From paper calendars and notebooks to custom-code digital processes and software platforms, the food industry has witnessed numerous technological transformations. The way restaurant businesses operate and run, has become drastically streamlined and automated. 

If you’re a restaurant manager or owner not being able to focus on important aspects of your business, signs are that you’ve not been exposed to innovative restaurant technology that allows you to achieve operational efficiency.

However, don’t confuse this revolutionary progress with updated ovens and economical dishwashers (not even a coffee machine!). The latest use of technology in restaurant industry makes the food business omnichannel and more digital.

Restaurant technology is more than just a trend. You can sit, relax in any corner of the globe and know what’s happening in your restaurant – be it dining, service management, or even stocks!

As a general rule of thumb, thinking of a restaurant as just a business about eating is straight out dumb. Here’s a quick list of stats that indicate the importance of technology in restaurants or the food industry:

•       63% of consumers believe that online ordering is more convenient in comparison to dining out with their family.
•       More than 80% of restaurants are adopting technology in their operations – like reservations, online ordering, and restaurant analytics.
•       68% of consumers admitted that the use of server tablets in restaurants improved their dining experience gradually.

The stats are not about a brand-new refrigerator or dishwasher. Apart from the clean plates and tidiness, the customer barely notices any changes in a restaurant (at least on a conscious level). Before you learn how  emerging restaurant technology is shaping the industry, you need to know what it is in general.

What Is Restaurant Technology?

If we talk about Restaurant Technology in a layman’s words, then it can be portrayed as a dedicated tech that helps commercial kitchens become more sustainable while saving time, labor and money. 

In the past, the process of managing a restaurant involved using notebooks and a calendar with each data written by hands. This means you needed to provide human efforts to capture order data, sort transactions, and report about performance. The present day structure however belongs to cloud computation and automation.

The culture of cloud computing and automation has been receiving constant attention for a while. Across a variety of industries, the adoption of automation and cloud-based software has been increased dramatically, and the restaurant business is no exception. Cloud-based restaurant POS systems have become increasingly popular as they are easy to install, remotely workable and one time investment for long.

Restaurant technology relies on a network of computers or remote servers that are hosted on the world wide web to manage, store, and process data. It’s not only convenient but secure and tamper-proof too.

5 Revolutionary Technologies Bringing a Change in the Restaurant Industry

The world is changing every second and businesses need to adapt to a new era of customers – the ones who find something good and the next second, they own it. From the smart refrigerator in the kitchen to the invoice machine at the dashboard, restaurants are also greatly impacted by technological changes. Here’s a list of five technologies that are changing the restaurant industry completely:

1. Self-Ordering Tablets

After such long anticipation, the truly server-less restaurant experience is finally here. The self-ordering tablets have proved that there’s no place for human servers in a technologically-modern restaurant. Brands like McDonalds and Panera Bread have integrated self-ordering kiosks in many of their well-known locations. 

This AI-based restaurant focused technology allows consumers to browse the food menu and choose their favorite dish without involving any employee.

2. Contactless Payments

As the pandemic invaded the world, the availability of contactless payment became an indispensable part of the dining experience. According to a survey, 34% of guests believe that mobile payment options are a crucial part of their dining experience. 

With this technology, you can help your guests remain secure and safe by paying through the dip, tap, or swipe. This entirely eliminates the need for physical contact between staff and guests, especially at these unprecedented times.

3. Bluetooth Temperature Sensors

If you’re a restaurant owner, you already know that following food safety guidelines by HACCP is a task in itself. To make sure they abide by all rules, a lot of restaurants are using Bluetooth temperature sensing to preserve a par level quality of their equipment and food. Restaurants have the ability to measure the temperature of their important assets, either manually or automatically, with the help of fixed probes and sensors.

4. Reordering With Facial Recognition

There are a few restaurants that are conducting facial recognition trial experiments that’ll allow consumers to reorder previous meals at self-service kiosks with the help of facial recognition. The trial was specifically conducted on restaurants that offer a menu with numerous optional customization layers. With such a great variety of choices, the simple way to reorder encourages the customer to think about coming back.  

This technology can also be integrated with facial recognition to help establish loyalty and make business-customer relationships lasting by providing customers a way to reorder their favorite meals quickly.

5. Handheld Entertainment

The tablets in restaurants are more than just a way to make quick orders and pay. There are numerous companies like Buzz Time that provide tablets with entertaining trivia and games to restaurants. It also allows consumers to join nationally conducted competitions 15 hours a day and seven days a week. 

These tablets can also be used to organize a live poker or trivia tournament in the restaurant. With this technology, restaurants can attract a plethora of customers at their place.

Like every other industry, the impact of technology on the restaurant industry is more than a tool for restaurants. Using technology in restaurants or the way you harness this tool will determine whether it works for your benefit or loss. As of now, everything seems to be on the positive side of the track.

Ways Restaurant Technology is Transforming the Industry 

1. Supplier and Employee Onboarding

With the constant progress in virtual reality, AI, and augmented reality, the HR leaders in restaurants have gained a lot of benefits through technology. It allows new joiners, suppliers, and trainers to take a tour of the facility virtually with the help of software and headset without any additional costs.

This also allows trainees to complete their training without visiting the restaurant physically. They can even visit the employees in real-time and keep their learning going without even smelling or touching the food.

With such great progress in employee and supplier onboarding, your restaurant business can enjoy the freedom out of monotonous tasks. This also allows you to focus on numerous other important aspects of your business such as customer engagement and employee productivity.

2. Material Handling

If your business deals with a wide range of fresh and raw products, you might be aware of the significance of maintaining their freshness without incurring any losses in revenue. Several tech interventions offer material handling in the restaurant business.

These technologies use a variety of digital tools to reduce and prevent food wastage in restaurants by more than half. They’re also very helpful in connecting commercial kitchens with the cloud-kitchens and analyze the volume of food being wasted every day.

Moreover, with detailed real-time data, chefs can tweak their production process and make required improvements for reduced food wastage and make their kitchen even more profitable. They can also be integrated into POS to keep a regular track of the inventory.

3. Reservation Management

When it comes to the most long-lasting category of restaurant technology trends, nothing can beat the competency of reservation management tools. Several restaurant app development services allow people to book a reservation for dining on vacation and special occasions through your restaurant.

With the help of the solution you’ll find it easier to fill the empty seats of your restaurant at any point in time. Talking about efficiency, the technology in food service industry is lightyears ahead of the traditional practice of waiting for the reserved seats to fill without a proper plan for it.

4. Food and Beverages

To make sure your restaurant maintains a healthy bottom line, you need to keep a keen eye on the volume of your food and beverages. There is a large variety of food management systems that make the complete process easier by providing automated inventory counts and invoices.

They can also connect with your POS system and suppliers to view sales data and track orders. This allows you to prevent your food inventory from getting empty and keep your operations running around the clock.

5. Quality Control

After the outbreak of coronavirus, the quality of food has become a serious concern for restaurant businesses. It’s not only about maintaining the proper safety of your food supply chain but also about the assurance of quality that goes along with the transparency throughout the premises.

A survey revealed that 94% of restaurant food consumers are likely to be more loyal to businesses that provide complete transparency with their processes. Even though it’s pretty easy to say, implementation takes years.

Digital transformation in restaurant industry and technological interventions such as IoT sensors are a great way to detect and solve issues in food warehouses before they become a significant concern. They’re also necessary to monitor the temperature fluctuations in the warehouse.

Innovation in Food Industry

It turns out that the technology trends in restaurant industry was silent progress that came into existence after consumers changed their behavior because of economic and social factors. Now, it’s more of an experience-based model than a hospitality business. Future of restaurant technology trends can be seen in the restaurant industry that is using robots in their setup to take orders from customers and serve them. People are making use of restaurant mobile app development services to build apps that provide innovation strategies in restaurant business.

The post 5 Ways Restaurant Technology Is Transforming the Industry appeared first on Appinventiv.

But there is another side of the story as well. There are a number of restaurant apps that have failed – massively. 

The reason behind this unignorable downfall of the restaurant apps is what Ben Gray summarized in his study titled ‘The Best and Worst restaurant Apps in 2016‘ – “The unfortunate reality is that most restaurant chains have not yet risen to the expectations of their mobile customers”. 

Now the state of the number of restaurateurs not understanding the expectations of the customers in terms of app experience is the same now as much as it held true in 2016 when the study was released. 

Let us take you over the things that you can do to answer how to optimize a restaurant app performance. Factors that would revolve around a range of different sections of the application aimed to increase user engagement.

Now before we take the step towards dissecting the different ways of enhancing your restaurant app you will have to pay attention to give your application a makeover and make it successful, it is important to understand what makes a restaurant app click. Because only then you will be able to understand how mobile app is the best solution to increase ROI for a restaurant business.

What do users do inside a restaurant application a.k.a what drives restaurant app’s user engagement? 

As you read, there are in fact multiple actions that users intend to perform inside an application, which is not simply restricted to food ordering. 

Well knowing the actions is not enough. It is also of primal importance to know the role that technology plays in it all – something that your partnered restaurant app development agency can help with. And to know what role your app is destined to play in the lives of the customers using your app. For only then you will be able to answer how to optimize a restaurant app performance. The answer to which is similar to how to optimize apps – irrespective of the industry: a better customer experience.

The statistics that you just saw while must have given you a fair idea of the role that your app is bound to play in users’ and your restaurant staff’s life, let us still summarize it in something as clear as this –

Your customers – ones who mainly use the restaurant apps to order food – are millennials. And millennials have technology very near their heart. They believe that technology is equal to convenience – a comfort that they need in every realm of their life. The same one which can improve app performance from its core.

So, technically while you can still stay in business by not making an appearance on mobile or making a sub-par one, the situation is bound to change very soon. Soon you will find yourself looking for an answer to how to optimize a restaurant app performance?

The time to come will make it mandate for you to partner with a restaurant app development company.  

Well, assuming that you are on-board to bringing changes in your current mobile app offering and see it become a money-making machine through the optimize app efforts, let us help you with the practical changes you can bring along. 

Let us attend to everything that you should consider when building a restaurant mobile app stage by stage as and when it happens in the way the customer moves inside the app. 

But before that, let us give you a general overview of the elements which when optimized can result in a powerful restaurant mobile application that promises impeccable app experience.

1. POS Integration – The secret to making the payment process in-restaurant optimized and efficient lies in the integration of a POS system. By the mode of a QR code and contactless payment functionality the payment process not just becomes simplified but also extremely efficient. Additionally, it can bridge the gap between apps and brick and mortar restaurants by aligning mobile app integration with POS integration in restaurants. 
2. Loyalty Programs – Everybody loves offers and discounts. The same applies for a restaurant ordering system using mobile applications. Irrespective of which business model you are looking to explore, having a loyalty discount program can play a huge role in increasing your sales and retaining the customers. 
3. Pop-up Messages – An efficient push-notification system can play a huge role in customer retention and in turn rise in sales number. By sending the notification at the right time in the right platform, you can guarantee greater user engagement inside your application. 
4. Social Engagement – Bringing your restaurant on social media can be a great way to market it and help popularize it among a wide audience. To start with, you can ask your diners and users to click a photo of the dish and post it on social media tagging your brand. You can also start a promotion campaign where you ask your users to tag their friends in return of a discount. 
5. Employ Immersive Technologies – Incorporate technologies like augmented reality and chatbots to offer an interactive experience to your users. Chatbots can help you remain connected with your users 24*7. While AR experience can give users a peek into how the dish is made, where the ingredients originate from – basically, everything needed to make the experience immersive. 

Stage 1: Make Parts of Your Present Online Ordering Process Real-Time

The first step of your revamping strategy should look into the online ordering of food after all a food ordering app for the restaurant industry is what the users first choice is. 

The whole process of your customer finding what they wish to eat and the price that they are willing to pay, along with the time that it would take for the order to reach them, should be extremely convenient and easy to work around. 

While your main focus at this stage should be on giving your users a clear help when it comes to selecting food from the menu, there are other things as well that should be considered when developing an online booking system. 

There are a few actions that should happen in real-time – The order should be fed into the restaurant side of the app, it should be passed to the kitchen team, the customer should be notified that the order has been accepted. 

Besides these actions, the one thing that you will have to give a special focus to is your users getting a visible address detail. They should know where they are ordering from. They should be given the facility of a map, which they can click on to see the distance and decide whether they are willing to wait that long or if they want the food so soon. 

Also, your online booking system should show the real ETA estimate – one that is decided upon by keeping the peak time scenario into consideration.

Stage 2: Automate Table Booking 

There are a number of instances where the users interact with your app to reserve a table at your restaurant, thus giving customers the provision to book a table is one of the main features your restaurant app needs. 

Now, there are normally two ways they will go about it. Either they will call you to book a table or they would use your messaging service to book a table. You will have to be prepared for both. 

One efficient way to optimize app is by making the process automated. Have a dial-up service to make it easy for the customers to choose what they want to do and have a chatbot integrated into your messaging functionality. The idea is to be available to your customers at all times, no matter wherever you are occupied. 

The next thing that comes here is a real-time connection between what information customers have asked for and what is fed in the backend. Seats should be automatically booked in their chosen time and name, there should be an incident of discrepancy when they physically arrive at your restaurant to dine-in. 

Stage 3: Integrate Multiple Payment Mechanisms In Addition to Your Current Payment System

When we talk about the payment method, there is a very little difference between diners eating at your restaurant and ones ordering in through the app. 

The simple fundamental of this particular restaurant app development strategy is that you will have to give them the provision to choose from multiple payment methods – Cash, Card, Digital Payment, and In-App Payment. You will though have to factor in the fact that over 40% transactions that happen on mobile are done through in-app purchase. 

The next thing when talking about the payment mechanism is the receipt. One of the main ways that restaurant order taking apps improve.  

Now, there should be one tab in your app where all the receipts are stored. And if the customer gets in touch with your restaurant through the app – whether to dine-in or order the food, they should be sent the receipt. 

Stage 4: Connect All Your Siloed Stakeholders at the Delivery Stage

The next user scenario that usually happens in the case of every restaurant mobile app solution is food delivery. 

While the outcome is mainly dependent on the packaging that you do and the quality of the food, there are a few things that you can do on the mobile app development front to make the experience worthwhile. 

The first being giving your customers the facility to track the order online in real-time in terms of where it has reached. While at the backend, your admin dashboard should get updated on the time that is quoted to the customers and your drivers should be given the ETA as well, to ensure that they know when latest they have to deliver. 

The next thing that you will have to keep into consideration when following the restaurant app performance optimization best practices is the right integration of map. It should not be difficult for your users to add and edit addresses when at the last stage of their app interaction. And for your drivers to reach the address with zero wrong turns.

Stage 5: Make Ratings and Reviews Social 

Normally, the last stage of interaction that users have with a restaurant application is with the rating and review section. 

You will have to give your customers the provision to rate the food they have had and the delivery they have received. All the while they should be given the facility to see the reviews that other customers have made so that they are able to make a calculated decision. 

One way you can create an edge here is by making it possible for your customers to share their reviews online in their social media.

Once you are through with these stages and the respective work that has to be done on them, you will arrive at a stage when it is time to work on the engagement of your application. A step that would make up for a whole article that we have worked on.

Finding the methods to increase ROI for a Restaurant Business too much work? Let us handle it for you. 

Fill in the contact form below to get in touch with our team of restaurant mobile app developers and get the answer to how to optimize a restaurant app performance. 

The post How to Optimize the Performance of a Restaurant App appeared first on Appinventiv.

This persistent attraction that the domain is witnessing is what has resulted in the prediction that the food delivery market is set to reach $16.61 billion by 2023, as projected by Allied Market Research. 

Grubhub, who presently holds 32.7% of the complete food delivery app industry had been the most interesting case study of the flourishing industry.

Let’s delve into the ingredients that go into making Grubhub the industry’s leader. 

In this article, we will be giving you some insights to understand what is Grubhub, how does it work and what is the Grubhub cost structure, keep reading further.

What is GrubHub?

Grubhub is an online food delivery service platform that allows users to order food from any place in the city. They have a massive user base of 14 million and collaborations with 80,000 restaurants. The business is active in 1,600 cities across the USA and UK. The Grubhub revenue, as of 2017, comes to 68.32 crores USD. Grubhub is a startup that has succeeded in becoming an IPO.

The Grubhub online food ordering business model works on serving two segments: Customers and Restaurants. Grubhub for business would be a beneficial idea since the Grub hub business model has proven to be highly successful so far.

Why does Grubhub standout?

Any company stands out because of its striking features and exceptional quality of work and that is the case with Grubhub online food delivery service. Even after the competition rose when big names like Amazon and Uber entered the market, Grubhub was able to maintain a good position in the market.

Grubhub has an outstanding mobile application which has been the strongest factor for its success. The application has every feature that any restaurant app development agency includes in its top applications. The performance of the app made the delivery process glitch-free.

[See: Why Restaurant Need Well-Executed Mobile App]

Grubhub App Features that makes the model stand out are:

• On a regular day, they process 2,34,700 orders on an average.
• The business is spread across more than 900 cities in the USA alone.
• Its global presence is in more than 1600 cities in the US and UK.
• GrubHub has partnered with 35,000 restaurants in the USA and a total of 80,000 including the USA.
• It has experience of managing 4 different brand name- Seamless, Grubhub, MenuPages and AllMenus.

Grubhub Successful Funding Timeline

When the founders Matt and Michael decided to turn Grubhub for business, they didn’t know that one day they would lead it to an IPO. In the beginning, Grubhub faced difficulties in getting a ‘yes’ from investors and most of them took a really long time to say anything. That is when the founders decided to take control of the situation.

They went down to the restaurants in San Francisco and explained each of them what does Grubhub do and how does Grubhub make money. Eventually, the restaurants agreed and orders started to flood in. This grabbed the investors’ attention and they joined in.

The funding timeline below shows when and how much did Grubhub receive throughout the years:

Value Propositions

The value proposition explains what does Grubhub do for the segments they serve in. As mentioned before, Grubhub serves two segments- customers and restaurants. Following are the value propositions provided to each one of them:

The Grubhub Value Proposition For Users:

• Customers save time and energy by ordering food online from a wide range of restaurants.
• Users can even select their choice of restaurants to order from.
• Grubhub provides 24 hours service, 7 days in a week.
• Once the order is placed, customers can track the delivery.

The Grubhub Value Proposition For Restaurants:

• For delivery, Grubhub has its own delivery workers.
• The restaurants get an extended customer base through Grubhub.
• They can serve their regular customers when the customers select them while ordering.
• To manage the deliveries and orders, a software is provided by Grubhub.

[Extra: Know how much does it cost to make an app]

Grubhub’s Customer Segments

Grubhub likes to keep it simple and hence deals with only two customer segments. The plan may change in the future depending on how does Grubhub work with this model but for now, they only focus on picking food from one location and delivering it to the other location. These two locations are restaurants’ and customers’.

Users:

• Users who love to dine out but don’t get time to go out.
• Users who work and often forget to pack lunch.
• People who don’t know how to cook or don’t want to cook.
• Corporates who want to have lunch but don’t have time to go out.
• People who want food to be delivered at their doorstep.

Restaurants:

• Restaurants with good food that lack customers.
• The ones that don’t have any delivery guys to deliver.
• That don’t have any marketing or branding strategies.
• Restaurants that want to expand and reach people in every corner.

The Grubhub Business Model

The main goal of Grubhub business plan is to make food ordering and food delivery easy. They are basically connecting the food joints in the city with the customers to make online food ordering an option for users. They are doing this by the help of the latest technology in mobile applications.

Applications like Grubhub must have a lot of bold features to complement them with food images and icons. For this reason, Android app development companies like Appinventiv are taking food app developments to a whole new level. Rapid communication, push notifications, in-app ordering and feedbacks are some factors to include in your restaurant app development.

Now that we have looked into the Grubhub business model, it is time to now get into the restaurant revenue model that Grubhub like apps follow. 

Grubhub Marketing Strategy: How Does Grubhub Make Money?

The Grubhub revenue model and marketing strategy is divided into three parts. Let us look at what they are individually. 

Delivery fee: The delivery fee is taken from the customers and how much does Grubhub charge for delivery? 20-40%. The customers are more than happy to pay this percentage for the quality of service that Grubhub provides. Also, this fee is given by users to get food without stepping out of the door which they don’t mind at all.

Grubhub pays the majority of this delivery fee to its delivery workers for their service and keeps a small sum from it.

Commission fee: Grubhub takes a basic commission of 12.5% on each deal. This percentage is a major source of income for Grubhub. Although the percentage of commission fee can range between 5% to 15% yet 12.5% is the standard pricing. This amount is shared between Grubhub and the restaurants so that both the parties can earn profit from each other.

Extra commission: This extra commission is charged for ranking restaurants its same category. The percentage of extra commission can range from 2.5%, 7.5%, 17.5% depending on the hierarchy of rankings. The extra commission is only taken for featuring restaurants on-demand and the customers have to do nothing with this.

Now that we know how does grubhub make money and how does grubhub pay, let’s move on to the next part of this article – how does Grubhub work?

The Working of Grubhub App

Now that we have seen the Grubhub business model and how grubhub makes money, let’s talk about how Grubhub works. Grubhub has an application that connects the restaurants, the delivery guys and the users. All of these together makes it easier to operate. Timely notification is sent whenever an order is placed, an order is ready and packed and when it is out for delivery. Once it has been delivered, the process is complete. All these key factors have to be taken care of by the restaurant app development company so that the process runs smoothly.

The operation of Grubhub is explained in three four steps:

Step 1: Browse

Customers get a wide range of restaurants to choose their next meal from. They will browse through the Grubhub application with features like ‘nearby’ or ‘search’ and order food. The application also allows users to order from their choice of place by selecting it manually.

Step 2: Place order

While placing the order, users can put various settings and preferences regarding the delivery and payment options.

Step 3: Prepare and pack

The restaurants that the users choose receive the order and then prepares the food. After properly packing it, they inform the delivery guys to pick it up.

Step 4: Delivered

Once the package is ready it will be delivered by Grubhub’s delivery guys.

What Drives Grubhub Success

For Grubhub, success came from many factors and not just one. Of course, the Grubhub business model and Grubhub revenue model worked its charm but there were other factors too.

When the company wasn’t receiving any funding from investors, the founders of Grubhub decided to go to San Francisco and gather menus from all the restaurants. Gradually they started listing each and every restaurant in their mobile application.

Apart from the dedication of Matt and Michael, these factors helped Grubhub gather more customers:

• As a deal with restaurants, Grubhub offered discount coupons for customers, occasionally.
• Users were given an option to rate the restaurants which brought the best quality restaurants at the top.
• The application lets the users know the average amount they will need to eat at a particular restaurant. This was one of the most useful features.
• Once a user sets the location and the restaurant, the result shows how much does Grubhub charge for delivery.
• Both delivery and pick up services are available.

Challenges That Stand Infront Grubhub

While Grubhub is the industry leader today, considering the new businesses that are constantly getting added in the on-demand food delivery app market, there are a number of challenges that they will have to prepare to address. 

• Attract and then retain restaurants in a cost-effective manner
• Maintain, safeguard, and eventually enhance their brand image
• Solidify the takeout sector
• Generate a positive cash flow and maintain profitability levels
• Be up to mark with the technical changes in the food delivery domain

We hope this article gave you an insight into how does Grubhub pay, Grubhub marketing strategy and Grubhub business plan. In case you still have questions, you can contact us. Our experts will help you in better understanding of Grubhub working and business model.

FAQs About Grubhub Business Model

Q. How Grubhub makes money?

There are three ways through which Grubhub makes money – 

1. Delivery Fees
2. Restaurant Commission Fees
3. Extra Commission for ranking the restaurant on top in the category.

Q. What percentage does Grubhub charge restaurants?

GrubHub charges a commission percent out of every delivered order. The amount of commission that they charge usually lies in the range of 5% to 15%

Q. When did Grubhub start?

Matt Maloney and Mike Evans launched Grubhub in 2004 after experiencing the lack of a streamlined dinner ordering service.

Q. How to make money with Grubhub?

The answer to the question ‘How to make money with Grubhub’ is that as a driver you’ll use your smartphone and vehicle to accept and deliver orders. You’ll earn delivery pay, which includes mileage and time, as well as 100% of the tips that customers leave.

Q. What kind of company is Grubhub?

Grubhub is an online and mobile prepared food ordering and delivery platform owned by Just Eat Takeaway that connects diners with local restaurants.

Q. Is Grubhub profitable?

The answer to this question is Grubhub profitable is obviously yes. It has climbed from $500 million in 2016 to $1.8 billion in 2020. It has 265,000 partner restaurants, with independents and small chains accounting for more than 85% of its orders.

Q. How Grubhub Works?

Grubhub works around a business model where the users make a food order on the Grubhub app and the delivery persons are then sent to the partnered restaurants to collect the food item and get it to the customers in time. 

Q. How does Grubhub delivery work?

When users make a food order online from a restaurant, Grubhub sends their delivery person to collect the order and get it to the users. In return of this service, they charge a delivery fee which is mostly in the range of $6 to $10.

Q. How does Grubhub work for restaurants?

There are three things that work in favor of restaurants when they partner with Grubhub to get their food delivered to the users. 

• The company doesn’t charge them anything in name of subscription or upfront fees
• The platform does not ask the restaurants to apply offers on their menu inside the app

The restaurants are only asked to pay the Grubhub when orders from diners get generated.

The post How Does Grubhub Make Money and Operate? appeared first on Appinventiv.

The post Why Restaurants Need Well-Executed Mobile App appeared first on Appinventiv.

Sounds similar? Sadly, you have been caught by the dumb app bug.

But we, your sous chef, have you covered. In this article we will look into ways to transform your now dumb restaurant app into a smart app to help you manage not these but so many other issues by offering something that your customers actually need.

But before we do, let us look at what “Smart” even mean.

What are Smart Apps

Smart apps are those, which incorporate data-driven insights generated from users’ app movements into app elements and features that define user experience.

By using the data that is generated straight from the users, app developers are able to give the users an experience that is backed by exactly what they are seeking.

Since we are talking in context of restaurant apps, let’s take an example from the industry itself. Suppose your restaurant serves meal combos from 11 am to 10 pm, and lately you have been getting notifications that people have been trying to make order through your app around 12 am, but since it’s past your closing time, you are not able to cater to them.

Now, by introducing a smart app in the picture, you will get insight of which location the orders are placed from and which time slots. With the information, you can plan on tweaking your business hour and delivery location to cater to that foodie group and extend your business scope.

What smart apps do is that they analyse users’ information and then take actions like giving out restaurant discounts, changing delivery time, altering menu, etc. in a way that is a direct sign of exactly what the users need.

Now that you have got a glimpse of the power that Smart Apps bring with them, let us now look at some of the common restaurant pain points that are cured with its inclusion. One of the reasons why restaurant owners are now looking to hire app developers who know the art of making apps smarter.

Why Does Your Restaurant App Needs To Get Smarter

Let us approach this question scenario wise.

Scenario 1: Suppose you have a number of loyal customers who keep making the same order in your restaurant app time and again. But, since you don’t have a system in place to make your users select their previous order again, they end up making the same order again and again. And then one day they find an app that has the repeat past order option, which would save their time to a huge extent, and they make the switch.

Solution: An AI mechanism that enables users to make repeat orders

Scenario 2: You serve amazing food at your restaurant and the footfall is also pretty high but lately you have been reading reviews hinting towards the issues diners are facing with the wait time in your restaurant, making them look at alternative restaurants who serve a different cuisine and have a lesser wait time.

Solution: AR/VR interactive games to keep the users entertained as they wait in the line to receive their order.

Scenario 3: You have a restaurant that offers rich delicacies and it is soon becoming a hang out spot of the millennials. But, being famous has come with its own set of perils for your restaurant. You have one receptionist who takes table booking inquiries and since you are now all big and famous, the number of calls coming in are on a very higher side, keeping the phone lines jammed at all times. This, in effect, is robbing you off of a number of customers who would have walked in but left after being for hold for several minutes on end.

Solution: A table booking app that would handle the demands coming in for space.

While these are just three, there can be a number of other situations and scenarios that can come up in a restaurant, which can be avoided altogether by adding smart elements in your restaurant app.

Let us now look at some of the ways you can convert your app into a smart app to not just give your users a more personalized and entertaining experience but also to streamline your business.

Ways You can Make your Restaurant App smart Enough to Grow Your Restaurant Business:

1. By Garnishing Chatbots

Chatbots have emerged as one of the smartest tool for taking restaurant and customer interaction to the next level.

It was incepted to take over human reps and website customers’ conversations when the human reps were missing by sending out automated replies to the customers like ‘we will get back in touch with you’ or ‘please send your email will get in touch’.

But today, by incorporating chatbots, restaurants are able to book tables, take orders, suggest what food order to make or at what time customers should drop by for easy availability of seat.

2. By Soaking in the Power of Beacons

The next course that you can add in your restaurant app to make it more relishing is Beacons.

Beacon is a proximity detection technology. What it does is that it transmits a signal that other devices can catch, so when a bluetooth enabled device that has the app (which is connected to the beacon) downloaded crosses its range, it gives out push notification to the device, which could be an offer in some retail shop or discount in movie ticket.

While used largely in the retail setup, Beacons are finding their ways in a restaurant setup as well.

By incorporating beacons in your app, there is a lot you can change in terms of footfalls and better restaurant management. You can allow your customers to order from their device as soon as they step in the mall, without having to actually walk in the restaurant, or you can send them custom menu or differentiated pricing. You can even inform them of the occupancy and availability of the seat

3. By Sugar Coating AI

The main ingredient that converts an ordinary restaurant app into a smart app is AI. Your app is a grand mesh of data. You have customer information, the location they are making orders from, their repeat orders, time when they are making orders and booking seats, their food preference, their decision pattern of whether to dine or order a takeaway, etc.

Your customers are constantly leaving sea full of information to your app. All of which goes completely ignored. But, by incorporating AI in your app, you can not just make sense of your data but also transform your restaurant experience to 180 degrees.

Going back to the Scenario 1 that we saw earlier in the article, suppose you have a number of loyal customers who keep making the same order in your restaurant app time and again. But, you don’t have a system in place to make your users select their previous order again, it would be a huge loss for your app when these customers leave you for an app that does.

AI comes in the picture here by gathering the data of customers order and making a pattern out of it. Are your customers making the same order every day? Is the order repeating when they are ordering for a specific cuisine? Are they making the same order from a specific location? Is there a time of the day factor involved? These are just a sample of questions that gets answered through your AI enabled restaurant app.

Using this information, you can expand your menu according to their food taste, can grow your business to hit that high demand location or can simply allow them to make repeat orders with a single click.

Now that you know the what, why, and how, and why it’s time to make your restaurant app smarter, the next step is to get it done. Contact our team of Smart techno experts today.

The post It’s Time to Make Your Dumb Restaurant App Smart And Here’s How To Go About It appeared first on Appinventiv.

On one side, this signifies a wide array of options, while on the other side it means complete turmoil when you are supposed to choose a restaurant to dine in. Have you ever faced this dilemma? Have you ever felt surprised that you never knew about a restaurant on the other end of your street?

The best solution to this problem is a restaurant finder app, just like Zomato. Apps like Zomato act as a platform where the users can connect with all the restaurants and cafes around. They can view their menu, choose something to beat their appetite, place an order for home delivery or book a table.

If you are thinking of entering the booming restaurant industry through restaurant finder app development, this article is for you. In this article, we are going to look into the main facet of how to make an app like Zomato and other restaurant finder apps – Restaurant finding app features. 

Must-Have Restaurant Finder App Features

Sign Up

Just like Zomato, you can also make the signup process easier and faster via social media integration. This will be profitable to you in more than one way- it will cut down the efforts of the users, enable them to connect other foodies with the same likings and taste as well as empower you to import information from different social networks and thus, deliver offers based on their behavior.

Bonus: As per our experts, you can also add a ‘Sign Up Later’ button so that the users do not leave the app at the same moment. Instead, they explore the whole app and take the decision afterward.

User Profile

Provide a unique profile to each registered user where they can review their food adventure, bookmark their favorite restaurants and dishes, check past ratings/reviews added, communicate with friends, look for new discounts, and store coupons. You can also ask your restaurant app development company to add gamification to make your application more entertaining.

Search Option

Zomato has provided an exclusively organized and categorically rich search filter with a multi-tiered hierarchy. A customer can search places on the basis of location, timings, payment mode, cuisines, facilities, rating, cost, and so on. There’s a lot for developers to get inspired from wen they build an app to find restaurants.

When talking about a restaurant finder mobile app, you have details of a vast number of restaurants in your database. In such a scenario, you can not expect the users to go through every single restaurant’s profile so as to find the right place to enjoy lavishing food. Thus, it is a must that you follow a search and sort criteria.

A key part to remember when during the search process of restaurant finder app development is to add location based suggestions and search in the app. It makes it easy for the users to look for places near their origin point. 

Restaurant Info

Just like user profiles, every restaurant should have a well-maintained profile including details – like address, working hours, rating, cuisine available, photos, average cost, menu scans, an interactive map, and an in-app call button to name a few.

Menu Options:

When we talk about the functionalities of building an app to ‘find restaurants near me’, there are three menu options that every restaurant app development company in USA suggests. 

• Scanned Menu

Here, the restaurants scan their printed menus and add them to their gallery. For a developer, it is the easiest option as no coding or additional feature is involved.

• Text List on a Different Screen

It allows the users to find a built-in text list with names, descriptions, and prices of all the dishes available. This solution is a bit costly and time-consuming when compared to a scanned menu.

• Interactive Menu Screen

This approach needs more time and money to build but is among the most popular solutions suggested by the top restaurant application developers. In this type, an interactive menu with categories and food items’ photos is designed. In addition to this, the users are allowed to select any dish to find the relevant information about it.

Table booking

When talking about table booking, a restaurant app builder team can go for two different approaches. The first one is where the customers will choose the date, time and number of persons, while the restaurant staff chooses the table. The second and more innovative solution is to allow the users to choose the table as well as per his requirements.

Special Offers and Rewards

By providing the service of special offers and discounts on the basis of the user’s activities, you can drive more users as well as keep the existing customers hooked. In addition to this, a rewarding system can also be the coolest marketing tool for you! According to our developers, this strategy can allure the users to use your app more often, take the better perks of it and assist you with a higher ROI.

In-app Call 

What separates the best restaurant finder app from other restaurant finder mobile apps are features that make users experience convenient. One of those features is giving the users an inability to make phone calls form within the app. By making it easy for people to contact restaurants and book a table, users get to have a convenient experience.

Ratings & Reviews

A key success factor of a restaurant finder mobile app is the reviews and ratings that the users give to the restaurant and the service which they received. The restaurant reviews play a huge role in not just getting new diners to the restaurants but also increasing the app engagement time. 

Besides these, don’t forget to implement push notifications systems into your mobile application and also, design the app with the most compelling  UI/UX strategies. As an entrepreneur who has made their name in the domain, the next step should be to expand. Let us talk a bit about the app categories which is most preferred for restaurant app entrepreneurs when it comes to expanding their business after they have earned back the invested restaurant finder app development cost.

Food Delivery: The Next Logical Step for Restaurant Finder Mobile Apps

Almost every restaurant aggregator app organically expands into a food delivery application. By taking your business to helping food reach diners’ doorstep, you can open new marketing avenues for yourself. 

Although the delivery market size is a lot expansive that the restaurant finder app market size, there is something that entrepreneurs need to note. The technicalities of a food delivery app requirements can be different from the restaurant finder apps. But considering the importance of keeping the brand image intact, we advise partnering with an restaurant finder app development company which also carries an expertise in food delivery app development services.

Head on to this article to know the ground-level technicalities of food delivery app development – How Much Does it Cost to Build a Food-Delivery App. 

Disclaimer: We don’t recommend expanding too soon. Establish your presence in restaurant finder app sector first and then move to the next stage. This way, you would have created a reputed image in the market, meaning you will have to focus less on finding users for your application.  

Coming back to the original topic, to build a successful restaurant finder mobile app like Zomato, we suggest incorporating the above-mentioned features into it. The correct integration of these features, however, would call for experts’ consultancy. If you are planning to hire a restaurant app development company in California, get in touch with us today.

The post Features to Consider When Building a Restaurant Search App appeared first on Appinventiv.

• In-app Ordering
• Rapid Levels of Communication
• Source of Brand Awareness
• Navigation for Potential Clients
• Reaching the Menu to the Audience
• Push Notifications
• Helping in Promotions
• Upgradation of Services By Your Feedback

In-app Ordering

A restaurant management app helps those customers who need some time, before they actually order for the food. In case of hurry, they can always look into a previous order and just reorder the same food. In fact, online ordering of food is becoming an important way to render services for those who wants to grab some food, with their busy working schedule.

Rapid Levels of Communication

Firstly, the restaurant apps need to be downloaded and then the users must be easily placing orders, in the shortest possible time.

Source of Brand Awareness

A mobile app development for the restaurant is essentially yet another source of brand awareness. A restaurant app development is for modernization of the restaurant business, which is one of the most important function. Other than this factor, they also serve to cater to the needs of the customers, in a rapid manner of establishing the brand and quickly rising above the competition.  

Navigation for Potential Clients

The embedded navigational features of the restaurant management apps will provide the guidance to the potential customers, for reaching their place in different manners. Here the example of the embedded map can be cited as a tool, that makes reaching the destination, sound extremely easy.   

Reaching the Menu to the Audience

The restaurant mobile app solution is a new way to establish connection with the customers. The mobile apps are for providing data in easy and a quick way. A mobile application development targeted for your restaurant business will be able to provide the data, when it is needed most, while on the go.

Push Notifications

Sending notifications to your customers is about directly reaching out to the customers, on their smartphones. So, the push notifications are finding an increasing usage in the restaurant apps. They are for updating the customers on recent most offers, latest events planned or any available discounts.

Helping in Promotions

The mobile apps are a novel way to flash the discount notifications and the new considerations. The point of interest in the app just need to be updated and the customer obtains the notice on the latest deal.

Upgradation of Services By Your Feedback

The manager will be able to analyze the historical data on services and offers smart decisions on the updated services for the food. A feedback is fundamental in bringing about a business growth.

The restaurant apps are a fantastic way to streamline the business operations of your restaurant.  You create a restaurant mobile app solution  for controlling some of the difficult aspects of conducting your business such as billing, tracking customer trends and ordering the food.  

Appinventiv is one of the top-rated mobile app development companies, that have seen an outstanding pace of growth, in a matter of two years time. They have worked extensively in the various verticals like restaurant, health, learning, entertainment and many more. They believe in delivering user-centric apps for their customers, utilizing cutting edge technologies.

The post Factors for Choosing Restaurant App Development for Your Business appeared first on Appinventiv.

• Loyalty, Rewards and Discount Programs and building Relationship
• Mobile Payments and Online Ordering
• Table Reservation
• Location based Services
• Integrated with Social Media

Loyalty, Rewards and Discount Programs and building Relationship

Customers are what forms the core of any business. A customer-centric business will always try to pay more attention to the carefully planned loyalty program. This ensures that there is a boost in the customer engagement and also increases the number of transactions. The loyalty program must cater to the specific business needs. The single-card loyalty programs are for single locations and the multi-card loyalty programs are for the multiple locations. The mobile app for your business must have a statistical interface for a proper understanding of the customer behavior. As per estimates 37 % customer searches for a mobile app for looking for a discount. Build relationship with the customers with events or themed dinners, to bring about an exciting prospect.

Mobile Payments and Online Ordering

Online ordering is very beneficial for the mobile app for your restaurant. 69 % of customers order food through a mobile. The online ordering also lets the customers avoid the long queues in the restaurant of their choice. The payment over the mobile always makes a customer happy. The mobile app increases the efficiency and accuracy in order handling too. In fact, 67 % of customers who orders online, visits the restaurants often. Essential features are push notifications for ordering.

Table Reservation

There are many a high-end eatery that allows no prior walk-ins and only goes for a early reservation of the table, by the customers. Others may be smaller in size but serves quality food, making it impossible, without a proper reservation of table. A table reservation feature for the restaurant app is absolutely essential for eradicating the frustrations of the customers, who are unable to plan a visit to their favourite restaurant. Pre-ordering is an essential feature for the mobile app for the restaurant, assuring you of dining 60 % faster, without any waiting period.

Location based Services

There are many mobile apps which are equipped with location based services like geofencing and beacons, which enables a customer engagement, prior to the customer’s arrival at the actual location. This can be termed as something similar to distribution of flyers to the passer-bys. As per a study conducted, there is a possibility of 8 -12 % increase of your weekly customer base, when the beacons are in use.

Integrated with Social Media

In this era of the digitized world, social media integration has become an absolute necessity for any business. Generally, photos are uploaded in the social media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, so that the customer reviews their experience. Additionally the discounts and the loyalty programs may get connected with the social media and the may get the customer earn some reward points, while inviting their friends. This will act to not only create a new customer, but also entices the already existing ones to get converted into repeat orders for your business.

A holistic and a customer oriented restaurant app is what is needed.

Appinventiv is a top rated app development company, which is known to serve clients across the globe. I would like to introduce you to our restaurant app development section that mainly target on the services. Share your comments and contact us on Phone/Skype so that we can set-up the best day and time to discuss your app idea.

The post Must-Have Features for Your Favourite Restaurant App appeared first on Appinventiv.

A recent study shown by a private company showed that the majority of diners use restaurant mobile apps to view menus and pricing, to reserve the tables and most importantly to book food online. It is high time that restaurants should embrace technology with open arms and should take maximum advantage of the current mobile trend.

Below we have mentioned few benefits available to restaurants that offer their customers a mobile app. 

1. Improved Customer Experiences

A mobile application helps a lot when it comes to user experience. In the case of mobile application, the customers can order their food directly from the app itself which is again a great idea. Subway has set a great example here: It offers the customers the choice to pay for their meals ahead of time and that refrains them from waiting at the restaurant.  This step also helped order at the counter customers as it reduced the wait time for them.

World’s biggest Coffeehouse chain Starbucks has also done a remarkable job which is worth mentioning: the coffee giant when introduced their mobile order feature saw shorter lines, faster service, and more efficient in-store operations.  In July 2015, mobile ordering and payment accounted for 20% of Starbucks’ transactions in the U.S. or about $9 million every week!

The biggest benefit of using restaurant mobile ordering app is that, it zeroes down the chances of manual mistakes which in turn brought a spurt in user satisfaction

2. More Customer Engagement

I would repeat it 100 times and still it won’t be sufficient that mobile apps  help restaurants engage with their customers. Suppose I am a customer of your restaurant and I want to make a reservation for dinner. Now, in the absence of mobile app, there would be a lot of mess and you won’t be able to satisfy all my preferences. Whereas, in the presence of restaurant mobile applications , you can book your seat via app and mention all your preferences over  there.

That being said, while creating an app, make sure that you provide the option to share their dining experience via social media plugins like Facebook, Twitter etc. Plus, when restaurants add the basics to their mobile apps such as their menu information, hours of operation and phone number, they engage with the customer in a way that helps to make the customer’s life easier.

3. In-App Loyalty Programs

Mobile applications for restaurant are the best way to interact with customers. App owners generally run loyalty programs to increase user engagement. On an average, the adoption rate of traditional loyalty programs are about 12%. An experiment was conducted in which the mobile payment was offered in addition to the loyalty program. The adoption rates went upto 18%-28% when this was done. Post this, another experiment was done in which mobile payment was combined with ordering and a loyalty program. The adoption rates in that case went upto 15%-35%. Many restaurants have successfully integrated and implemented loyalty programs into a mobile app. One has to go that extra mile in order to get the best results. Now the times are very competitive and only the businesses that have the potential to think out of the box will survive in long run.

The post 3 Top Reasons to Invest in a Mobile App for Your Restaurant appeared first on Appinventiv.