Every single restaurant in 2015 should already have a mobile responsive website and custom mobile app. Every business in general needs one, but for restaurants in today’s day and age, it is absolutely essential to utilize every digital marketing tool available. Restaurant owners and managers need to match the digital tools of the big chains pound for pound if they want to keep up, otherwise their orders will go directly to the competition. Owners are not totally doomed because finally, tech firms are emerging that can fill the digital needs gap they have been experiencing. Having your own mobile app is no longer out of reach for any business, no matter the size.
What’s the point of having your own mobile app with online ordering?
MILLENNIALS...The customer of today doesn’t want to call your restaurant to place an order. They don’t even want to talk to each other at the dinner table. Take a look around any restaurant, take a look around any room for that matter and count the number of cell phones out. The people are glued to their cell phones and will use them for anything and everything that they can. Big chain restaurants like Domino’s and Chipotle have begun to roll out custom mobile apps with online ordering and the young demographic uses them out of sheer convenience. There are countless benefits, other than the ability to cater to millennials, but the inability to reach the younger customer should be the slap in the face that forces restaurants to get with the times. While local restaurants are losing potential profits, the big chains with their own mobile apps are raking it all in.
THIRD PARTY ONLINE ORDERING PLATFORMS DO NOT CUT IT.
The executives from the big chains would never think to give a third party a cut of the profits from every order; why should anyone? Third parties like GrubHub may have seemed like a small restaurant’s only way to evolve with the customer, but it’s time to call out these third parties as well. Taking a percentage of every order from a small restaurant who didn’t know there was a better option is extortion.
What’s a mobile responsive website?
You already know what mobile responsive sites are; you just didn’t know the term for all of those sites you see that are better than yours. Responsive sites are the ones that appear correctly on every device, they adapt like water. What you need to know about them is that Google gives preference to mobile responsive sites. In layman’s terms, if your business doesn’t have one, you’re missing out on search engine traffic, and potential sales.
It is almost 2016, which means it’s time for everyone to get with the program.
Utilize a cost effective digital marketing firm that has all the tools necessary to get your restaurant business up to speed. Get your own responsive site and custom mobile app from The Fast Bite, and start taking online orders today. It cannot hurt to have just as much digital marketing ammunition as the big chains.