chance of them actually ordering something.

Enhanced ROI on the specials 

The thing about restaurant mobile applications is that they can help customers avoid hard decision-making processes. For example, a person might be thinking about what to have for dinner or where to go on a Friday night for cocktails or on a Saturday morning for breakfast. Well-thought mobile app development for restaurants can facilitate the choice. You simply inform the users that a new cocktail recipe will be introduced on Friday or a new sort of coffee and croissant filling on Saturday.

The notification will do the rest. As soon as people see it, they will be thinking about your offer and choose it over other options. Besides, they will know they get additional reward points for buying the mentioned specials.

Photo display to draw attention

A deliciously looking picture of a vegetable bowl, steak, or burger will go a long way. It will prompt a desire for the meals, and even if the customer wasn’t that hungry, he/she would be after seeing the pictures. In restaurant app development, it’s practical to show food “in use” to make customers imagine how it tastes and add action.

Restaurant Development and Design: Core Features

Food delivery app development will make your restaurant look more trustworthy in customers’ eyes because it gives better access to your services and proves the quality of meals. It’s about personalization and staying in touch with guests, as well as getting instant feedback and monitoring your ratings.

Although each business requires specific solutions, based on its profile (like whether it’s fast food or a luxury restaurant), we can still point out several common features to integrate.

Interactive restaurant menu

The famous restaurant development companies advise having full menus with pictures and prices available for the users. Also, it’s necessary to divide meals into categories and subcategories to make it easier for customers to find a menu position based on their preferences. Including the lists with ingredients is practical as well.

Personalized user profiles

If the users can register on the app, they will be able to save their preferences and gain bonuses. They can also add payment methods and addresses, which can be stored in the app, and there won’t be any need to fill these fields every time.

Online ordering and payment

This feature allows customers to pre-order the meals and pay for them right away in the app, without having to do that in the cafe, restaurant, or giving money to the delivery person. Make sure to include popular payment methods, like PayPal, online banking cards, or Apple and Android Pay.

Reservations making

As we have already mentioned, it is more convenient to check the availability of tables online instead of calling or visiting the restaurant.

Loyalty programs

Having electronic coupons, bonuses, special offers, and deals in one place is more comfortable compared to their paper versions. If a person pays directly via application, the points will be added automatically and show him/her whether it’s already possible to get something for them.

Push notifications

Restaurant development and design should consider informing loyal customers about new menu positions, unique offers, limited discounts, and upcoming events. Such notifications will remind them about your restaurant, and they have to be timely, personal, and workable.

Analytics

Restaurant mobile app developers can integrate the feature that will help business owners monitor the customer preferences and plan more efficient development strategies based on that data.

Chatbots

In case customers have questions they often ask, you might introduce a chatbot that will help them. You won’t need to have a dedicated employee to answer them, but provide the chatbot with the necessary information so it can generate the answers. It will reduce the waiting time and make the experience more personalized.

Examples of Successful Food Delivery App Development

The industry of restaurant app development is rapidly evolving, so there are different app types to consider, namely the following:

• Restaurant locator app

This app can help visitors find the nearby restaurant, check the menu and prices, see reviews and photos. A great example of such an application is Zomato.

• Table booking and food ordering app

Such an app will prevent customers from calling the restaurant to book a table. They can simply check the availability of free tables and order food in advance, so the food is ready when they come to the place. Yelp and OpenTable are among the most popular apps of this type.

• Food delivery app

This kind of app is effective for business owners because they can keep track of their delivery persons and make sure the load is equally distributed. The examples are UberEats, GrubHub, and Postamates.

• Loyalty program and promotional app

If your restaurant offers attractive deals, the customers are more likely to choose it over others. Having all the exclusive deals in one place will boost customer retention and attract new users. Chick-fil-A and Chili’s are notable showcases.

• Payment and on-table ordering app

Automatization is the key to increasing performance and customer experience. So, if it is possible to scan a QR code on the menu to make an order, there will be much less confusion about the orders, which will decrease the waiting time. You might have heard about TabbedOut, Cover, or Zapper to be popular apps of this type.

To have more in-depth insights, let’s take a look at the following restaurant mobile applications:

Starbucks

The Starbucks’ restaurant app developer has put effort into creating it because it is a top-notch example of customer engagement. Starbucks is a user-friendly app, which offers useful and well-thought loyalty programs. It has a menu tab, which features all the available drinks. Besides, it offers complimentary beverages, gifts, and discounts, as well as reward schemes on birthdays.

Each purchase leads to receiving a free drink and allows customers to pay in advance to avoid waiting in lines. Customers can also fill surveys in the app and get bonus points for them.

Domino’s

This is one of the most successful creations made by restaurant development companies. It’s easy to pay and track the status of orders in the app and choose the best option among the variety of presented offers. The customized pizza is among the most loved features because users can select the crust, toppings, and cheese by dragging and dropping them in-app.

Dunkin’ Donuts

In this app, customers can both collect and share rewards with their friends and family. Members get bonus points for every dollar they spend on the purchases and use a special Dunkin’ Donuts Card. Users can participate in different social media campaigns held by the company and take part in competitions to win various prizes. Also, the app uses targeted offers.

Chipotle

Customers can easily save information about their orders and repeat them whenever they want via a secure payment system. The app allows collecting and storing the offers and rewards each user with 10 points for every order they make. Also, the visitors can easily locate the nearest Chipotle by using the app.

Yogurtland

The customers can track the nearest store locations and check what flavors are available on a particular day. Also, users can customize their yogurts and receive rewards, which they can spend on receiving a free order.

Wrap Up

There is a handful of advantages and new opportunities you will get when embarking on restaurant mobile app development. Having an app will help expand the business, improve reputation, grow trust, and increase revenues.

If you are considering building an app for your restaurant, Qubit Labs will be glad to match you with top-of-the-league developers to ensure smooth performance and user-friendliness.

Drop us a line to schedule a consultation and discuss how to make your app stand out.