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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