Are You Being Left Behind?
Top 5 Reasons Restaurants Need a Mobile Ordering App
As technology keeps improving and becomes increasingly more ubiquitous, restaurants are turning more frequently to mobile applications (iOS and Android) to enhance the customer experience. Restaurants are creating mobile apps that track loyalty and make menus available. The ones that don’t are being left behind.
According to a recent statistic from the Pew Research Center, 40% of U.S. adults have ordered food online. This trend is projected to go even higher in the near future. By 2020, 70% of all foot traffic will be outside of the restaurant. That’s a staggering number.
As technology becomes more powerful, the cost for small businesses to adopt such technologies is becoming increasingly less expensive to avoid being left behind. Restaurant owners can (now more than ever) take advantage of mobile trends to increase revenues and improve the customer experience.
If that isn’t enough to decide if mobile ordering makes sense, here are a few more reasons to consider:
1. Improved customer experience
With a mobile ordering app, customers have the flexibility to order when they want and where they want. This leads to shorter lines and improves efficiency with the customer buying cycle. Employees will spend less time on the phone taking orders and more time with guests dining in the restaurant.
2. Larger average check size
When customers place orders through their phones, check sizes increase 23% on average compared to their in-store counterparts. Why is this? Seeing a menu in digital form is a lot easier to digest. Not only this the ordering process is much smoother and flows in a much more natural progression. One of the main reasons check sizes are larger, on average, is because ordering apps never forget to upsell the customer. Maybe they wanted that guacamole after all!
3. Increased take-out revenue
Not only are check sizes increasing, but take-out revenue grows on average by 30%. Some restaurants have even seen their take-out revenues double.
4. Customers are connected now more than ever
A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that 8 out of 10 Americans shop online on the web or through their smartphone. In addition, 51% shop exclusively on their phones. This number is only projected to increase as customers become more connected.
5. Improves the ordering process and reduces mistakes
Also, the ability to see and build orders in a mobile app also helps reduce human errors. This in turn increases order accuracy and improves the customers overall satisfaction.
