Resellers: How to sell an app to a Restaurant?

1/ Classic Apps
2/ Shopping Apps

For restaurants and the catering industry, an app can have several functions. It can be transactional (Shopping Apps) or it can be promotional (Classic App). If your client's goal is just to promote their restaurant, we advise you to choose to create a Classic app. If on the other hand, your client wants to do take-away sales (or delivery), it would be best to opt for an app where the end customers can choose products and validate an order. You will need to create a Shopping App in this case. Here are the main options to put forward to sell an app for a restaurant. 

The CMS (Content Management System):
The CMS part will be the most important for a restaurant that wants to communicate through an app. First of all, the "Articles" will allow you to talk about the specificities and the history of the restaurant, but also to add its menu. We advise you to give access to the back-office to your customer so they can edit these articles. Some restaurant owners make regular changes to their menu or recipes and will feel more comfortable if they can update their menu themselves. Moreover, the articles of the CMS part are all the more important if the restaurant owner also decides to publish their PWA (Web App), it will allow them to improve their indexing on search engines. 

In addition to the articles, the CMS also offers maps. It should always be easy to find a restaurant. Some customers may abandon the idea of going there if the restaurant is not easily accessible. Moreover, with the Map option, the end-user will be able to be geolocated via their smartphone and find the way to the restaurant very easily. A restaurant owner who owns several establishments will be even more interested in this option since it's possible to add several points on the map.

The "Form" option can be interesting in 2 ways for a restaurant. First, it can simply be used as a contact form for any request. But for a restaurant that does catering services or events, it can allow them to receive requests for these services directly from the app and create quotes.

The "Calendar" section will also be very useful for a restaurant that often organizes theme parties. It can be updated regularly and is a very attractive tool to attract customers to your restaurant.

Finally, the "Video" section will allow restaurant owners to show their savoir-faire and highlight their establishment. A video is very attractive to the customers because they can feel much more the atmosphere which reigns in the restaurant than on photos. The restaurant owner can also show their kitchens while they prepare dishes or even create a buzz with a chef offering little recipes or culinary tips.

User management:
Even if a restaurant's first goal is not to build a community, it can create a user part for its loyal customers. These customers will, for example, have access to certain parts of the app that are not accessible to non-registered people. For example, they can create a specific "Calendar" section for private parties or previews. Or they could reserve access to the chef's recipes for members only. 

Thanks to this option, restaurateurs can give an "exclusive" aspect to the people who subscribed to the app. The goal, in addition to creating buzz, is to segment their clientele to send push notifications or give them access to exclusive promos. Moreover, another option can be added to the user management. It is the "Geofencing". This module is used to send a notification to the user of the app when they come within a certain geographical radius. When one of the users of the app enters the neighborhood of the restaurant they can receive the special of the day for example. This can bring in a few more covers during the day.

Couponing and Loyalty Card:
These 2 add-ons (paid) are really dedicated to customer loyalty. Couponing allows you to create coupons (discount or free dessert for example). These coupons will be incentives for customers to come back to the establishment. The coupons can be used to introduce new products or new dishes to customers. 

The loyalty card as its name indicates is used to retain loyal customers by offering them discounts or gifts after accumulating points. It is simply the loyalty card with stamps which has been used for a long time but in digital version. It is more effective than the paper version. Almost nobody uses it anymore and a loyalty card in an app will give the establishment a much more modern image. This loyalty card is perfectly customizable in terms of the gift offered or the number of points to access the gift.

Push notifications:
The ultimate mobile app feature. Push notifications are the most read messages by smartphone users. Push is perfectly integrated into the interface and design of the smartphone. And on top of that, users give their approval to receive the notifications. So they don't consider pushes as spam and are even waiting for these notifications. And thanks to GoodBarber a restaurant manager will be able to send pushes for a lot of reasons: a new dish, a new menu, new hours, a new video, or even to promote a coupon! It is a very effective marketing tool that will seduce restaurant owners who have suffered a lot from the various restrictions recently. However, be careful to use this tool sparingly. If you send more than one notification per day, usually users get bored and may unsubscribe.

Statistics:
With GoodBarber, everything is tracked to see which marketing actions are the most effective. You can also see the number of downloads, the platforms used by customers (iOS or Android) and the geographical locations of users. If you want to go further in tracking statistics, you can synchronize your client's app with Google Analytics. This will make it easier to implement the best strategies to make the app a success.
 

If your customer's primary goal is not communication but transaction, you will need to create an eCommerce app. This kind of app is mostly used for take-out. 

Some options are common to both eCommerce and Classic Apps. You can take advantage of the "Article" part of the CMS, the form, and the Maps. They will have the same functions as the Classic app: highlighting content. There is no video section, but it is possible to add one or more videos in an article.

On the other hand in eCommerce apps, it is of course possible to take payments and many other things that can help a restaurant to do take-out.

OffLine Payment:
Whether your client is doing takeout or Click and Collect (to be picked up at the restaurant by the customer), they regularly receive payments in check or cash. This type of payment doesn't normally make sense in the eCommerce world, but for restaurant owners who sell takeout it's an option they'll appreciate. They will be able to keep their usual way of doing business. The end customer validates their transaction and chooses not to pay in the app but rather when they pick up their order.

Local delivery:
In a classic eCommerce app or site one usually has country or worldwide delivery zones. A restaurant owner, if they deliver meals, usually does not go beyond their city. So there is an option in GoodBarber that allows you to choose delivery zones by zip code, which will be a great help for those businesses that operate on a local scale. 

Click And Collect:
Of course, we thought about delivery, but we also know that some restaurant owners don't have a delivery service. They just do take-out that customers come to pick up in the establishment even if in most cases they do both delivery and take-out). In both cases, GoodBarber meets their need. With the free "Click and Collect" add-on, the final customer places their order, decides to pay online or not, and picks up it directly at the restaurant. This is a very interesting feature for this industry because they are used to receiving orders from regular customers. Everything is usually done by phone, there can be mistakes and for small structures, it disrupts the organization to receive orders by phone. In this case, the restaurant owner concentrates on their savoir-faire and the app takes the orders for them. In addition, this option can attract new customers and thus increase the restaurant's sales. 

Delivery slots:
This option is a must-have for restaurant owners who do takeout. In addition to being able to save time with the app and avoid a whole bunch of phone calls to receive orders, they will be able to choose the time slots at which they want to deliver or receive orders. So if a restaurant is closed one day in the week, its customers will not be able to place an order. This avoids many disappointments. Moreover, thanks to this option, the restaurant owner can limit the orders on certain slots so as not to be caught short and not to be able to supply. For example, they can decide to create 15 mn or 30 mn slots. And decide to receive a maximum of 10 orders per 15-minute slot. This way, they will manage their kitchen better and customers will not be disappointed by a long delivery time.

Buy again:
Many orders in restaurants are often the same. Some people like to explore new flavors, others who regularly order from the same restaurant have a favorite dish or menu. With the "Buy Again" option, restaurant customers will be able to save time when placing an order. They will be able to retrieve an old cart that they had already validated. Then they can either modify it or send it as is and place an order much faster. This kind of option boost sales because it offers more convenience to the final customer (no more waiting on the phone for example...).

Quick check-out:
This feature is very useful if you do click and collect. Indeed, when you place an order on a smartphone it's easy. But if there are many unnecessary steps to validate, it becomes annoying. For example, you have to enter your address when you are going to pick up your meal at the restaurant. Thanks to the "Quick Check-out" option, this step is skipped. Indeed, if the customer chooses the "Pick-up " option, they will not need to enter their address unnecessarily to finalize the order. The goal again is to make the buying process smoother and therefore, generate more business.

Discounts:
It is possible to create special promotions in eCommerce apps that are not the same as in Classic apps. You can choose to offer a discount from a certain amount ordered or happy hours. And of course, just like on Classic apps, these coupons can be sent via Push notifications to give your offer even more chance of success.

Client list:
You don't have to register in the app to place an order. But as soon as someone validates an order in the app, they are automatically added to the client list. If you have regular customers, you will also have people who only place a few orders. You can, thanks to the listing, decide to do a special promotion for certain customers and thus, encourage them to order again in the restaurant app.

Public API:
If your client wants to integrate the app's order management with their checkout system, it will be possible to integrate it through our public API for Shopping apps. This way, they can choose to receive orders directly on their kitchen printer for example, and avoid going to the back-office or having a laptop handy. All this makes order processing even easier and more efficient for restaurant owners.

Statistics:
In addition to the statistics already offered in the Classic Apps, you will also find all the details on your sales and the products that sell the most. An indispensable tool to do sales analysis and help your client to optimize their app.
 

The foodservice industry has been greatly impacted by the current health circumstances. It is a sector that is dynamic but changing. Covid's pandemic resulted in a change in mindset in terms of technological tools. That's why as an App Reseller, it's in your best interest to look for these types of customers, it's the right time. Moreover, as we have just seen, GoodBarber gives you a lot of features that will surely convince restaurant managers.