We’ve laid out the 12 must-have features for your restaurant or food delivery apps through this blog to help you thrive your food business.
There’s no quicker path to a person’s soul than through food. And there’s no quicker way to sate one’s appetite than through a food application. If you’re a restaurant owner, being app-accessible is an essential way to reach your existing and potential customers.
According to eMarketer, an estimated 44 million people in the US use food delivery apps. By 2021, more than 20% of US smartphone users will order food via an app, and by 2023, food delivery services usage will reach nearly 60 million.
With this trend in mind, we know that mobile app development is on the rapid rise, and that is why we’ve curated a list of must-have features to have in a restaurant and food delivery apps.
Top Features for Restaurant and Food Delivery Apps
1. An Intriguing UX with Compelling UI
What’s the first thing you notice in any app,? The user interface (UI). It is the user’s primary means of interaction with any app on which to some extent user experience is majorly dependent.
The last thing a hungry user wants is a slow-loading app or overly complex functionality standing between them and their food cravings. No matter which other functions an app has, The UX and UI both can make the difference between a user deleting an app or making it their go-to.
That’s why a simplistic user interface is an essential feature of food ordering apps, and quick loading speeds and easy navigation are the two most crucial aspects that can enhance user experience single-handedly. Nail these, and you’ll have customers coming back to your app over and over again.
2. Real-time Food Tracking
Nobody likes waiting for anything, but that impatience gets magnified tenfold when it comes to food. To prevent the hanger from turning into vitriol towards your application, make sure you have real-time food tracking integration.
Although real-time tracking won’t deliver the food any faster, users will generally have more patience when the status and location of their food is not a mystery. Combining usable information, eye-catching sophistication and real-time transparency will give you a leg up on the competition.
3. Offers and Discounts
The only thing better than your favorite restaurant coming to you is your favorite restaurant coming to you at a discount. Becoming not just a reliable source of food, but a reliable source of promo codes and seasonal offers is an easy and effective way to make sure yours is the first app your user checks on their phone when they get a hankering for pad thai or chicken parmesan.
4. Easy and Secure Payment Options
Nowadays, handy, secure and multiple payment options aren’t a bonus, they’re expected. Integrating these features can do wonders for the functional appeal of your restaurant app, but will also help in building trust between your customers and your business.
The more payment options the better, so any restaurant or food delivery application owner should give serious consideration to PayPal, GooglePay, iOS Wallet, Amazon Pay, Stripe, Paytm, debit cards, credit cards, online banking and even cash on delivery options. When it comes to a customer’s money, providing options is never a bad thing.
5. Push Notifications
Integrating push notifications in restaurant mobile or food delivery apps is an easy-yet-significant feature that can catch a customer’s eye at any time, and help you to maintain positive and frequent customer relations.
It’s crucial, however, that push notifications are managed appropriately. Overuse of this feature can annoy users, resulting in diminished use or even deletion of your app service. Sending a notification in the middle of the night, for example, is ill-advised on two fronts: it’s not likely to be seen by customers, and if it is, customers are not likely to be happy about it.
Being able to customize notifications by selecting a preferred medium such as text, email, and push notifications at a specified time gives you maximum flexibility.
6. Location-based Service
People are generally familiar with the restaurants in their neighborhoods, but trying to branch out to other neighborhoods, or ordering food away from home can be a daunting manual task. With location-based tracking, however, hungry users can see exactly what their options are and how far away they’re located, no matter which city they’re in.
A mobile app should be useful when you’re, well, mobile, and location-based functionality will have users intuitively seeking out your application service wherever they are.
7. Table Reservation System
The old Yogi Berra adage references a restaurant that’s so crowded, no one goes there anymore. In reality, building high demand for your restaurant is never a bad thing, but being able to harness that demand, and provide all customers with the opportunity to dine with you, is just as important.
By allowing users to book reservations through a mobile by using an app, you not only increase customer satisfaction among those who would otherwise be turned off by long lines and crowded waiting areas, but you also receive advanced data that lets you predict and analyze customer behaviors so you can run as efficient an operation as possible.
8. Customer Support via Chatbots
When it comes to convenience, you simply can’t beat applications. But until recently there was one thing even apps couldn’t make easier: human interaction. Fortunately, a new age is upon us, and Chatbots have made customer support more efficient and more advanced than ever.
Whether it’s answering questions about a menu item, troubleshooting a payment issue, or help to navigate the ordering process, Chatbots are now advanced enough to combine the convenience of a waiter with the knowledge breadth of a computer. Integrating customer support Chatbots into your restaurant or food delivery app will save you and your customers hours of hassle and frustration.
Also read: Why Restaurants need Food and Beverage App for their Business?
9. Customer Feedback Portal
If your restaurant is serving finger-licking food in town and people are not getting to know about it, it would be a bit hurtful. Wouldn’t it?
Thus, integrating the customer feedback feature in restaurant mobile or food delivery apps are the simplest and most effective way of getting insights. It is necessary to review and suggest changes to survive in the market, and no one can do it better than users themselves.
Incorporating customer feedback portal in restaurant mobile and food ordering apps allow users to share their experience, which helps in building customer engagement.
10. Food Order Scheduling
The order scheduling feature is one of the unique features to inculcate in your restaurant mobile or food ordering application. Isn’t it amazing if you can schedule your food order in advance? It is. It will certainly work as a helping hand for those who want to save time and do not want to waste it by ordering the same food again and again.
Having this feature will help your business to grow. At the very same time, it will increase the retention ratio of your business as well.
11. Loyalty Rewards
Discounts and offers lure every customer but, what makes them stick to your food delivery app is loyalty points. Loyalty points are one of the best ways to win the trust of existing customers. With this, you can also attract new customers if you are paying close attention to your loyalty programs.
Having this feature in your application helps you to connect directly with customers. There are many ways to offer a loyalty reward program to your customers nowadays, such as providing happy hour special, issuing of membership cards, and many other things to appreciate the loyalty of customers.
12. Food Customization
Have you ever felt like having the extra toppings of cheese in your pizza? Or sometimes, you want to remove/add some veggies in your spaghetti? At some point, we all get this feeling.
Many foodies are fussy eaters and are always in need of having a customized food. They like to have the food in an exact manner they want to.
Incorporating food customization features in your restaurant mobile app is a unique feature to have. With this, you can gain the trust of your foodie customers and can also entertain new choices based on those experiences.
Final Words
Many other features are worth considering while developing a restaurant mobile and food delivery app but, out of those, these 12 features mentioned above are must-have to have in your restaurant mobile and food delivery app.
Every food and drink business’s primary motive is to gain the maximum customer satisfaction to drive maximum revenue out of it, and integrating these features in your app will help you in doing the same.
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