4 reasons why mobile apps are vital to running a successful restaurant business

Without a doubt, in today’s age of tech savvy, having an effective mobile app is crucial to sustaining the successful growth of your SME. For example, consider the example of Starbucks, a prominent brand in the food and beverage industry. According to an investigation, this brand made more than 15% of the total monetary transactions through its dedicated mobile application only. Now, do you think this percentage is something to ignore?

So, if you are still confused about whether getting a mobile app for your business is worth the entire investment or not, here is a list of 4 compelling reasons why you should go for an effective mobile app to manage your business. successful restaurant business.

Improvement n. 1 in reserves

When you come up with an efficient mobile app for your restaurant, reservations become absolutely straightforward. Wondering how? Well, let’s first look at the normal reservation procedure!

Clients should make a call and wait for someone to pick them up, then wait until someone can confirm whether or not accommodation is possible. If possible, check and inform customers of exact hourly availability. Not forgetting, another problem is confirming the customer’s first and last name a dozen times so that there are no spelling errors that can cause confusion in the reservation. So you can understand that this reservation procedure is really troublesome for both ends.

On the other hand, making a reservation through an app is extremely convenient, as customers can easily check seat availability on their own. They can simply fill in the necessary information through the application. From the end of the restaurant owner, sending a push notification confirming the reservation also becomes easier. At the same time, canceling the reservation also becomes easier.

# 2 Loyalty and referral programs

If a customer is a regular at your restaurant, it is common practice to offer that particular person a certain loyalty program. This would not only help you improve your customer base, but it would also help drive sales.

Offering personalized offers to customers helps them feel special, they understand that you care about them. The integration of a mobile application makes it easy for restaurant owners to keep track of their customer information along with their previous orders. This helps incentivize them in the form of personalized discounts. Perhaps, you can offer them special discounts on their birthdays or anniversaries; maybe, a special order discounted meal deal, etc.

So managing such referral and loyalty programs to keep existing customers along with attracting new customers becomes easier with an efficient mobile app.

# 3 smarter takeout ordering

Today, most people own a smartphone. From shopping online to reserving movie tickets, you can do it all online! Don’t feel like having dinner at home but are too exhausted to go out? No more worries! You can order your food online through your favorite restaurant’s mobile app.

Research shows that most of the time, during peak hours, customers find the phone line busy or need to confirm the order multiple times to avoid messy orders. When you offer an app to customers, they can effortlessly choose the dishes they want and place the order. Even from the side of the business owner, managing such electronic orders is helpful.

# 4 Easy payment processing

Nobody wants to wait in line for a long time. So why would your customers make payments for take out orders? Here come the benefits of incorporating payment processing into your application. Let customers pay for the food they order online. It would help you avoid any inconvenience at the reception. Apart from this, you would benefit in the following ways.

• Get rid of the risks of customers placing orders and then never showing up to pick up the order
• No need to check and count over and over the orders paid and collected

Final thoughts

Apart from all the points mentioned above, by designing a powerful mobile app, restaurant owners can serve customers with better menu access. They can easily select the dishes they want to have without having to repeat the order multiple times over the phone to avoid messy ordering. Also, this would ensure better marketing ROI along with higher customer engagement and better customer relationship.