Mobile Apps for Restaurants – Best Apps to Keep Your Cash!

Mobile Apps for Restaurants - Best Apps to Keep Your Cash!

Apr 13, 2021

In an increasingly digital world, more and more restaurants are utilizing mobile apps to streamline their back of house operations, manage human resources and ordering. This makes service more efficient while engaging with their customers.

Restaurant apps allow a nation of smartphone users to place online food orders, pay with their credit card, make mobile payments, or reserve a table in a few easy steps from the palm of their hand.

Surveys suggest that over 80% of adults use their mobiles to search for restaurants, with over 30% saying that the ability to reserve a table online is an essential feature. The figures also show that more and more people prefer restaurants with tableside ordering and payment.

Mobile app development is big business and there are multiple restaurant mobile apps for every operational process. An eCommerce app will allow users to complete transitions and place online food orders via mobile devices. A food delivery app can then accept these orders, allocate delivery drivers, create route maps, and let the kitchen know when to start prepping the food.

App features may include sending push notifications to customers. A push notification can even be sent when people are in the area encouraging them to try your restaurant and to remind customers of special promotions such as happy hours or lunchtime deals. App builders can also include loyalty programs and coupons in your app.

Restaurant mobile apps are also linked to increasing sales and customer loyalty. Getting people to download your app by giving them freebies or exclusive offers then allows you to send push notifications and track how and when they use your services.

Using apps for back-of-house operations can also have a huge impact on how much cash you keep in your business. For example, using a native delivery app instead of third-party delivery companies not only gives you greater control of your business but also means you're not paying high commission rates that eat into your profits.

Food Delivery App - The Shiftpixy Way

The Shiftpixy native delivery app is a food ordering app that allows you to bring food delivery in-house without prohibitive set-up costs. The app allows restaurant owners to allocate existing trained staff members as delivery drivers who are then pinged with a route plan when delivery orders are placed.

Unlike a third-party delivery app such as GrubHub or Uber Eats that charge an average of 30% commission per order, Shiftpixy charges a flat per-transaction fee that includes comprehensive insurance coverage, staff scheduling, and route planning. Making the set up your own delivery service and keeping your cash easy and efficient.

The app will also connect to your POS system enabling mobile payments and full integration with existing systems.

Point of Sale App

Having the right POS system will streamline your operations and help you keep your cash where it belongs. Many POS solutions offer mobile apps for restaurants allowing staff to take orders and payments at the table using their handheld devices.

Table Booking & Contactless Table Service

With increased awareness around social contact, there are a number of apps that have been developed to allow not only online table booking but also contactless table service.

Using a booking app to let customers reserve tables online can streamline the booking process and free up staff for other things. Apps such as Waitlist will notify the party when their table is ready and they can even log in to see how long they might have to wait to minimize the need to ask your busy front-of-house staff.

Apps such as Dines have been developed to reduce the need for customers to queue and cut down the need for printed menus and front-of-house staff to take orders which are both great ways to help you keep your cash. Customers can download the app or scan a QR code to order directly from your menu via their mobile device. They then pay the bill using mobile payments or their credit card.

Social Media Apps

If you are a restaurant owner you'll understand the importance of your social media presence as part of your restaurant's marketing and customer engagement strategy. Having good mobile applications that allow you to manage multiple social media accounts, plan your stories, and monitor the performance of your content from the palm of your hand can reduce your digital marketing budget. This can also give you more time to build your restaurant business without missing out on customer engagement or sales opportunities.

Utilizing social media can be a cost-effective form of digital marketing and a good way to build your food delivery or restaurant business.

Your Own Restaurant App

Having a customer-facing app for your restaurant is a great way to engage with your customers and encourage customer loyalty as well as provide a platform for accepting online orders. If your target market includes millennials, they are almost certainly app users and many will expect services to have web and mobile apps to engage with.

Restaurant mobile apps can include loyalty programs, reward programs, and referral programs and you can use them to send push notifications to customers. Both industry trends and big brand success stories such as Taco Bell, Domino's Pizza (both of which are ShiftPixy clients), and Starbucks suggest that mobile apps for restaurants are a huge part of the future of restaurant operations. In fact, 21% of all Starbucks transactions are completed via their mobile app.

Workforce Management App - Shiftpixy

The most valuable asset to your business is your staff and yet finding and keeping good human capital in the restaurant business can be a constant challenge. Shiftpixy is designed to help managers fill their shifts by matching available shifts to qualified staff that are available in the area giving restaurant owners access to an on-demand workforce. Ready to see how ShiftPixy can have an immediate impact on the bottom line of your restaurant operations? Request a demo!