Why Restaurants Should need a Mobile App?

If you think that mobile apps are solely for big name brands like Walmart, Amazon, Flipkart and Food Panda, you are wrong. More and more small and midsize businesses are following the mobile trend, understanding that an effective mobile strategy involves more than just a mobile-friendly website.

In fact, these days you’ll notice that many small businesses you interact with in your everyday life have their own dedicated mobile app — be it the corner coffee shop or the beauty spa downtown. These companies are ahead of the game when it comes to taking their marketing to the next level.

In case you are still not sure why anyone would want to build their own mobile platform, here are the top seven benefits of going down this path sooner rather than later.

 
1. Be Visible to Customers at All Times

Statistics show that the average American spends more than two hours a day (!) on his or her mobile device. While probably only a handful of applications make up the bulk of this total usage, it doesn’t change the fact that each user has to unlock, scroll, and scan their device for the apps they’re looking for. Being “in the way” can be an advantage to your company, as our mind unconsciously does record every image and text (or well-designed app icon!) it comes across — even if it happens unnoticed.

2. Create a Direct Marketing Channel
 
Apps serve many functions: they can provide general info, prices, booking forms, search features, user accounts, messengers, news feeds, and much more.

One of the biggest benefits of having a mobile app is that all the information you’d like to provide to your customers – including special sales and promotions – is right at their fingertips. Through push notifications you’re getting even closer to a direct interaction, and can easily remind customers about your products and services whenever it makes sense.

3. Provide Value to Your Customers

Talking about on-hand information, how about digitalizing that loyalty program you have in place? Instead of sticking to the old point-collection card, make it possible for your customers to collect their rewards via your mobile app. The result? More downloads and more return customers. (Check out PunchMe, a service that lets you create smartphone-based loyalty programs.)


4. Build Brand and Recognition

A mobile app for restaurant can greatly contribute to your brand awareness. I’d like to break this topic down into two aspects, the combination of which will make your app a true winner:

Brand. A mobile app is like a blank billboard sign. You can do what you want with it; you can make it stylish, hip, functional, shocking, or informative. But what you really want to do is create an app that has features your customers will love, while at the same time is well branded and beautifully designed.
Recognition. The more often you can get customers involved with your app, the sooner they will be inclined to buy your product and/or service. In advertising this is called the “effective frequency”: as a rule of thumb, hearing and/or seeing your brand approximately 20 times is what will get you truly noticed.

5. Improve Customer Engagement

No matter whether you are selling flowers or spa services, your customers need a way to reach you. Having a messaging (or help desk) feature within your app can really make a difference in the way you communicate with your customers. Think about it: OpenTable, for example, built its entire business model around this principle. Instead of calling a restaurant for a table, you can book it with less than five clicks on their platform. Now think about it: How many customers would prefer to communicate with you via text than via phone?

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Benefits of mobile apps for small Business

Apps are useful as a company’s mouthpiece. They are functional in providing information to customers regarding general customer profile, prices, promotions, news feed, product information and a lot more. Considering that Indian smartphone users spend mostly time on their phones, the idea of apps seems indispensable. All this with the simple functions of unlock, tap and scroll. But are apps only for huge business houses? Are they beneficial for small and mid-sized business enterprises too? If you have these queries in your mind then a quick view on the benefits of mobile apps will help you scale your small scale business to the next level.

 
• Connect with customers – According to Vserv’s report ‘Smartphone User Persona Report (SUPR) 2015’ the Indian smartphone base is growing at 26% CAGR from 2013 to 2017. The reason for this growth being Indians under the age of 25 years and a whopping 63% fall in that age group. So, if you want to target that age bracket, the best target would be – that’s right – apps.

• Know your customers well – Apps are a reliable way of knowing your customers’ likes, dislikes, budget constraints, age and lots more. This would help you strategize your marketing plan and save time and money too in devising advertising and marketing strategy.

• Builds customer relations – Mobile apps would help your business build customer loyalty over a period of time as well. You would grab eyeballs among clutter and build up a customer base by making a consumer connect, like promotions, special loyalty programs or any information. Plus, being just a tap away from the customer, 24×7 always helps.

So, you now have the benefits of mobile apps. However, be aware that developing the right kind of app tailor-made to suit and fulfill your specific requirement would involve specialized skills, time and resources mobilization. Thankfully, with sites like www.apponlease.com you needn’t panic. AppOnLease offers you the additional advantage of affordability so that you can divert the money saved into securing your business. And that too, with market research. So why wait? Get app-ready!

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How to make my restaurant app increase my sales?

As you know with AppOnLease apps you can easily make the app of your restaurant, without programming and at a low cost. But, how do you get revenues from it?

A mobile app is a great tool to boost customer loyalty and to improve some business processes. In this article we are going to give you the recipe to extract the maximum of your restaurant app.

Push Notifications

Push notifications on mobile like messages. The are useful to communicate with your customers in an effective way. Let's see an example. Suppose that it is tuesday night. This day is the one with lowest number of customers within the week. You bought a lot of seafood for the sunday, but there is some spare and you will have to throught it out if you do not sell it today. Now, imagine that you were able to send a message to all your customers saying: " Tonight seafood platter at 50% discount.". You can achieve this with push notifications.





Notice that with this offer you are killing two birds with one stone. First, because you attract customers the night with lowest activity in your business. Second, because you sell some goods you would need to get rid off.

Try different days, offers and measure the results to check which one performs better. But careful, push notifications have a drawback. If you become a spammer and your messages are no longer interesting, push notifications may end up in uninstalling your app. Use them wisely and with moderation.

Digital Menu

Include the menu of your restaurant and your app will be a modern digital menu.

Imagine that your customers see on the table an informative note that says: "Download our mobile app and take a look to our menu.". With this you get:

• More downloads of your app. The more customers have your app, the more effective will be your push notification campaigns.
• Save time to your waiters.The waiter won't have to bring the menu to the customer and then collect it back. He will just need to take the order.
• Reduce waiting times for your customers.

Although it may take some time to educate your customers this usage of your restaurant app may lead to a better service. Think that if banks are educating us to go to the ATM and not to the cashier restaurants can also do this.

As mentioned earlier, get downloads is important for us. In this article we explain you how to get more downloads and how to promote your mobile app

Any Time Order

Obviously, with your app, you'll have one-click-to-call, but appart from that customer can order form within your app. It does not matter the time of the day, if your are not at the restaurant at that moment, or if nobody can answer the phone, the user just needs to fill the form and wait for your confirmation. And you only need to check the email from time to time.

Less Intermediaries

From a time now, some restaurant aggregators and home delivery became popular. Because of their high traffic, these services are interseting for the acquisition, that is, to get new customers and they may lead to generate new customers.

However, these websites dilute our brand. A guest diner who comes from these sites is not really our customer, but a customer of that web. With our app we can offer our customer a service in which we will save these intermediaries commision and strengthen our brand.

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Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App?

If you are a business owner and your business does not have a mobile app, you need to get one. Having a web presence alone is no longer sufficient, as online activity continues to shift to mobile. Simply put, smartphone apps have become too important a marketing tool for small business owners to do without.

Smartphone usage has been on a tear as of late. Nearly three-quarters of Americans check their mobile phones at least once per hour, according to a Gallup survey.  Almost all – 90 percent – of that mobile-phone time is now devoted to using apps, analysis reveals. Americans now spend more time looking at their mobile phones than they do watching television.

This rise in mobile-phone usage means that mobile apps have become a key marketing tool for companies of all sizes, including small businesses. Mobile apps increase engagement with customers. They boost repeat visits, and permit a wide variety of online transactions, including the deployment of loyalty cards, push promotions, and ecommerce transactions.  Apps deliver coupons and send announcements that build your sales with customers. Apps also accelerate contact with your company, which enhances relationships with customers in a world where speedy responses are prized by buyers. Smartphone icons even help build brands by providing a visual design that customers recognize.

Many small-business owners still think that getting an app is expensive and difficult. They are worried about the need to build different apps for the various platforms customers are on – iOS, Android, Windows and Blackberry. They are unsure about building dynamic or static apps, and the difficulty of coming up with an app design. Moreover, most small-business owners don’t have the expertise to build apps themselves.

Mobile Application is a great tool to engage with customers on the go. Having a mobile application along with a web application makes you completely accessible to your customer. Meaning, more business for you any day! AppOnLease is a Mobile Application for Food Ordering. Its a Food Ordering App designed by Loginworks Softwares Pvt. Ltd.

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What customers want from restaurant mobile apps?

There was a time when the primary function of a restaurant’s mobile app was helping guests find the nearest location and allow them to look at the menu.

As a growing number of restaurant chains move into the mobile/digital space, the features available to guests are become increasingly complex.

With a strong digital presence, restaurant chains can allow guests to order ahead, pay for their meal and skip the line. Guests can choose to have their meals delivered. They can order and send gift cards; study the nutritional aspects of their customized choices; track their loyalty reward points; and sometimes even play games.

However, some data indicates that consumers don’t necessarily want more restaurant apps taking up valuable real estate on their smartphones.

A survey by OpenTable earlier this year found that 56 percent of consumers said they were “very unlikely” or “unlikely” to download an app for an individual restaurant, compared with 6 percent who said they are very likely to download such apps.

Respondents indicated that they prefer restaurant apps that aggregate information from multiple restaurants.

According to a white paper report by the National Restaurant Association with mobile provider LevelUp, different methods for digital programs have succeeded with different customer bases, but a number of features are beginning to stand out.

A look at what some of the leading players are saying about their digital programs shows that certain features can move the needle in driving traffic and sales.

The report, "The restaurant of the future: Creating the next-generation customer experience," reveals not only that restaurant customers want online ordering, payment flexibility and customization but also how these increase dining frequency, check size, customer conversion and loyalty.

"People have come to expect certain conveniences when they shop, travel and handle their finances – such as mobile access, personalization, loyalty tracking and no-touch transactions," said Andrew Feinberg, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and restaurant and food service leader. "More and more, they want their restaurant experiences to feel the same way. The true restaurants of the future will likely be the ones that engage people in a personalized way, even as interactions become more omni-channel."

For consumers, a restaurant menu is still the most important factor when choosing a restaurant for the first time. According to Deloitte, 85% of survey respondents said they will view the menu on the restaurant's own website when making the decision to visit for the first time. If a QSR location lets them use technology, customers will come back 6% more often and spend 20% more each time. Also, when they order, the most important element of the menu is the ability to customize the order.

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How Restaurant Mobile App will help you to serves your guest better?

Everyone loves to eat food. We always look clean and well managed place to eat. People who are living in your city are having more idea about food places, but what about them who are new to your city. People who are new to the city will surely search best food joints on internet. Apart from this, there are many people who want to order their lunch, dinner or anything online from your outlet.

Technology is booming and you have to prepare for healthy competition.If your restaurant is not having an online presence, then sorry to say you will start losing your customers because online activities are popular and in demand.

 
Main features of any Restaurant app:

• Push Notification: Whatever is new in your outlet or restaurant you can pass it through push notification. Customers will get notified about latest offer, deals, upcoming events and many more through push notification.
• Online Food Ordering: It’s a latest trend and everyone is following it. Now, people are ordering online and getting it delivered at any address. There are many apps in which Menu of the restaurant is also there. Through mobile Apps customers can order a variety of food and they help in increase sales. Placing an order online just took 5 min and it’s very easy to use.
• GPS Coupons: Through this feature you can send coupons according to user location. The Smartphone is having geo-location sensors which can easily detect the location of users.
• Easy Feedback: If you are good at your services, users will give good reviews and you will get good "stars" on your App. It will indirectly increase sales because new user always prefers to read feedbacks before stepping in any restaurant.
• Online Table Reservation: Through this feature, user can book favorite table easily and can enjoy the ambience of any restaurant. It’s easy to reserve and cancel any table.
• Online Dinner order: if servers are busy with other customers, you can order food from your mobile and you don’t have to wait for servers come and take your order.

AppOnLease is a Mobile Application for Food Ordering. Its a Food Ordering App designed by Loginworks Softwares Pvt. Ltd.
Our Mission for AppOnLease is to ensure fast and quality food delivery to customers using mobile technology thereby making queuing orders simple for restaurants. This is a primary need that AppOnLease application serves.

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How Your Restaurant Can Benefit From Restaurant Apps?

We can counter the above mentioned quote as there are more than one online food delivery apps. available today. So, we can rightly say that the person who stated the quote is finally impressed with the technology. Jokes apart, nowadays technology has made turned our imaginations into reality. One of the striking innovations is the online food delivery apps that cater to a hungry soul at any hour of the day and most importantly at his convenience. Feeling hungry? Don’t want to go out of the office to eat? Download a few online food ordering apps and you will not keep starving.

Learn more about AppOnLease Restaurant Solutions

Restaurants, cafes and several other eating joints have taken refuge to online food delivery apps to promote their business. Apart from promotion, these apps also cater to their customers and serve them according to their wish and wants. There is more than one benefit associated with these online food delivery apps, read below to know more.

 
Business Promotion

Planning to open a restaurant? Apart from other business strategies, the appropriate one is to consult with a company developing an online delivery app for your venture. This is the best way to promote your business in the present days. Name any popular eating joint and there you find them on the food delivery apps on your android and iPhone. Do you have any other reason to starve? I guess no. Download a food delivery app and make eating happy and healthy.

Increased Orders

There are circumstances when you are too lazy to go out or not in the state to visit a bistro, but will that suffice your hunger? I’m sure it won’t. These food delivery apps are not only known for their prompt and fast delivery but also for increasing the orders by double. Hence, this leads to amplification of your customers that will be significant in the profit drawn at the end of the year. To believe it, you need to incorporate the app system in your business to get a fruitful result.

Cost-effective Option

Many people prefer ordering food through an online food delivery app as it fits their budget. I’m sure you must be thinking how? Well, visiting a restaurant includes transportation cost and several other taxes for eating in their space. Technically speaking, wasting money on food is understandable but not on the unnecessary taxes that need to be paid while eating in a restaurant.

Feeling hungry? Order food online through food delivery apps and get your favorite dish served hot at your doorstep in a jiffy. These apps save time, fit your budget and cater to your mood accordingly with their prompt service. Consult with a company developing these apps and get one for your eating joint to flourish your business in leaps and bounds.

How Restaurant apps measure up to mobile expectations?

Your customers anywhere country like India love their smartphone. And they use it for basically everything: search a nearby restaurant, browse your menu, check opening hours, read reviews and make online reservations. A good and smooth mobile experience becomes increasingly important and only a mobile restaurant app measures up to that expectation. Apps use smartphone features like call direct, book now and automatic route navigation.
Just one tap leads to interaction.

Your restaurant app logo is clearly visible on the screen of your quests’ smartphone. That’s option available in AppOnLease Restaurant Solution Your guest is only one tap away from information and interaction. Compare this with the hassle a guest has to go through to find your website: open a browser, wait for connection, find the bookmark or even type the url or a search query. An app says ‘Hi, good to see you again. How may I help you?’ several times a day. You can’t make it any easier for guests to make a reservation.

Customer loyalty program with AppOnLease Restaurant app

Your guests are generally loyal customers. If they like your restaurant, they are likely to return. Anyone that installs your restaurant app is interested in your restaurant and is planning to come again. A restaurant mobile app encourages them to come sooner and visit you more often.

A customer loyalty program, which can be included in the app, enhances returning visits. Customers that use a loyalty program are extremely likely to return. With a restaurant app you’ll get a modern loyalty program that is part of your app. Separate cards or stamps are no longer needed.

Give your guests something extra in your app: demonstrate how to cook or share some of your recipes. This guarantees your guests will keep using your restaurant app.

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