The potential that digital technology in restaurants has to improve your customer experience is limitless. Here are the solutions we’ve found to be the most impactful in the restaurant industry:
Mobile apps
While there are many restaurant technology solutions to invest in, restaurant mobile app development is one of the most important. With so many consumers turning to mobile apps to get food in one way or another, here are some important considerations for every restaurant mobile app:
Contactless Payments
The coronavirus has caused a huge surge in the demand for contactless options with everything from picking up groceries to ordering food curbside, and even pumping gas. Enabling touchless payment is a key component to ensuring your customers have a completely contactless experience. Plus, 54% of consumers agree that they would like to use their own mobile phone to pay for food in a sit down restaurant and 59% agree that they would like to use a mobile app to pay for food in a fast food restaurant.
Curbside Pickup
Did you know that 54% of consumers prefer the convenience of curbside pickup in restaurants and 64% agree they are more likely to order from a restaurant with curbside pickup than one without? Adding to that even more, 65% of consumers agree they are likely to make more frequent trips to a restaurant with curbside pickup than one without. And these trends are here to stay. Consumers said they'll use curbside pickup even more once social distancing is relaxed. Diners are increasingly demanding instant gratification with less hassle, and restaurants are racing to meet that expectation through digital innovation. Is your curbside experience as seamless and impactful as it could be to increase customer engagement and satisfaction?
Rewards & Loyalty
Loyalty programs have become a key driver for businesses of all types, but especially restaurants. Research shows that the cost of a bad experience is high. 66% of consumers will consider switching to a competitor after one or two bad experiences. And in the wake of the pandemic, 59% report that customer experience plays a bigger role, impacting which brands they support.2 Now is the time to double down on your loyalty and rewards effort by creating a program that builds on the relationship you have with customers, but in a digital way. If created strategically, rewards can help build a one-on-one relationship, increase frequency of visits, check averages, and offer key insights on business performance. Consider including this important piece in your restaurant mobile app design.
Contactless Delivery
Restaurants exploring contactless delivery should embrace the opportunity to take back profits and customer loyalty that have been captured by third-party providers such as UberEats, Instacart, GrubHub, and others. Creating your own delivery program gives you access to the data you need to create personalized offers based on previous purchases, buying patterns, and other shared information. Trends point to this service sticking around for the long haul, so there’s no time like the present to develop your own program. Mobiquity research revealed that consumers say they’ll still purchase from food aggregators (Grubhub, Instacart, etc.) at 90% of the volume they were purchasing at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March4 – showing virtually no decline in the demand for safe delivery. There’s never been a better time to invest in your own restaurant food delivery app development.
Contactless Dining
Beyond improving customer experience away from home, here are also ways to make your physical restaurant experience safer and more contactless. What if everything in your restaurant was done through kiosks or the diner’s mobile phone? You walk in, your phone brings up the menu via QR code, you order and pick a seat, the wait staff know where you are sitting due to geolocating, you eat, pay your bill on your phone, and then are asked to leave a review upon leaving the restaurant. Imagine the convenience and safety that this would offer your guests – and also your staff. 51% of consumers agree that they would like to use their own mobile phone instead of interacting directly with restaurant staff – how can you make this a reality for your guests?
Friction Report
As you think about transforming your business and adding digital solutions for a better customer experience, consider looking at the Mobiquity Friction Report. The Friction Report is a proprietary tool that uses AI/ML to analyze thousands of customer reviews on mobile apps, websites, and similar tools to help businesses see what they’re doing well and where they could use some help. The Friction Report can also summarize how these digital touchpoints, such as mobile apps, across an industry are performing.
Britt Mills, Senior Director of Customer Experience, discusses how quick service restaurants should be thinking about their digital experiences – and convenience is at the core of it all.
Guest loyalty and superior digital offerings now go hand in hand - are you offering customers what they want? Learn what your guests expect from you in our infographic on contactless restaurant research.
In this webinar, experts working on the frontlines with some of the world’s most loved retail stores discuss why they think the ‘store of the future’ is nonsense and where companies should focus for success today.
