Restaurant App Builder

7 Types of Restaurant Apps

Studies reveal that almost 80% of customers have searched for a restaurant on their smartphone. Creating an app with a restaurant app maker will ensure that when users search for your restaurant, you will always be the top result. You will also appear when customers try to search for a restaurant app. A dedicated online restaurant app gives you a distinct competitive advantage over your rivals. Here are the 7 types of restaurant apps that you can make:

Restaurant search app

A customer can use a restaurant locator app to find and locate restaurants in a particular location. A restaurant finder app can also be used to see reviews, photos, view menus, and locate directions to the restaurant.

Food Delivery app

Food ordering apps or delivery apps are excellent apps that allow your customers to order their food online. With the help of such an app you can receive, assign, track, and deliver food to your customers wherever they want. They are an extremely popular category of restaurant apps.

Table booking app

Customers can book tables and pay bills using the Table Booking App for a great dining experience. They can even search for the restaurant, invite friends and get recommendations. Like booking a table well in advance the customers can also order food in advance by using the Food Ordering App so that the food is prepared just in time without any waiting involved.

Delivery tracking app

These apps are dedicated tracking apps for customers and restaurant owners. They can use this app to track delivery drivers and assign orders and track delivery times. It also helps ensure that your drivers don’t laze off.

Promotional and Loyalty program app

This app helps manage customer loyalty and referral programs. It sets up customized reward programs and informs the users from time to time. Loyalty and reward programs help you maintain customer loyalty and keep them returning for more.

Review app

The customer can search for a specific cuisine or restaurant and see the reviews for a place. This app helps customers know more about a restaurant that they want to visit. The reviews can be divided further into various categories like ambiance, atmosphere, etc.

Franchise app

Franchise apps are suited to restaurants that manage multiple branches. They do everything a food app does but only for a single franchise. Domino’s is an example of a franchise restaurant app.

Top Features of a Restaurant App

Depending on the type of restaurant app you make, its working will be different. We choose a food app since it combines all the various functions of restaurant apps. Here are the features how the general functions of a restaurant app function.

What do customers expect from a Restaurant App?

Apps for restaurants are a new concept. Customer expectations for restaurant apps are still evolving but they are usually very generic. Here are a few listed:

The app needs to be simple to use

Simplicity is the prime customer expectation. Apps with a good UI are important and a restaurant app with multiple functionalities needs to maintain that. While designing a restaurant app, keep in mind that most of your customer demographic is likely to be older. They like simple apps. Make them simple!

The app needs to be fast

Customers want an optimized app that loads and responds quickly.

The app should have new payment technologies

Technology advances fast and keeping up with it is necessary. Similarly, having the latest payment technology makes it a better deal for your customers.

The app should have a ratings and reviews section

Rating and reviews are the backbone of your app. Try to enhance the overall experience for your users by getting their feedback and improve on your weaknesses.

Each app has a special feature to keep customers engaged. For instance, Urbanspoon is one of the best Restaurant Finder App that runs on both, iPhone and Android. OpenTable is a popular table booking app. Starbucks works on the Promotional and loyalty program model. Domino’s Pizza has incorporated the Driver tracking feature in its app. Let us pick up four case studies to understand the various features a restaurant app can offer:

Case Study 1 – Starbucks

The Starbucks app is a success story and one of the finest examples of marketing through customer engagement. Starbucks makes a remarkable impression on the customer with its user-friendly app and sought-after loyalty programs. With the help of the Starbucks app, a user can pay bills online and earn & collect rewards. Starbucks runs reward schemes on user birthdays and free in-store refills through notifications. After gathering information about the user, Starbucks tries to enhance their personalized experience by offering them relevant perks and rewards. Key Features of the Starbucks app:

In-app menu

The Starbucks menu tab features the list of all the drinks available in their outlets.

Special offers

Starbucks engages with customers by offering rewards like discounts, gifts, and complimentary beverages.

Loyalty program

Starbucks has a loyalty program feature in the app that offers stars against every purchase leading to earning a free drink and other goodies.

Mobile order and pay

This feature helps Starbucks during the rush hours as the customer can pay in advance and pick up his drink later.

In-app messages

Customers can fill in-app surveys sent to them by Starbucks, in return for star rewards.

Music

Customers can save songs being played at any Starbucks outlet to their own playlist within the app. Starbucks is always active with their app and keeps revamping its loyalty program to offer a seamless user experience to the customer.

Case Study 2 – Chipotle

The Chipotle app has witnessed a high number of downloads and offers a great user experience to the customer. Chipotle is currently working on enhancing user experience further. The app helps collect online orders, manage deliveries and promote offers and advertising. The app further helps the restaurant process more orders without interrupting wait times for customers. Witnessing about 700,000 downloads on the iPhone alone, Chipotle app features include:

Reorders of favorites or recent orders

Chipotle offers customers a feature that lets users save their information for repeat orders, where they can place orders or reorders through a secure payment method.

Receive and redeem Chipotle offers

The Chipotle app has a feature where the customer can receive, store and redeem Chipotle offers in-app. Chipotle rewards each customer 10 points for every order they make.

Apple and Android Payments

The app offers a streamlined and secure payment option for users. Chipotle has tied up with reputed digital wallets for in-app payments.

Store locator

Location-based technology helps customers locate the nearest Chipotle restaurant and this feature is a hit in the Chipotle app.

Case Study 3 – Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s, the major pizza chain has more than 15,000 locations worldwide. It also has an app that helps their business grow. By using the Domino’s app, users can order and pay online. Users can even track the live status of their orders. It feels like having a pizza store in your pocket. The features of Domino’s Pizza app are listed below:

Menu Browser

To take ordering to the next level, the Domino’s Pizza App has a feature where the user can see all the variety of options available. With the easy to navigate the menu, they can order their favorite pizza side dish or dessert.

Customize your pizzas

A consumer can now make a new pizza by selecting the crust, cheese, and change toppings with a drag and drop function in the app. This feature lets the consumer get exactly the pizza they want.

Safe payment methods

Domino’s has tied up with digital wallets to receive payments. Domino’s is extremely safe and that alone might be their app’s USP.

Delivery tracker

Users can track their order from the pizza store to their doorstep with the delivery tracker. The user can receive Pizza Tracker notifications even on a smartwatch.

Case Study 4 – Yogurtland

The self-serve yogurt chain Yogurtland created an app with website features. Like other brands, the Yogurtland app allows tracking and managing rewards to earn free yogurt. It offers the latest Yogurtland news and flavor updates in-app. The app also helps users create flavors of their own from the ingredients available. Listed below are some features of Yogurtland app:

Store Locator

Users will be able to find their nearest store locations and see the flavors that are on the customized daily menus. They replicate menu features in-store and let users read details and nutrition information on the app.

Find Your Flavor

The app offers a Flavor Finder, which allows users to search the unique flavors and discover which outlet is serving their favorite flavors.

Real Rewards

The user can perform a customized yogurt creation through their mobile phone to earn reward points. Through digital wallet integration and an intuitive interface, they can even create program signups.

Why does Appy Pie Restaurant App Builder have an edge?

You can attract more customers to your restaurant and increase your table reservations by creating a mobile app for your Restaurant, Cafe, Bar, or Club using Appy Pie’s App Builder. Appy Pie’s Restaurant App Builder allows you to create beautiful mobile apps with premium restaurant app features.

• Menu Creation with Food Ordering Page
• In-App Ordering with multiple payment gateways, like Stripe, PayPal
• Loyalty Card feature to Incentivize repeat customers
• Coupon feature to offer Discounts during Happy Hours
• Reserve tables using the Appointment Feature
• Add-on features like Opentable & GrubHub
• Give restaurant directions to customers via GPS
• Event Calendar to showcase Special evenings with Google Calendar
• Promote Offers & Events via Push Notifications
• Showcase Your Restaurant using Photo Gallery with Picasa, Flickr, etc.
• Study patterns of dining behavior with Google Analytics
• Manage inventory & orders via web Admin dashboard

With Appy Pie’s restaurant app builder, you can easily create a mobile app for your standalone restaurant or for multiple restaurants in a food court. To make it simple for restaurant owners, our app building platform has two different features: food court and online food ordering. Let’s discuss in detail, how these features can prove to be beneficial for your restaurant business.

Food Court

The food court feature allows users to add single or multiple restaurants with order and delivery management system. Backed by multiple functionalities, the food court feature eases the process of food ordering by bringing restaurants, delivery persons, and customers, onto a single platform. With this advanced feature, not only the food court owners get to upscale their business growth, but even the associated delivery persons and restaurants stand to earn a good chunk of revenue in the long run. Under the food court, we provide a super admin web dashboard and three different apps – restaurant app, customer app, and delivery app.

1.1 Super Admin Web Dashboard

The super admin web dashboard ,allows the app admin to:
• Add, update and manage restaurants and food inventory
• Manage food orders & other settings like restaurant opening & closing time, minimum order amount & others
• Add, update and manage delivery persons
1.2 The Restaurant App The restaurant app allows the restaurant owners to:
• Manage Inventory through White Label Web Admin Dashboard
• Manage food orders and track delivery persons
• Accept orders only after the delivery person has confirmed the request
• Send push notifications to the assigned delivery person and customer when the order is accepted and ready for delivery
1.3 The Delivery App The delivery app allows delivery persons to:
• Register themselves directly from the mobile app, (but the delivery person goes live only when app admin approves his/her profile)
• Accept/reject any new order request within a given time frame, showing them pickup point with distance from current location and also the travel distance between pickup & delivery point
• Update the customer when he/she has:
• Accepted or rejected the order
• Picked up the order
• Delivered the order
• Track the order history and monitor the status of each, including canceled orders
• SOS SERVICE
• GPS Navigation to restaurant and customer’s destination
1.4 The Customer App
The customer app allows end-users to:
• Register themselves directly from the mobile app
• Register their cards directly from the app for the auto payment (We use Stripe for payment processing and ensure that the mobile app is PCI compliant.)
• Order food from nearby restaurants listed on the app
• Tip the delivery person
• Track status of the delivery person in real-time
• Make automatic payments once the order is successfully placed
• Track the order history
• Rate and review the restaurant or dish
• Mark any dish as their favorite

Online Food Ordering

The online food ordering feature has been specifically designed for standalone restaurant owners and allows them to create a restaurant app with great features like table reservations, push notifications, etc. With Appy Pie’s next-gen online food ordering feature, restaurant owners can create amazing restaurant apps within a matter of minutes and keep their business in the hearts and pockets of the customers. Under order food, we provide a web dashboard and customer app.

2.1 Customer App

The customer app allows end-users to:

• Register themselves directly from the mobile app
• Register their cards directly from the app for auto-payment (We use Stripe for payment processing and ensure that the mobile app is PCI compliant.)
• Order food, or book a table at the restaurant through OpenTable
• Track the order history
• Rate and review the restaurant, or dishes
• Mark any dish as their favorite
2.2 Web Dashboard The web dashboard allows restaurant owners to:
• Add, update, and manage food inventory
• Accept/reject the food order
• Send push notifications to customers when order is accepted, dispatched, and delivered
• Track the order history and monitor the status of each, including canceled orders

Dine-In

Appy Pie’s food court and online food ordering are great features to make it easy for customers to order food on the fly. Now, you may be thinking of solutions to streamline your food ordering process at your dining area through smartphones. Appy Pie has the answer for that also! Yes, with our Dine-in feature, you can easily improve user experience by letting customers perform various operations in just a few taps. Listed hereunder are some functions that our Dine-In feature provides:
• Allows restaurant owners to manage inventory, users, waiters, and orders through White Label Web Admin Dashboard
• Allows customers to select a table, call waiter, place a food order, ask for a bill, make a payment, and tip the waiter
• Notifies hotel staff about customers’ requests

Steps to make a restaurant app with Appy Pie?

Now it is time to build your own restaurant app. There are many restaurant mobile app builders but Appy Pie Restaurant App Builder offers a simple no-code platform that helps you create restaurant apps in just minutes. Follow the steps below to create your own restaurant app:

Step 1: Go to www.appypie.com and click on Get Started.

Step 2: Enter your business’ name and click Next. Step 3: In the next menu, choose Restaurant &Food as your business category. Step 4: Pick a color scheme. Remember, you can change this later. Step 5: Before you go ahead with creating your app, you need to choose a platform to test your app on. This is just to test your app. Step 6: Go ahead and create an account on Appy Pie. Step 7: Sign up with Appy Pie. Step 8: Once you sign up, the app maker dashboard will be opened. You can customize the app and then click on Save & Continue. Step 9: Clicking on Save & Continue will start making a test version of your app. Once it is done, you can download your test app. Step 10: Downloading your test app first allows you to test and create your app simultaneously saving time in the process. Step 11: After downloading the test app, you will be redirected to My apps section. To start editing your app, click on Edit. It will open up the app builder dashboard. Step 12: A section will open where you can see the Gold Pricing. You can edit your app with the try now or buy now feature. The ‘Try now’ option comes with a 2-Day Trial so that you are fully satisfied with the app before you make the purchase. Please note whichever option you choose, you need to provide credit card details. We use credit card details to check the authenticity of the users. Don’t worry, we don’t charge anything without your confirmation, even after the trial ends Step 13: In My Feature click on View All and search Food Court to add it to your app Step 14: This your page name. You can change it as per your needs. From here you can change the page icon. Let’s add the restaurant now. Click on Add Restaurant to continue Step 15: A popup ‘Add Restaurant’ will open, enter all the necessary information such as restaurant name, email, mobile, cuisines, minimum order amount, etc., and click on Save Step 16: On the dashboard, you will see the restaurant has been added. Click on Manage Menu to add products to your restaurant Step 17: You need to create new category. Click on Add Now Step 18: A popup ‘Add New Category’ will open, enter all the necessary information like restaurant, category name, product sorting order, category status, etc. and click on Save Step 19: You will see the category on the dashboard. If you want, you can add a sub category and then add products, or directly add the products to this category from here. Let’s add a sub category. Click on Sub Category Step 20: Click on Add Sub Category. A popup will open. Enter all the mandatory information and click on Save to continue Step 21: Let’s add products now. Go to Products and click on Add Product. A popup will open. Provide all the relevant information like product name, type, SKU code, order availability, quantity, price, images, videos, etc. and click on Save Step 22: You will see the product has been added to the restaurant. From manage orders, you can manage all your orders at one place. The General Settings option allows you to make changes to app language, rules, coupons, taxes, etc. From Sales Report section, you can download the sales report of the app, while reviews lets you to keep track of user reviews Step 23: In the Advanced Settings, you have the option to enable or disable the delivery system, i.e. if disabled, you won’t be getting the delivery person app Step 24: Next click on the Design icon to open the design page Step 25: It will open the design page from where you can customize the look and feel of your app the way you want. Once you’re done, click on Save & Continue.

Appy Pie Restaurant App Builder helps you build apps that work seamlessly on multiple platforms making a mark in the food industry. Apps for restaurants can be a powerful marketing tool and help you increase brand awareness.

So, go ahead and get started with your restaurant app.