{"id":9338,"date":"2023-02-15T10:48:45","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T16:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/?p=9338"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:48:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T16:48:45","slug":"why-your-restaurant-needs-a-mobile-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/why-your-restaurant-needs-a-mobile-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Reasons why your restaurant needs a mobile app"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/netmenus\/beforedemo.php\"><img width=\"648\" height=\"365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/restaurant-app-development_mar19.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9342\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/restaurant-app-development_mar19.jpg 648w, https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/restaurant-app-development_mar19-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/restaurant-app-development_mar19-585x330.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The restaurant industry may be old but the market conditions that govern it are even older. When these market conditions change, your business needs to catch up or become a thing of the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many QSR and fast-casual restaurants generate a significant portion of their revenue from takeout and delivery service. With the adoption of apps like <g class=\"gr_ gr_7 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace\" id=\"7\" data-gr-id=\"7\">Grubhub<\/g> and Ubereats that trend is increasing as it is becoming easier to start taking delivery orders with fewer new staff. <g class=\"gr_ gr_8 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"8\" data-gr-id=\"8\">Downside<\/g> of it is the increased fees paid out to these delivery apps. It can be anywhere from 15% to 25% depending on service and location. Such a high commission can put a strain prepared food margin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To avoid these heavy commissions many restaurants and chains, started moving to their own apps. It used to be harder for individual restaurants to publish their own mobile apps. Now it\u2019s easier to publish mobile apps for single or <g class=\"gr_ gr_10 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace\" id=\"10\" data-gr-id=\"10\">multi-location<\/g> restaurants. Having own mobile app saves the commission paid out to aggregator apps like <g class=\"gr_ gr_9 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace\" id=\"9\" data-gr-id=\"9\">Grubhub<\/g>, and Eat24. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the top 10 reasons why it needs one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Location and Localization<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the biggest reasons to have a mobile app for your\nwebsite is to increase its visibility. Your website may be in more \u2026 analogue\nmediums like the phonebook or local maps and brochures but, these days, most\npeople find their ways around using their phones. Having a mobile app helps you\nto stand out more on these platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some mobile apps can even send notifications to your customers when they drive within a certain vicinity of your storefront so that they don\u2019t need to look at their phones for your restaurant to come to mind. It\u2019s also cheaper than paying for billboards by the side of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Increased Repeat Customers<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the restaurant business, you make some money when people\ncome in once. You make more money when they keep coming back. One way to\nincrease your repeat customers is with a mobile app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just like having a mobile app is the new version of having\nyour business in the phonebook, having a mobile app is the new version of\nhaving a takeout menu that your patrons keep on their fridge at home. It keeps\nyour business in their mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about how often people look at their phones. Now\nimagine that every time they look at their phones they see your mobile app. It\nhelps to keep your business on their minds and your food in their mouths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Better User Experience<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A recurring theme in this article is changed to the restaurant market. That includes your customers. You have to meet them where they are and they\u2019re on their phones. Having a mobile app for your restaurant makes your business more accommodating to your customers and that\u2019s how you keep customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also look at mobile apps as a way of improving user\nexperience more directly. Mobile apps make it easy for you to collect\ninformation on your customers by doing things like asking them to fill out\nsurveys. This method of customer interaction can be especially impactful if\nyour restaurant offers delivery or takeout services because your customers can\nsubmit completed surveys before returning to your restaurant in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Loyalty and Referral Programs<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Having a mobile app also makes it easier for your business\nto take advantage of loyalty and referral programs. Once again, loyalty and\nreferral programs predate mobile apps. However, mobile apps bring these systems\ninto the twenty-first century. It\u2019s far easier to keep track of customer\npurchases and referrals when you have a mobile app doing it for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This works for the customers as well. One classic loyalty\nsystem involved giving your customers slips or tokens to keep track of their\npurchases which they needed to show to redeem rewards. If the customer lost\nthese slips or tokens, they lost out on their reward. Neither you nor your\ncustomers need to keep track of anything once you\u2019ve worked your loyalty and\nreferral programs into a mobile app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Direct Marketing to Your Customers<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Having a mobile app also opens up whole new areas for you to\nmarket directly to people who already are your customers. With your app on\ntheir phones, you can directly send them notifications for things like new menu\nitems, special events or sales, or changing operating hours. No more taping a\npiece of paper to the inside of the door to alert your customers to hour\nchanges even though they won\u2019t see it until they\u2019ve already arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As mentioned above, this marketing can be optimized by being\nsent to their phones only when they\u2019re most likely to pay attention to it so\nthat you sren\u2019t spamming them with information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Digital Menu and One-Touch Contact<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Having a mobile app doesn\u2019t just give you better access to\nyour customers, it gives your customers better access to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With tools like one-touch contact, it\u2019s easier than ever for\nyour patrons to contact you to place their favorite orders. As is the case with\nuser experience, this is more significant for restaurants that offer delivery\nor take-out. However, even if you don\u2019t offer these services your patrons can\nuse the app to call to make reservations or place inquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mobile apps also allow for you to give your patrons access to\na digital menu so that they can decide what they want before they get to the\ncar or place their call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Stand Out from Your Competitors<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of restaurants have launched their own mobile apps but\nnot all of them. After all, that\u2019s why we wrote this article and that\u2019s why\nyou\u2019re reading it. Having a mobile app for your restaurant is one more reason\nfor your patrons to give you their business rather than your competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if you don\u2019t have a lot of competition from other local\nbusinesses, most chain restaurants already have mobile apps. That doesn\u2019t mean\nthat it\u2019s too late for you to catch up to them by launching the service\nyourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Better Social Sharing<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Word-of-mouth has long been the best kind of advertisement\nfor a restaurant. For one thing, it\u2019s free, and for another people are more\nlikely to trust their friends and family on how good a restaurant is. After\nall, all restaurants say that they\u2019re great, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Word-of-mouth is still the best kind of advertising, it just\nworks a little differently now. People might still talk in person about their\nfavorite restaurants but they\u2019re more likely to talk up their favorite\nrestaurants on social media. They can do this even if you don\u2019t have a mobile\napp but they\u2019re more likely to share their experience if you do. That\u2019s\npartially because it\u2019s usually easier to share experiences if there\u2019s an\nassociated app and because, once again, having a mobile app is likely to\nenhance your customers\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Better Branding Opportunity<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve already mentioned a couple of times that having a mobile app helps <g class=\"gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"6\" data-gr-id=\"6\">for<\/g> your patrons to think about your restaurant more often, as well as making your restaurant easier to find and easier to use. In the end, mobile apps aren\u2019t just another branding opportunity or a better branding opportunity. Having a mobile app is its own branding opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Increased Telephone Orders from the App<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As discussed above, having a mobile app makes it easier for customers to order from your restaurant and when it\u2019s easier for people to do something they do it more often. This doesn\u2019t only make it easier for you to get repeat customers, it also makes it more likely for the customers that you already have to come back more often. You could ignore everything else in this article and wouldn\u2019t increase orders make it all worthwhile?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Building a Mobile App for Your Restaurant with NetMenus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NetMenus is a new service by iScripts that make it easier\nfor restaurant owners to create mobile apps. With a mobile app from NetMenus,\nyou can manage menus, orders and payments as well as perform more complicated\nactions like compiling reports. NetMenus takes care of all of the backdoor\noperations so that you can focus on your business rather than focus on coding\nand website design. You only deal with the important things through a simple\nadministrator page. It\u2019s also cheaper than hiring a coder or developer to\ncreate a mobile app for your restaurant, which used to be how it works. That\u2019s\nwhy most of the restaurants with mobile apps a chain companies with the extra\nmoney in their budget. It&#8217;s also how you can compete with multi-million-dollar\ncompanies without breaking the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re not a web designer or a coder, you\u2019re a restaurant owner. Your restaurant should be your first priority. It could be that that\u2019s why you don\u2019t have a mobile app so far but it\u2019s exactly why you need one. Creating a mobile app for your restaurant doesn\u2019t need to take up too much of your time or your budget but can significantly increase the revenue of your shop by making your restaurant more visible to new customers and more appealing to your established customers. It\u2019s also an affordable and efficient way to help your restaurant compete with the big guys by bringing your brick-and-mortar storefront into the digital age without losing sight of your roots and your mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are planning to develop your own food delivery app for a single restaurant, restaurant chain or different restaurants in <g class=\"gr_ gr_5 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-del replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"5\" data-gr-id=\"5\">a geography<\/g>, it would be easier to start with an off the shelf platform. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/netmenus\/\">iScripts Netmenus<\/a> is a turn-key food ordering solution with customizable web and mobile <g class=\"gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace\" id=\"6\" data-gr-id=\"6\">order<\/g> solution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The restaurant industry may be old but the market conditions that govern it are even older. When these market conditions change, your business needs to catch up or become a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9338"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17092,"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9338\/revisions\/17092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iscripts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}