Branded Restaurant Ordering App Attracts Loyal Repeat Customers3 min read
Not only are order food apps gaining in popularity with consumers (see our previous blog post, “Locate Restaurant and Order Food Apps are Growing in Popularity”), but data provided by two restaurant ordering app portals indicates that these and other mobile apps are changing the nature of the restaurant and food service business.
Both the order food app and its counterpart, the restaurant delivery app, essentially come in two flavors — the more generic cross-restaurant, cross-destination, or unbranded restaurant ordering app and the custom-branded restaurant ordering app. Each serves a specific, but distinctly different purpose; each is designed to reach a different target audience. It is important that restaurants understand the differences and distinguish between these two types of mobile apps.
The unbranded restaurant ordering app is typically hosted through cross-restaurant portals together with other mobile apps, such as the locate restaurant app, and is primarily designed to attract new customers to a restaurant.
The branded restaurant ordering app, on the other hand, is designed to attract and cultivate loyal, repeat customers. This type of mobile app is generally integrated into the restaurant’s own digital POS.
The branded restaurant ordering app launched by Wagamama, a UK chain of pan-Asian, noodle restaurants, for example, helps users find the nearest Wagamama location, browse the restaurant’s iPhone menu, customize their order by adding or removing ingredients from individual dishes, place their order, and securely pay for their food via credit or debit card, all from their iPhone.
Wagamama’s restaurant ordering app works seamlessly with the chain’s Apple POS system. Once sent, the customer’s order is directly received in the restaurant’s kitchen and automatically added to the kitchen queue. Wagamama’s Apple POS then provides the customer with continuous, real-time, status updates to let them know when their order will be ready for pick-up.
Large national and international restaurant chains, like Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, understand the important role a branded restaurant ordering app plays in their customer loyalty programs. Each of these chains has launched one or more branded app, fully integrated with its digital POS. Now they’re really cooking! (Be sure to read our previous blog posts below to see how branded restaurant ordering apps have helped Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Chipotle deliver.)
- When Domino’s and Pizza Hut launched their branded apps, they quickly discovered that “Pizza Lovers Love iPhone Restaurant Menus. You Will, Too!”
- Pizza Hut set a new standard for the industry when it expanded its lineup of mobile restaurant ordering apps. If you “Want Pizza? Pizza Hut Has Three More Order Food Apps for That.”
- And when Chipotle’s learned its customers often didn’t have time to stand in line to order and pay for their food, it developed its own restaurant ordering app. The mobile app created customer loyalty and keeps its customers coming back to “Touch, Pick, & Pay With Chipotle’s iPhone Restaurant Menu.”
Disclaimer: This is an independent report sourced from one or more news articles and or press releases; none of the company’s, entities or technologies digressed in this report are affiliated with or a client of Aptito.
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