5 (non Covid) Reasons You Need A Mobile App
Jon Richardson • October 31, 2020
Can a mobile App help grow your business?
Mobile Apps have traditionally been the reserve of big corporates with big marketing and technology budgets. More recently with advances in technology and platforms that allow Apps to be built without coding mean Apps are much cheaper and easier to implement. This means that Apps are now viable for small and medium size businesses.
This presents some huge opportunities for forward thinking small business owners. But what are those opportunities, are they right for your business. This blog looks at some of the ways an App may add value to your business below
Takeaways
With uncertainty about lockdown or Tier restrictions the ability to pivot is essential and has provided a lifeline for many companies who had never previously considered providing a takeaway service.
The ability to continue to trade when you are no longer allowed to welcome customers into your restaurant, café or bar etc provides your business with an income stream building resiliency in these most uncertain of times. However the opportunity here is not just to pay the bills in the short term but to thrive in the long term.
Eventually we will return to normal, be that in a few weeks, months or even a years’ time. Wouldn’t it be great if you could expand your business to reach those customers that may not be able to visit your premises for whatever reason.
Yes, you can subscribe to a dedicated takeaway App such as Deliveroo or Just Eats but be prepared to pay up to 30% of your order to these companies. Additionally, every time your customer opens the respective takeaway App they will see all of your competitors and may just be tempted to try something new! It is also important to recognise the people using these Apps aren’t your customers they are the Apps customers. You do not retain the customer data and your ability to market to them is severely restricted.
Table Ordering
The benefits in the current climate are obvious, reducing the movements and human contact of customers in your premises. But picture this; you are in a pub garden with a group of your friends, the conversation and jokes are flowing but the drinks have run out. You have to then get up, walk to the bar, queue and then walk back to the table with a tray of drinks, normally at a snails’ pace so you don’t spill them. By the time you sit down again, ten or twenty minutes has passed, and the conversation has moved on, new jokes have been told and you haven’t been part of them.
Wouldn’t it be much nicer to open your phone make a few finger swipes, continue your conversation and have your drinks delivered.
In the hospitality industry customer experience is king! No one remembers that pint or gin and tonic they drank, they remember the experience of enjoying quality time with their friends and loved ones.
Loyalty Scheme
How do you increase the frequency of visits from your customers? Loyalty schemes are nothing new. But ask yourself, how many loyalty cards do you have in your purse or wallet? How many have you lost and how many times have you walked out of a coffee shop or restaurant and forgotten to use them? Now ask yourself how many times have you forgotten your phone when you walked out of your front door?
For better or worse we are all attached to our phones, they are an intrinsic part of our lives and we rarely go anywhere without them. For this reason, having a loyalty card on your phone makes absolute sense.
Mobile Store
Many restaurant, cafes and bars also sell physical goods, reusable cups, t-shirts or hoodies, packs of coffee or gift cards. Without some form of online shop sales of these goods are restricted to customers visiting your premises.
Wouldn’t it be great if those customers could purchase those goods, anywhere and at any time?
A fully fledged e-commerce store may be too complex and expensive for the volume and cost of the goods being sold. However, building this functionality in to a mobile App is fairly straight forward and cost effective.
Communications and Push Notifications
Communicating and keeping in touch with your customers is key to any successful business. Websites and social media, whilst a crucial part of any marketing strategy, require your customers to take an action and actively search for your information. Traditional direct marketing such as email or direct mail are also important but what if you could make a message ‘magically’ appear on your customer’s phone.
That is exactly what Push Notifications do. They ‘push’ a message on to the home screen of your customers’ phone! You can also set rules for when and where these messages are sent. For example, you can have an automated message reminding users of your Tuesday night Happy Hour. Or if a user enters (or leaves) a certain geographic area your App can send them an automated message
Think on that for a moment, wouldn’t it be great if every time a customer came within 500 metres of your café, restaurant or bar they got a message with an offer enticing them to come in?
Conclusion
The above is just a small sample of the ways an App can help businesses in the hospitality sector. Not all of the above will apply to every café, bar, takeaway or restaurant but some will apply to every hospitality business, whether it is a café, restaurant, pub, bar or hotel.
To sum up the benefit of an App in one sentence, it would be this;
“A mobile App will make your customers spend with you more often”.
Some establishments will believe they are too high brow or exclusive for an App or that their customers are too old and don’t use Apps or that they get enough footfall without spending more money on customers that will visit their premises regardless. To those people I would say:
The Ritz-Carlton and many other high-end establishments have many apps for its hotels and restaurants. They recognise the value that Apps provide not only in increased custom but also the increased customer experience they can provide.
The pandemic has forced many of the older generation to embrace Apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger and Facetime to keep in contact with their loved ones or the NHS Contact and Trace App.
How much more positive is the experience for your customers and staff and how many more orders would you be able to service if your customers were able to order from their phone rather than standing in a long queue.
Apps are incredibly valuable not just for you to increase revenue but also to improve the customer experience for your customers which in turn increases customer loyalty
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It’s simple, quick and doesn’t look like it came from a robot. AI for Local SEO and Google Business Profile This is one area where AI genuinely gives small businesses a fighting chance against national brands. AI-powered tools like Local Falcon, BrightLocal and Surfer Local can scan your entire Google Maps ranking area and show exactly where you’re visible (and where you’re not). That’s data you could never get manually. You can then use AI to help write keyword-optimised posts, service descriptions, and responses to reviews. If you do it properly, you can dominate your local area because most of your competitors won’t even know these tools exist. We’ve tested this ourselves, and the difference can be night and day. Clients go from being invisible outside their postcode to ranking across an entire 10-mile radius in a matter of months. To learn more, check out our LOCAL SEO service page. AI Chat and Lead-Capture Agents Here’s a huge one. AI chat agents can now do far more than pop up on your site with “How can I help you today?”. They can qualify leads, answer FAQs, book appointments, and even follow up automatically. Tools like Tidio, Drift, or GoHighLevel AI Agents make it easy to build one that fits your tone and brand. Used properly, they can turn missed calls into booked jobs, especially for trades and service businesses where speed of response is everything. But be warned: this only works when your bot feels human. If it gives robotic, generic answers, it will kill trust instantly. Spend time training it with real questions and examples from your past conversations. You can see how we use automation like this on our AI Websites page. The Tools That Sound Exciting but Rarely Pay Off AI image generators, video avatars and content mills have their place, but most small businesses waste time chasing gimmicks that never generate a penny in return. AI Image Generators Everyone loves playing with Midjourney and DALL-E — but unless you’re in creative design or product marketing, it’s mostly just fun. They’re great for social graphics, concept visuals and mock-ups, but they take time to master. You’ll still need editing, branding and human judgment to make the results usable. Verdict: Nice to play with, not a daily essential. AI Blogging Tools You’ve probably seen the “write me 10 SEO-optimised blogs instantly” type tools. They can churn out text, sure, but it’s usually bland, repetitive and reads like it was written by a committee of robots. If your aim is to rank or build trust locally, that won’t cut it. AI is brilliant for drafting outlines and ideas (we use it for that all the time), but you still need a human to add expertise, local context and personality. Google’s algorithm is smart enough now to spot thin, generic AI content. You’ll do better with one well-written blog a month that genuinely helps people than with ten AI-generated ones that don’t say anything new. AI Video Avatars These have exploded in popularity, but most look awkward and fake when used for local service businesses. Unless you’re creating explainer videos or training content, it’s better to film yourself (or your team) for authenticity. AI avatars can’t replace genuine personality and personality is what sells local services. How to Tell if an AI Tool Is Worth It Before you sign up for yet another shiny new AI platform, ask three questions: Does it save me time every week? If it doesn’t make a recurring difference, it’s not worth keeping. Does it improve my marketing results? Does it generate more leads, improve conversions, or give insights I couldn’t get otherwise? Can I see myself actually using it? Most AI tools fail not because they’re bad, but because people forget they exist. Pick a few that fit neatly into your daily workflow. A good test is this: if you stop using it for a week and nothing gets harder, cancel it. The AI Tools We’d Recommend to a Local Business Right Now If you’re short on time and want a focused list, here’s what genuinely helps most small businesses: ChatGPT or Claude – for quick drafts, emails, ideas and posts. GoHighLevel AI Agent – for lead capture and automated follow-ups. Local Falcon – to track and improve your local visibility. Vista Social – to manage social posts and analyse engagement. Fireflies.ai – to summarise calls and meetings. AdCreative.ai – to create better-performing ad creatives quickly. Everything else? Nice to have, but not essential. The Future: AI as Your Silent Business Partner The smartest small businesses in 2025 won’t be the ones that chase every new trend. They’ll be the ones that quietly integrate AI into their day-to-day operations and never look back. AI won’t replace you (yet), but it will replace a lot of your admin, manual marketing, and repetitive customer interactions. That means you can spend more time doing what you actually enjoy, running your business, talking to customers, and delivering great work. Final Thoughts Most AI hype is built around things that look impressive. But the real gold is in the boring stuff — automation, data insights and everyday time-savers that keep your business moving faster than your competitors. Start small. Automate one thing. Measure the impact. Then add the next piece.vvWithin a few months, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. If you’d like help identifying the right AI tools for your business, or want us to integrate them into your marketing systems, BOOK A CHAT WITH THE TEAM AT OVERT DIGITAL MEDIA . We’ll show you what’s genuinely worth your investment… and what belongs firmly in the bin.
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