Tips for Creating Restaurant App Development
It should start with the fact that every public institution has a contact telephone number. Through a phone call, the client can receive information, contact an employee, and in the case of a cafe or restaurant – find out the menu, book a table. Many restaurateurs have already appreciated the advantage of having a restaurant website. The site has largely relieved the telephone line and added new features, which now appear automatically and without queuing (telephone). The next stage of internet marketing is the creation of a branded mobile application for the restaurant.
The presence of restaurant apps for a restaurant increases the importance and image of the establishment. Access to the restaurant offers using a mobile application has become much easier and more convenient.
How to build a restaurant app? Main features of a mobile application for a restaurant:
- Restaurant menu. Acquaintance with the cuisine and the pricing policy of the institution.
- Delivery order. Showcase of dishes for delivery, ordering for delivery or self-pickup.
- Online payment. Convenient form of payment by credit card or electronic money. receiving an online check.
- Courier communication. Simplification of coordination during order fulfillment.
- Informing about promotions. An additional marketing tool, increasing the likelihood of repeat sales.
- Table reservations. Online table selection, busy display. making a deposit and pre-ordering food.
- Direct communication with the administration for visitors. Ability to leave a recommendation or review.
- Bonus program. Discount cards, coupons right in the application. convenience of storage, the client will not forget his discount card.
Features of Restaurant Apps
Mobile applications for a restaurant development have certain typical features:
Some variants in restaurant app development work independently of the internet. updating information inside the application (for example, a menu) occurs along with the application itself via google play and AppStore.
Online ordering is similar to a standalone application in terms of content updates, but now it is possible to place an online order.
Online menu and ordering app syncs menu items, prices with website or data server
Online geo-menu. this application works differently depending on the location of the user. applicable in large networks where service is performed in more than one city.
in all versions, except for isolated, a data server (api) is required to dispatch the work of operators for receiving orders.
Control panel functions
Applications, as mentioned earlier, almost always require a data server to run. the data server is controlled through the control panel. we have already covered the development of a data server in detail in the article: server platform API. Now let’s take a particular situation – a control panel for an event app development.
the main tasks that will be performed by the operator or administrator in the control panel are:
- setting up a menu catalog, updating prices, managing seasonal offers.
- release of promotions, special offers and important news of a restaurant or restaurant chain.
- collecting orders from customers. perhaps this is the main purpose of the control panel.
- creating control panels for mobile applications is an individual approach to each task.
- accelerating this process is possible through the use of special paas – platforms.
The advantage of choosing paas is that the maintenance of such a system does not require highly qualified personnel, there are no fees for server rent, provision of backups, and so on. all this is provided by the paas platform. payment for using paas usually comes down to payment for resources – processor time, RAM, disk space. in total, the cost of working on paas platforms is 3-10 times cheaper than providing work on self-rented equipment. everyone should do their own thing, and the restaurateur is certainly not obliged to deal with servers and viruses on them. for companies that do not have an it department, renting power on paas is much more profitable.
If the task is to organize an autonomous subsystem, then for mobile applications of restaurants, improvements are often made for integration with sites. separate servers are also being developed, but much less frequently than the two previous options. the development of a complete server infrastructure should only be used for large and very large companies.
To get started, evaluate the market of your own competitors, select the most powerful players in the locale, industry and point to them.