Having a mobile ordering platform in place is becoming more and more essential to any restaurant’s future longevity. Restaurants around the country are rolling out mobile initiatives left and right, and there’s no question about the success of that endeavor. However, there are a lot of decisions that need to be made before your new mobile ordering platform is ready to go public. Here are a few key questions operators need to answer before joining the mobile ordering movement.
Should Your Restaurant Invest in its Own Mobile Ordering Hardware and/or Software?
The first question to consider is whether or not it makes sense for your restaurant to invest in its own, customized mobile ordering platform. There are a lot of advantages to doing so. You can create your own proprietary software and apps, perfectly customized to your particular restaurant and customer demographic. You can also add nifty bells and whistles. One of these “bells” is a GPS locator that sends an order to the kitchen when it recognizes the person who has placed the order is near.
The downside, of course, is that it takes more time and money to develop your own platform, and doing so may not make sense for every restaurant out there. There are a number of mobile ordering technologies that already exist. It might be smarter to simply use an API (application program interface) to put one of those to use for your business—especially if time or money is an issue.
How Is Your Restaurant Going to Handle the Costs, Data and Security Issues that Arise with Mobile Ordering Platforms?
The next questions to think about in terms of rolling out a mobile ordering platform have to do with properly and efficiently handling money, data and security. For instance, you must decide who is going to host, manage and process payments from your customers. Are you going to use an existing service such as Google Wallet or Square, or are you going to look for a different solution? If you do decide to use a third-party, what transaction fees are involved? Vendor fees vary widely, so be sure to shop around.
Mobile ordering has excellent potential for drawing on demographic data if properly designed and payment processing security is paramount for any business. So, in terms of data, operators need to consider the following questions: What data are you collecting? Who owns it? Where is it going to be stored? How safe and secure is that data? What are the security levels?
What Goals and Strategies Will Your Restaurant Put in Place for its Mobile Platform?
Last but not least, it’s important to set goals and strategies in order to maximize the effectiveness of your new mobile ordering system. What kind of budget are you going to allocate? How can you capture the biggest audience quickly? Do you have a marketing plan in place to get people to use your new system? Are you going to pair your mobile ordering platform with any sort of loyalty program? And, most importantly … have you set success metrics and set up the ability to track the results of your endeavors?
Putting a mobile ordering platform in place for your restaurant doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does require some strategic planning and a bit of shopping around. If your restaurant business if ready to make the move to mobile, making sure you’ve done your homework ahead of time will make a big difference in how effectively you can roll out your new mobile initiative.
Jim Balis' Blog 