The Case for Creating a Mobile App for Your Restaurant

You can hardly look in any direction at a typical restaurant without seeing someone staring into a "mobile device," whether it is a smartphone or electronic tablet.

The psychological pros and cons of this behavior is better saved for another article and, perhaps, magazine. In fact, entire books are written on the subject.

The question for every independent in the digital age is can you afford not to take advantage of the changing environment of how people are now finding and reviewing where they want to dine out. You have to ask yourself how your restaurant might build sales on the back of this well-established cultural shift. Certainly the chains have jumped onboard with a variety of mobile online and ordering apps designed to increase ticket averages and increase their ability to market to potential customers.

Restaurant apps come in all forms and that should be no surprise, as it is estimated that there are more than 700,000 apps in the Apple store and the same number in Android format. The number grows daily and the choices are only limited by the imaginations of the writers. Because dining out is such an important part of just about everyone's daily life, the number of restaurant apps is substantial and continues to grow at an explosive rate.

In 2012 alone there were 717 million smartphone shipments so the trend is only on the rise. Food apps are everywhere and provide almost any type of information you can think of. Because of this wide selection, the independent restaurateur is offered so many choices it can be very confusing to sort out the "geek talk" about what will work in bringing in business and increase check averages. It doesn't help that in many situations the app outreach sales people target restaurants with persuasive promises of fresh customer contacts.