Every business is becoming more digital, and the restaurant business is no exception. When you go out to eat or order takeout, it doesn’t seem like anything is more boring than that. But restaurant apps have a lot to offer. Improved customer engagement and better customer experiences help restaurant owners grow their customer base and make more money.
QSR research says that by 2023, the digital food ordering and delivery segment alone is expected to be worth $365 billion, which is a lot.
Restaurant apps for food delivery and web-based ordering platforms aren’t the only apps you can get for your business. There are a lot of other apps you can get for your business, too. This is an opportunity for restaurant owners to take advantage of the growing desire for a better, more digital dining experience.
In this article, we’ll talk about making a restaurant app. You will look at different business strategies, key features of restaurant app, a suggested app development plan, and some predictions about how this competitive market will change in the future.
The advantages of developing a restaurant app
The reason people love restaurant apps is apparent. When customers use an app to order food, choose where to eat, look at menus, and read reviews, it adds a lot of excitement to the everyday dining experience.
But why should restaurant owners make their mobile apps?
Sales went up
This may seem like common sense, but digital orders will help your business make more money. When you go to a real place, you are limited by how much room there is. To make things even worse, if a restaurant is too crowded, it hurts people’s experience, and many people prefer to use a mobile app to order food from a restaurant than go to the restaurant in person.
Online booking options will also make it easier for people to make reservations with an app. This will also make it easier for people to make reservations.
The more people are loyal to a brand; the more likely they are to buy
Noida top mobile app development companies can help you stay in touch with your customers, spread the word about your business, and even build relationships with them. They can get alerts about your best deals and news using an app, and restaurants can ask for feedback, run contests, or run polls and surveys.
It’s easy to make payments
Another thing that helps customers become more loyal is letting them pay with an app. As a business owner, you can free up your employees’ time and let them work on more important things. Most of the time, the more types of payment you accept, the better.
An excellent way to get customer feedback is to ask them
Apps are also a great way to get customer feedback without spending a lot of money on interviews and surveys. Based on customer reviews, restaurants can quickly adapt to their customer’s needs and requirements, tailor their menus, and give them a genuinely customer-oriented service.
The main types of restaurant application:
If you want to make an app for this group of people, you don’t have to own a restaurant. There are many different apps for people who go to restaurants, like Yelp-like directories and apps that make ordering easy. If you want to make an app for your restaurant, here are some of the most popular choices.
There is a restaurant review app on your phone
A restaurant review app is like a restaurant directory. You can look through the restaurants near you, get more information about each one, and read honest reviews from people who have been to the places you saw.
Most people think of Yelp as an excellent example of this app.
A tool to find local restaurants
It’s another type of restaurant review app. A local restaurant finder is one of them. These maps help you find restaurants near you (and often help you find your way to them).
This app is an example of one that can help you find places to go.
An app for restaurants that shows their menus
Finedine is an example of a restaurant menu app with a digital, interactive menu that users can see on their phones. Restaurant owners who want to make their ordering process more efficient and happier customers can use this SaaS application. It can be changed to meet the needs of each restaurant.
People who go to restaurants with apps like this usually get tablets with a digital menu already on them that they can use. On the other hand, some restaurants prefer smart tables and interactive surfaces like dining tables. Users can use pre-installed apps and multimedia on them.
Apps that make it easy to order food from restaurants
This could be possible with a restaurant mobile app development. You could use the app to order food from a restaurant and deliver it right to your home.
Two types of apps for ordering food from your phone:
- On-demand delivery apps like GrubHub (as well as UberEATS, Postmates, and so on)
- Apps for restaurant chains like Domino’s that are made for them.
An app to book a restaurant
A restaurant booking app lets you book a table at a restaurant right from the app. This can be done as one of the features in a custom restaurant app or as a separate app for making restaurant reservations, like OpenTable.
Promotion of the app and loyalty programs for restaurants
Promotional activity of the app and loyalty programs give people lots of special deals, and coupons to spend money at a restaurant. They also let people earn points when they do this. On the other hand, such apps often combine a loyalty program with mobile checkout, allowing users to place their orders through an app and avoid waiting in line.
Probably the most popular restaurant loyalty program app is the one made by Starbucks. McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts are two other examples.
All of the types of apps above can be found in some apps. For example, a restaurant mobile app feature can also help you find restaurants near you and check out their reviews and menus.
Restaurant finder apps, like Zomato, often have on-demand food delivery options and make it easy to book a table.
There are various unique features in the must-have restaurant app
Apps for restaurants can have a lot of different features, but these are the main ones:
There is also a digital menu with photos and detailed information.
- (by price, discounts, the popularity of dishes, a filter with some main ingredient included, etc.)
- Reservation of a table
For takeout orders or delivery, order placement is essential.
- (both the order payments and tips)
- Online tracking to keep customers up to date on the order’s progress
There should be a loyalty program and special deals (special offers and discounts, coupons, etc.)
Customers: in-app chat for complaints and ideas
- Notifications sent to your phone by text message or email (location- or context-aware offers, and timely updates on the order status)
In addition, there are a lot of features for restaurant apps that could make the whole experience better for users:
- The waiter will ask you for your order.
- Easy to order (repeat your previous order in one click)
- Reviews and ratings from other users for every place in the menu
- GPS tracking for the delivery of the order, too
- looking for nearby restaurants for restaurants that have more than one location
- Menu customization, where visitors can add or remove ingredients or choose the main ingredients for their meal.
- Gamification features – a system of achievements, challenges, and tournaments where users can earn in-app currency that can be use to pay for the orders. This can be use to pay for the charges.
- sharing on social media
- chatbots
What will happen to restaurant apps in the future?
COVID-19 is thought to have caused 44.1 million people in the U.S. to use food delivery apps by the end of 2021, which means that there will be many people who use these apps. eMarketer, 2020 says that the number of people who use the internet will grow by
Using digital menu boards can help stores make $16,000 more per unit each year.
Between 2020 and 2025, QR code payments will rise by 240 percent because of the pandemic, which makes people want to pay for things with no cash at the moment.
If you look at these three simple statistics, you can see that the restaurant industry is going digital, which won’t change after the pandemic.
Online and mobile ordering, digital menus, and other payment methods will become more important to customers. Restaurants should also know that customers will be more likely to look for them in advance on review apps and platforms, so they should take care to keep a good review.
