The benefits of implementing a mobile web app for restaurant ordering

You opened your restaurant because you have a passion for cooking and creating dishes that people crave. It may have been a shock to realize how much time and expense you needed to invest into the details of staying competitive and keeping your customers satisfied. 

For example, your customers demand the option of delivery, but offering your dishes through a delivery app — the service that sends a person to your restaurant to deliver food to your customers — can cost you up to 30% of the price of your dishes without lowering your overhead costs. You need a way to grow your business and offer your own mobile ordering, payment, and delivery that doesn't consume so much of your profit.

Mobile app restaurant ordering for delivery isn’t the only feature that customers are coming to expect these days. Highly visual QR code menus for eating in, mobile payment options, loyalty programs–all the latest trends that are technology-based and centered around consumer convenience–are becoming commonplace expectations.

When it comes to implementing a mobile app for ordering food from a favorite eatery, whether it’s for dining in, takeout, or delivery, a web-based QR code menu that offers a seamless, glitch-free experience, alongside other integrations like payment options and a CRM, is what both you and your customers want.

With this technology, the customer doesn't waste time downloading another new app. They can quickly engage with your establishment’s most current menu. You can track your customers data, including their preferences, and offer them rewards based on their loyalty. They love this, you love this, and your competitive edge increases as your reputation for being an easy, convenient option grows.

There are several benefits to a web-based mobile app for ordering from restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, pubs, and any other establishment that offers food and drink. Let’s discuss a few.

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Keep it Simple With Easy Set Up

With the right web-based mobile app, the process of setting up your business and the menu is simple. You’ll take some fabulous photos of your entrees, write some mouth-watering descriptions, and upload these into the platform. 

As you change your menu seasonally, the QR code for your web-based mobile app remains the same, and you can easily add new menu items and remove older ones. 

On busy nights, you might run out of ingredients for a specific, popular dish, and need to remove it from your menu. With a web-based mobile QR code menu, this is easy. The web-based mobile app and QR codes are flexible enough for you to make the change from available to not available in moments.

In addition, if you have an overabundance of some ingredients, your menu is adaptable–you can instantly create a special entree to recommend to your customer.

Minimise Errors During the Order Process

When your staff is writing down orders or entering them into a point-of-sale system as the customer orders over the phone or in person, it's easy for mistakes to happen. It might be something misheard or entered into the system incorrectly.

When the customer creates their own order, it minimises the chances of a mistake. A web-based mobile app makes it a snap for a customer to place their order and customize it to their particular tastes.

Customers appreciate the chance to add, remove, and add special notes to ensure they're getting their order exactly as they want it. In addition, their self-sufficiency simplifies the process for your staff, drastically reducing the need to listen to, write down, confirm, bill, and give change for customer orders.

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Create a Loyalty Program

If you implement a web-based mobile platform that offers restaurant ordering alongside other features, like a CRM platform, you can use your new web-based mobile app to create a loyalty program that thanks and encourages your client base to continue eating at your restaurant.

According to one statistic, over 72% of US adults belong to at least one loyalty program, while 70% are likely to recommend a business that has a great loyalty program. Likewise, back in 2019, 77% of British adults belonged to at least one loyalty program. Indeed, a loyalty program is a wonderful way to build brand loyalty and reward faithful customers, while bringing them back again and again to enjoy what your eatery offers.

Allow Customers to Easily Split Payments

Any server can tell you about the awkward pause at a table when the customers realize that they forgot to ask for separate checks. With a web-based mobile app that allows customers dining in the restaurant to split the payment for their table, this never happens.

Instead, they can do it all from their own mobile device, quickly, simply, and whenever they’re ready. So long, awkward moments! This also helps your waitstaff better utilize their time, while minimizing errors and missed items when separating a check into two at the end of a meal.

A full-featured web-based mobile app will allow multiple options for splitting a check, such as by item or by a custom amount, offering your customers maximum flexibility and convenience. 

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Spend Less Time Taking Orders 

Is the phone in your restaurant constantly ringing with customers wanting to place pick-up or delivery orders? You know that customer calls can consume a lot of your staff's time, especially during peak times. It's more than taking an order, as many customers have questions that could be answered with a viewable menu in the web-based mobile app. 

As your customers begin to use your web-based mobile app to order, you'll find that your staff can concentrate more meaningful interactions with customers. Not only will this increase customer satisfaction, but it will also increase tips, as the customer will more welcomed and attended to throughout their visit.

Of course, not all of your customers will embrace web-based mobile ordering, but most will, and you’ll notice a difference in the time your staff has to take care of other necessities, especially during peak times. You can assign a single staff member to process the app orders and hand them off to the kitchen as the orders arrive through the system. 

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Encourage Customers to Try New Things 

When you upload your items to your web-based mobile menu, you can organize your menu in such a way that it encourages customers to purchase appetizers, sides, and desserts that they might not otherwise order.

Your menu can do the upselling for you, helping your customers notice new things that they haven’t tried before. In fact, a full-featured web-based app will use AI to offer smart suggestions, suggesting items that go well together and increasing orders.

Once you introduce photos of your menu items, you'll notice that long-term customers are placing orders for new items. You can also use photos on the menu to highlight and encourage the sale of seasonal menu items. Customers love to see exactly what they’re ordering and this often leads them to try something new.

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Use Mobile Payment Options to Provide Choices and Decrease Time Spent in the Store

If you do a big business in carryout orders, you know that your staff can spend a lot of time collecting payments. This time can add up on a busy night and increase the number of people in the carryout area, as well as the time people spend waiting to pick up their orders. 

You might also have orders that are called in but never picked up, affecting your bottom line. As your customers begin to use your web-based menu, you'll notice that your carryout business and deliveries run more smoothly, and your staff doesn't spend as much time collecting money.

Most of the payments on mobile apps (whether downloaded or web-based) are made with credit and debit cards, so you have fewer in-person transactions and fewer chances for discrepancies than with cash at the end of the night. 

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Save Money

Although you'll pay a fee for a web-based mobile app, it saves you money in the long run. You might need to spend some time uploading photos of menu items and setting the prices (although some mobile apps will help you with this as well), but once you're done, the app runs itself. With that done, you only need to do minimal maintenance as menu items and prices change. 

You'll save money on labor costs because you won't need a team to answer the phone to take orders on the weekends. As a result, your staff members can spend more time prepping and cooking, and your waitstaff can turn over tables more quickly–allowing those parents with screaming kids to finish their meal and make the quick exit they are hoping for since the orders and payments run through your new web-based mobile app. 

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Gather Customer Data

With a web-based mobile app for ordering, you can determine the type of customer data that you want to collect as long as the app you use has a customer relationship management (CRM) function. If you opt to pair your CRM with a loyalty program  (a must-have in today’s food and beverage industry), you can collect information, such as birthdays and preferred menu items. You can control the customer data and use it for text and email campaigns at a later date. 

With an all-in-one web-based platform, you tailor the customer data collected and determine who has access to that information. Meanwhile, it's essential that you can assure your customers that their information is safe from outside forces when they use your web-based app. 

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Start Enjoying the Benefits of a Web-Based Mobile App Today

Whether your customers are already sitting at a table in your establishment, want to swing by and pick up food on their way home, or want to order online, pay online, earn loyalty rewards, and have their food delivered to their door, web-based mobile ordering platforms can come with many benefits for both you and your customer base.

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