Remember the times when wanting to eat something fancy or having guests over meant toiling in the kitchen for hours? What about that time when you had to wait in front of the restaurant for hours just to get a table? It all seems like a thing of the past now that you can simply open an app to order your favorite dishes, or to book a table at your favorite restaurant.
The deduction is simple: the age of the apps is here! And, the restaurant apps truly make life so much easier for both the owners of the place and the guests.
The owners can manage the menu, have a customized point of sale, handle reservations, and more. On the other hand, the customers can order food, book tables, and even leave feedbacks in the app. A win-win for both, right?
So, do you have an app yet for your restaurant? If the answer to that is a ‘no,’ then take a look at these problems that restaurant app features can solve for you. You will surely be convinced to get your own app by the time you finish going through all the points we have dwelled on in here.
Let’s get started now!
Inability to maintain a steady inflow of orders
With the restaurant industry growing by leaps and bounds, inability to maintain a steady influx of guests is perhaps the biggest issue that the restaurants face these days. There are several ways through which having your own app can solve his problem:
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Sending out push notifications:
The app will let you send out push notifications to the customers in the vicinity. Your guests will also be reminded of the specials that you are serving, or that amazing food they had at your place the last time they visited. Sending push notifications is a way to target your guests who are searching for a place to eat in your locality. Think of it as giving them a gentle push in your direction using your app!
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Heavy discounts or loyalty points:
The restaurant app development these days are done in a way that the loyalty points can be stored on the device. There’s no need to carry a separate card for that purpose. The notifications on the app can remind the customers about the points they can use to get heavy discounts on the meals. You can be assured that eighty percent people would actually come to your restaurant to get those benefits.
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Higher ROI on the specials
Push notifications can make the special offers of your restaurant turn out to be extra special for both you and the guests. Maybe you are hosting ‘Midweek Margarita’ festival at the restaurant, and you send out notifications about that. Now, it got your guest thinking, “Maybe a margarita after office isn’t a bad idea.” Just your simple nudge did the trick here to boost your business.
Read Also – How to increase Restaurant Delivery Orders?
Issues with booking the tables at the restaurant
The app will also have the function of pre-booking the tables at the restaurant, which is again something that is helpful for both the guests and the business. It gives the owners an idea about the crowd they can expect in a day, and according to that they can declare last-minute or same-day booking discounts.
For the guests, they can stay assured that their tables are booked, and there will be no need to wait in line at the door. It adds up to a better customer experience, which can play an important role in making a guest decide whether or not they want to come back again.
Make sure you improve the experience for the customers by making it easy for them to cancel the reservation, if they need to. And, also send out notifications to them about an hour before the scheduled time just as a reminder. The calendar APIs of Google and Apple can easily be implemented in an app.
Not having the facility to pre-order from the menu
Besides, pre-booking the tables, apps can also be used for letting the guests pre-order from your menu. Pre-ordering means you will get enough time to have the dishes ready, and the customer will not have to wait for savoring the meal.
The businessmen hurrying to sneak a bite during the lunch break, and the ones having a short business meet-up, will actually thank you for incorporating this feature. Another add-on features that you can have is to let the guests pre-order from your menu to get as takeaway.
Losing customers because of the lack of a delivery service
When your restaurant is filled completely during the weekends, not only there is a chance that the quality of food and service will suffer, but also the guests will have to remain waiting for a long time. You can have a simple solution to this problem with your app: just give your guests a good discount for takeaways and home deliveries during the weekend. Not only will you retain more customers this way, but your customers will also be able to enjoy their food in comfort.
Besides, the food delivery tracking system has become so easy these days thanks to apps like ManageTeamz. Why keep your guests waiting when you can bring the food o them, and make the process seamless with an app like this.
Read Also – How the Delivery Software is Helping Restaurants to Deliver Food on Time?
The hassles faced by guests when ordering online
Ordering online can be quite a hassle when the restaurant does not have an app. Sure, the restaurant can keep the facility of ordering online through their website, but that just makes it inconvenient for the customer. He would much rather move on to your competitor who has an app for his restaurant.
A restaurant app lets the guests browse through the menu easily before placing their order. The app will also let them know about the ratings and comments on the menu made by the other guests, which helps them in making the decision about their food choices.
Any details they want about the food or the ingredients would all be available on the app for them to make an informed decision. So, ordering food becomes a lot seamless and easy for the guests.
The lack of major steps to improve user experience
Of course, you serve great food, have a superb service, and offer regular discounts. But, this way, you are not going the extra mile to offer the best possible user experience.
Customizing the user experience goes a long way in ensuring that the guests remain loyal. You can have a profile of the user that includes a list of their favorite dishes, their complete order history, and their contact and delivery information.
Having such a thorough user profile on the app, means that, the guests will not need to re-enter their information at every stage of the process of ordering from your restaurant. There are also machine learning algorithms that help regular guests with food choices that are specially curated for them.
Final thoughts
When a restaurant app solves these problems for you and your guests, you can see the effects of it in the profits you earn and the ease of doing business that you get. So, it’s high time to get that app your restaurant needs!
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