How to Develop an App for Your Restaurant?

Before creating a mobile service for a restaurant, performing business expertise shall be your number one priority. With multiple players at the segment, it’s vital to search the market, learning on rivals, target demographics, preferences, demands, etc. But first things first, so we shall start from the beginning.

Reasons to make a mobile service for your restaurant

Probably, you already perfectly know why it’s a great decision to develop your place app. Still, we’d like to mention all the possible reasons to see the whole picture.

• Applying the app users will significantly speed up the process of order since it’s a piece of cake to tap the screen and get the stuff. Thus, the audience will order more frequently;
• A mobile solution will help in serving more clients in parallel. Orders are taken online, hence, restaurant staff has time for serving more visitors;
• Your app will turn into a strong marketing tool to promote your facility increasing its awareness among creditworthy users;
• Your online mobile platform will contribute to your business’s growth, cos you’ll be able to gather your customers’ base, collect some statistical data, as well as figure out preferences. Such info is precious;
• A mobile service represents a perfect motivator for your audience to come to your place more often. To achieve such, think through your app functionalities stuffing the service with proper parameters.

Speaking of functionalities, it’s crucial to figure out what features you’re to implement into your platform before starting the development itself. Thus, let’s see what functions perfect apps for restaurant owners shall have.

Restaurant application core functionalities

• Interactive menu to present all details on foods’ ingredients and sizes;
• Delivery options for users to order food home with the possibility to track it on the way;
• Pre-ordering to save visitors’ time;
• Table reserving to get a table beforehand;
• Loyalty programs for visitors to collect bonuses. Remember that such a scheme of receiving bonuses has to be clear for developers to code it;
• Restaurants close-by for people to locate places in their vicinity. Though, when having only 1 restaurant, such a feature doesn’t make much sense;
• History of activities to see places visited and payments performed, so users can easily and fast repeat previous orders;
• Integrating social networks for the audience to easily get registered, etc.;
• Interactive components – simple games, receiving bonuses for certain activities, etc. – to strengthen users’ involvement. People enjoy entertaining element, so feel free to come up with unique solutions;
• Taxi order to simplify and speed up getting a car;
• Push notification to keep users posted on various news, deals, discounts, etc. to encourage visitors to come more often to your place.

After you figure out what functionalities you’re implementing into your online product, it’s time to move on.

5 key points to take into account

Here’s the list of aspects to think through carefully:

• Rivals and final users

Get to know those individuals. As you’ve mentioned, you could perform a certain marketing analysis to see what attracts visitors to your place and other restaurants. Explore those cases to create a decent application.

• High accuracy

Pay due attention to your m-service logic. It shall not be complicated. When users apply an app and have to put lots of effort to perform some actions, they won’t appreciate unnecessary complications so will simple quite the program forever.

• App clearness

Your m-service has to be convenient not only for visitors but also for your restaurant’s employees. For smoother order processing you could integrate your online platform with multiple inner systems of your establishment.

• Your budget

Determine the budget amount for app creation. In case you’re looking for a significant profit from it, you’ll have to hire professional developers.

• Future prospects

Experts predict the increase in online sales in the future. It means that one day you’ll have to build an app. Well, it’s better to start sooner, don’t you agree?

Well, now we shall move to the development itself.

After business expertise’s done (we’ve mentioned it at the very beginning), the next step is to determine a certain technical task and to start prototyping. Then devote your time to the service interface. Remember to apply your corporate style in here.

The coding is the following phase, that’s when your ideas become a real platform. And don’t forget about constant multiple testings at various stages to check its proper functioning. After all of it is performed, your brainchild is ready to be launched entering the market.

Phases of restaurant m-service building

• Analyzing & data collecting;
• Making a technical task and prototyping;
• Designing the service;
• Performing tests and coding;
• Starting up the program.

Okay, you know the development stages, and now let’s see how to find a reliable app designing team possessing vital skills and knowledge.

How to find great developers

Looking for the professionals? There are some points to pay special attention to. Here they are:

• Check the portfolio.
• Figure out how many staff members a company has. They shall provide mobile experts, back-end specialists, UX/UI designers, as well as Quality Assurance staff to carry out tasks properly.
• Their experience. Do you know when they started the business?
• Their readiness to respond to all possible questions sharp and clear.
• Check their previous designs. Here it’s not only about how it works – of course, it is important – but also about how it looks. Such restaurant applications shall attract visually.

Do you want your business, as well as the app to prosper? Find people to meet all the mentioned conditions. You need to raise your profit, which could be achieved by providing an efficient and groundbreaking online product.

Right now you know exactly how to start and where to go. Your dreams CAN come true, and they surely will. You’ll manage to work it out for your benefit.