3 Experiences to Offer In Your Restaurant Mobile App

Restaurant mobile apps open the door for more opportunities to interact with your customers and drive revenue. A well-designed app makes it convenient for customers to place orders for food online, increasing the odds of them returning again and again.  

Additionally, it simplifies your back-of-house operations by streamlining order management. An app offers benefits for both you and your customers. 

But simply having a branded mobile app doesn’t guarantee more sales. It needs to have key features and experiences that make it enjoyable for customers.  

Whether you’re starting a restaurant mobile app from scratch or revamping an existing one, these are the best tips to help ensure its success. 

Why Invest in a Restaurant Mobile App? 

With a restaurant app, it’s easy for customers to engage with your business one-on-one. Not only can it strengthen your brand loyalty program, but it can also drive up the dollar amount on every purchase. Today, about 40% of customers prefer to order through a restaurant instead of a third-party app.   

Mobile apps allow customers to set up accounts, store their information, and easily place orders. If you connect the app with your loyalty platform, customers can also check their rewards status. You can also offer customers personalized deals or cross-sell options with each order, increasing your average restaurant sales.  

A branded restaurant app has the potential to help you reach your marketing goals. However, it’s important that you work with a customizable restaurant app, so you can create one that works for your unique audience. For any app to have the most impact, it needs to have a few important features.  

3 Essential Features of a Restaurant Mobile App 

Make sure the restaurant app builder you use allows you to take advantage of these three features.  

1. Personalized Dining Experiences

Mobile apps bolster a personalized dining experience in two impactful ways:  

First, if a guest creates a profile, the app can save their information and preferences. When they place subsequent orders, the app may suggest menu items or add-ons based on a guest’s order history. This same level of personalization goes for your rewards program. You can customize the rewards offered to customers based on how they use the app and which menu items they tend to gravitate toward.  

Second, a mobile app that caters to a customer’s preferences creates a high-quality dining experience. The app fosters a smooth and simple ordering process. When a guest has a great time at your restaurant, they’re more likely to return and recommend your business to others.  

2. Augmented Reality (AR) Menu Previews

AR technology can enhance your digital menu. With it, guests use their mobile device to scan a QR code for a menu item that reveals a 3D image of that dish. Guests can scroll up, down, and around the dish to get a full 360-degree view. You can integrate the QR code into physical menus, websites, promotions, or mobile apps.   

Key Insight: Considering listing nutritional information or ingredients alongside the AR-generated image. The more information you provide guests with about their meal, the better their experience is.  

3. Table Reservation and Queue Management

Most guests are familiar with the experience of arriving at their favorite restaurant only to be told there is an hour-long wait for a table. Instead of asking guests to physically be at the restaurant to add their name to the queue, let them use your mobile app to do it remotely.  

In doing so, guests can get on the waitlist then relax at home or grab a pre-dinner drink nearby instead of standing in a long line. When they're next up in the queue, send them an alert to head toward the restaurant.  

Additionally, using a restaurant mobile app to make table reservations can be a game changer. Invite guests to check the app to explore the times and dates available for reservations. It allows guests to make and manage their reservations in one place.  

Key Insight: Not all restaurant mobile apps come equipped with table reservation technology. Make sure you find a compatible restaurant table management software to help coordinate reservations and waitlists.  

Accelerating Guest Engagement Through Gamification 

Gamification is a technique used to boost customer engagement by adding a small competitive element to how they interact with your app and restaurant. Here are two examples of gamification that you could try: 

1. Rewards for Social Shares: Invite guests to post photos and testimonials about their experience dining at your restaurant to receive reward points.  
2. Completion of In-App Challenges: Create challenges in your mobile app that awards guests with extra points or small rewards once completed. You might also connect the challenges to your loyalty program. 

Games and competitions are some of the best ways to create marketing incentives for customers. They provide a fun way to interact with your brand and offer the potential for a reward. If you coordinate the games within your mobile app, it can also lead to stronger in-app usage and customer retention.  

4 Mobile Ordering and Payment Solutions 

With every mobile order transaction, you have the potential to encourage customers to spend more money. Here are four ways you can boost average order value using an app: 

1. Offer Free Delivery on Orders Over a Certain Amount: Encourage guests to spend more by giving them free delivery once they spend more than a reasonable dollar amount.  
2. Make a Customer’s Rewards Status Visible: Enable customers to see how close they are to reaching the next reward in your loyalty program, so they may be excited to spend a little more and reach it.  
3. Allow Guests to Pay Through the App: Integrate restaurant mobile payment within the app so all guests can retrieve their order.  
4. Create Time-Limited Promotions: Put a time limit on special deals or menu items to create a sense of urgency. 

Key Insight: As you consider ways to boost your per-order income, don’t forget about personalized upsells. Offer guests last-minute items to add to their cart based on their past orders.  

Integrating Your App with Your Loyalty Program 

The most successful loyalty programs work because they’re easily accessible and intuitive to navigate. By linking your rewards program with your mobile app, guests get to see in real-time how close they are to unlocking their next reward. Use these three tips to boost loyalty program enrollment through your mobile app: 

1. Take Advantage of a Tiered Loyalty Structure: With a tiered customer loyalty program, restaurant guests have a goal to work toward with each order.  
2. Offer Many Different Types of Rewards: By featuring many kinds of awards, you’re better able to meet the interests of a wider group of enrollees.  
3. Create a Personalized Dashboard: When a guest logs into their app, they see one dashboard that greets them by name, shows their loyalty status, and advertises personalized offers. 

Pro Tip: As you brainstorm the best offers for your loyalty program, make sure to have a loyalty program cost calculator on hand. It’s a crucial factor in determining the success of your program or if you should make changes to your loyalty marketing strategy. 

Real-Time Notifications and Updates 

Push notifications give customers the inside scoop on what’s happening in your restaurant. You can advertise daily specials, events, or promotions. If a user has been inactive for a long time, you might send an email or notification to try to reengage them. Yet, it’s also important to be informative without overwhelming your guests. Lean on these four best practices to keep customers engaged: 

1. Allow Customers to Opt in or Opt Out: When a customer creates an account, ask their permission to send push notifications.  
2. Invite Guests to Customize Notifications: Allow guests to choose when and how they want to receive notifications.  
3. Make it Easy for Customers to Unsubscribe: Your customers should be able to unsubscribe in just a few taps.  
4. Limit How Frequently You Send Alerts: Run A/B tests with your guests to uncover the right number of alerts to promote engagement without churn.  

Pro Tip: Push notifications benefit from personalization too. Use the guest preferences data that you gather from the mobile app to cater a notification’s language and call-to-action. 

Social Media Integration 

When it comes to reaching new audiences, restaurant social media is an asset. You can use it to connect with new audiences and spread the word about your mobile app. You may also engage with customers in the comments of your posts. With each guest touch point, you continue to build stronger relationships and increase the odds of a successful brand loyalty program.   

For example, say you recently rolled out a new mobile app that allows guests access to your online ordering system. As your next step, get in touch with a few high-use customers and ask for their testimonials. With their permission, you can publish these statements on your social media. In doing so, you simultaneously advertise your mobile app and give a loyal customer a voice on your account. 

User Feedback and Support Features 

With any new technology, customers may run into hurdles. They need a way to access support quickly, so they can resolve the issue and continue using the app. That said, make it easy for customers to find technical support. Features like written documentation or brief videos can be helpful. 

It’s also possible that customers run into a setback that you can solve. Invite guests to submit feedback on the app, so you get real-time insight into what customers love, can quickly address service issues, or make any changes based on their user experiences.  

4 Ways to Analyze App Performance and User Interaction 

Metrics give insight into how customers use and enjoy your app. Track these five metrics to analyze app performance and user engagement: 

1. Mobile App Downloads: Track your app’s number of downloads over a period of time to get a sense of its popularity.  
2. Number of Orders Placed Through the App: After launching the app, monitor the number of online sales versus the more traditional avenues.  
3. Daily and Monthly Active Users: Measure how many people actively use the mobile app each day and throughout the month.  
4. App Load Time and Crash Rate: Make sure the app doesn’t have long load times or crash often because users might look elsewhere to place orders.  

Pro Tip: To help boost your mobile app’s visibility in the app store, check out our app store optimization best practices and app store optimization tools.  

Frequently Asked Questions About Restaurant Mobile Apps 

Check out our answers to the most common questions about restaurant mobile apps.  

What is a restaurant mobile app? 

A restaurant mobile app is an application for a customer’s mobile device that allows them to place orders, make reservations, or check loyalty status at a restaurant. It’s a great way to make it easy for guests to engage with a restaurant, boosting overall customer retention.  

What is the best mobile ordering app? 

DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats are three popular third-party online ordering apps. However, an increasing number of customers want to order directly from the restaurant. There are many apps that restaurants can use to offer their guests online ordering. As a restaurant owner, the best mobile app is one that integrates with your payment solution to create a seamless customer experience.    

What is the most popular restaurant review app? 

For restaurant reviews, Yelp and Google Business Profile are the two most common sources. Guests will often check one or both to decide which restaurants to visit.  

Starting or Improving Your Mobile App 

A mobile app has the potential to drive up restaurant sales and increase customer satisfaction. As you create a new app or improve an existing one, put yourself in your guest’s shoes when choosing features. You’ll create a high-quality experience when you understand what they want from your app.  

Finally, to remain effective, you should always improve your restaurant’s mobile app. Find ways to make it more engaging and stand out from competition. It can be an asset for sustained business growth.  

As you work an app into your overall restaurant marketing strategy, we can help by providing resources and advice to boost the odds of success. Schedule a demo with us to learn more about our mobile app solutions.