There is no doubt that in today’s tech-savvy age, having an effective mobile app is crucial to sustaining the successful growth of your SME. For example, consider the example of Starbucks, an eminent brand in the food and beverage industry. According to research, this brand made more than 15% of the total money transactions through its dedicated mobile app alone. Now, do you think this percentage is something to ignore at all?

So, if you are still confused as to whether it is worth the total investment to get a mobile app for your business, here is a list of 4 compelling reasons why you should go for an effective mobile app to run your restaurant business. successfully.

#1 Upgrade in Reserves

When you come up with an efficient mobile app for your restaurant, making reservations a breeze. Wondering how? Well, let’s see the normal reservation procedure first!

Clients need to make a call and wait for someone to pick them up, then wait until someone can confirm if accommodation is possible or not. If possible, check and inform customers about the exact time availability. Without forgetting, another problem is to confirm the client’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 for themselves the availability of seats. They can simply fill in the necessary information through the app. From the restaurant owner’s point of view, it’s also easier to send an automated notification confirming the reservation. At the same time, the cancellation of the reservation also becomes easier.

#2 Referral and loyalty programs

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

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

Therefore, managing such referral and loyalty programs to keep existing customers and attract new customers becomes easier by using an efficient mobile application.

#3 Smarter takeout orders

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

Various researches show that most of the times during peak hours, customers find the phone line busy or need to confirm the order multiple times to avoid ordering out of order. When you offer an app to customers, they can effortlessly choose the dishes they want and place their order. Even from the point of view of the business owner, the management of such electronic orders is useful.

#4 Easy payment processing

Nobody wants to wait in a queue for a long time. So why would your customers do that to pay for takeout orders? Here come the benefits of incorporating payment processing into your application. Allow customers to pay online for the food they are ordering. It would help you avoid the hassle at the reception. Other than this, you would benefit from the following ways.

• Get rid of the risks where customers order and then never show up to pick up the order
• No need to check and post paid and collected orders over and over again

final thoughts

In addition to 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 going through the pain of repeating the order several times over the phone to avoid messy orders. Also, this would ensure better marketing ROI along with increased customer engagement and better customer relationship.