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The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014 The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants A Whitepaper By: www.bluerocket.us
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual
Restaurants
A Whitepaper By:
www.bluerocket.us
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
Overview
After 18 years, “fast-casual” restaurants have grown geometrically from a handful of concepts offering consumers convenience and a pleasant experience with a level of quality above quick service, to one of the fastest expanding sectors across the entire industry that generates over $580 trillion in annual sales. However, mobile technology is just starting to make an impact on the entire restaurant business. As consumers continue to make a quantum shift away from their desktops to mobile devices, what is the potential upside for online ordering? For example, can mobile restaurant apps attract new customers with better, faster service? How can you optimize mobile as a convenience to reduce friction for spontaneous orders? In what ways can mobile build loyal patrons? What are the most critical components of a successful mobile app? And, how can leverage mobile increase sales and boost profits? We’ll explore these and more through five questions you should be asking yourself in planning a successful mobile app for your fast-casual restaurant.
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
What business problems do a mobile app solve for fast-casual restaurants? 1
A recent Cornell University study has revealed that the recent surge in web and mobile technology innova8on is transforming the way restaurants do business with higher sales and increased service efficiency: • 40% of all adults have placed
restaurant orders through some form of online so@ware.
• 37.5% of fast-‐casual restaurants offer online ordering, more than any other restaurant type.
(Source: Business2Community, 7/11/12)
FACT
Fast-Casual Food Online Ordering: A Match Made for Efficiency
Customer-centric fast-casual owners know that their restaurants have to appeal to a younger, more tech-savvy base. For these patrons, time is money so even saving a few minutes waiting in line was perceived as a win/win with shorter lines at checkout and faster service.
Fast-casual restaurants have so quickly and widely embraced mobile apps because they solve multiple business problems or opportunities.
These include: • First and foremost, mobile apps
are helping customers to order, pay and go.
• Providing customers with time savings and a better experience.
• Skipping the long lines at peak business hours to mitigate customer dissatisfaction.
• Processing more orders faster to more customers.
• Eliminating customers from walking away or deserting the restaurant.
• Maximizing kitchen capacity to run at peak efficiency.
In fact, nearly a quarter of American adults use phone apps. When a restaurant, chain or organiza8on offers apps to provide a high-‐quality, streamlined experience, it can place them ahead of their compe8tors who use only web-‐based browser services. (Source: Yelp About Page3/4/11, FSW Mobile Media Applica=ons for Restaurants, 6/512)
Research Shows That A Growing Number of Customers Prefer to Interact With Mobile Apps
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
How can mobile loyalty programs draw your customers closer?
Restaurants are more closely embracing loyalty programs for nurturing and enhancing customer relationships.
After all: • Fast-casual chains recognizing their most frequent
customers and encouraging loyalty with a points or rewards system create a distinctive competitive advantage.
For many quick-service and fast casual restaurants, line-busting and tracking loyalty rewards are made possible by mobile apps. Thousands of businesses now host loyalty platforms, and more than half a million customers have downloaded the app that allows them to scan QR codes posted inside participating restaurants to win instant prizes. (Source: FastCasual.com/blog, 5/31/13)
Loyalty – The M-Payment Currency Restaurants Really Want
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FACT
• Customers who can see their points add up through ease of tracking will return, again and again, to purchase even more frequently.
• The easier to understand the loyalty program, the more loyal customers will become.
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
What are critical components of a fast-casual restaurant app and why?
The most critical component overall for fast-casual apps is frictionless buying, which frequently includes:
• An easy-to-navigate menu, from simple to complex. In fact, the more complex the menu, the more deeply mobile app customers seem to engage.
According to IBIS World, consumers of all age groups prefer to use technology to place orders and pay for meals, including: • 28.4% of Gen Y
(ages 26 or younger) • 18.1% of Gen X
(ages 27-41) • 12.1% of Baby Boomers
(ages 42-60) • And even 7.5% of Matures
(ages 61+) (Source:ValPak, The Business
Advisor Blog, 4/4/13)
Restaurateurs Are Embracing The Latest Digital Ordering & Payment Technology
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FACT
• Store location and directions to find available venues and determine when they’re open.
• Pre-payment options so the customer can skip the ordering line, pick up the order and go.
• Select pick-up times that are most convenient for customers of any age.
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
How do you create an operational win/win with a fast-casual mobile app?
Mobile app customers order 35% more often than people who use mobile websites. When somebody downloads an app, it gets them into the ordering process faster, and restaurants are able to showcase more branding elements such as logos and color pictures.
(Source: Smartblogs.com, 11/15/11)
Mobile App Customers Order More Often
This success starts internally and extends to your customers with: • Performing extensive testing of the mobile app before going
live. • Intensive staff training to process mobile app orders at each
store. • Striving for a uniform customer experience every time. • Reading and responding quickly to user feedback to avoid
negative social media comments. • Sizing kitchens to accommodate a back cooking line to
fulfill more orders. • Handling exceptions, such as stores providing special offers
or discounts with mobile apps.
4
FACT
• Communicating clearly with both your staff and customers, especially when your mobile app has been upgraded or changed.
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
Should you skip a desktop version of your app, only focus on a smartphone and tablet version, or create apps that can accommodate all platforms?
FACT: At today's ComScore State of the Internet Webinar, the Internet research firm presented data indicating mobile users would surpass desktop users in 2014. The data comes from Morgan Stanley and is consistent with its prediction in 2010 that mobile would surpass desktop within five years.
Should you create a mobile web versus a native version or a mobile web and a native version?
FACT: Native mobile apps always provide a better user experience. The particular strategy depends on where the restaurant is now in terms of operations, but many popular fast-casual restaurants have both native apps and mobile web ordering.
Should you build two native apps: iOS or Android? Or should you possibly create a hybrid app?
FACT: Native apps are installed directly onto a mobile device and BYTE Interactive found that most mobile device owners prefer native apps to capitalize on a smartphone’s capabilities. Mobile transaction traffic is 10-fold higher on iOS devices than Android devices and higher than traffic via mobile websites. Our recommendation is to start with iOS and then evaluate whether your mobile web offering satisfies Android device users or whether they need a native Android app.
5 Where do you start to build a mobile app?
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
Where do you start to build a mobile app?
What do you do if you have zero infrastructure?
FACT: Users love simple. It is less expensive to provide a basic mobile ordering process that can stand alone on the device.
What do you do if you have online ordering but no mobile web or mobile app?
FACT: You are then ready to evaluate the pros and cons of first developing mobile web ordering capability or a native mobile app. The biggest decision factor will be weighing how important the user experience is to your brand and customers vs. the development costs. Our experience is that native apps generate more sales than mobile web orders due simply to ease of use.
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The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
A Fast-Casual Success Story: Chipotle Mexican Grill
Industry leader Chipotle Mexican Grill was one of the earliest adopters of native mobile apps in the fast-casual segment. The company wanted its hungry customers to create an order from a full menu on their smartphone, securely pay for it, and select a pickup time to avoid busy lines at any of their 1400+ locations. They partnered with Blue Rocket to develop their initial iPhone ordering application, which was available on the Apple App Store by August 2009. Chipotle’s first iPhone ordering app allowed customers to configure an order, pay for the order directly on their iPhone, select a store and available pick-up time, and then skip the line to grab their pre-ordered meal. Millions of downloads later, customers are still ordering the “usual” with just a few taps of a finger and picking up their food without waiting in line at any of Chipotle’s nationwide and international locations. Many in the fast-casual restaurant industry consider the Chipotle iPhone Ordering app as the gold standard for a “line-busting” mobile ordering experience. The public agrees, according to Appannie.com, which notes that Chipotle’s iPhone ordering app is the most exemplary fast-casual restaurant app within the entire food and drink app category.
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
In 2012, Chipotle again hired Blue Rocket to build a major release for the app, adding location-specific menus, gift cards, nutritional and allergen information, and special menu options like brown rice. Customers also received improved navigation, Spanish and French language support, and mobile ordering capabilities for Canada, UK and Paris locations. For the user to create and build-to-order meals with thousands of possible combinations with custom instructions, Blue Rocket made this technically challenging process simple and intuitive. Over two million downloads, later the Chipotle app is still highly ranked and highly rated. “In partnering with Blue Rocket,” said Mark Crumpacker, CMO of Chipotle, “we benefited from their deep understanding and extensive experience in building a game-changing iPhone application.” Steve Ells, founder and CEO of Chipotle adds, "The iPhone and iPod touch have really given us the ability to deliver a compelling experience to customers which includes simplicity, personality and attention to detail."
A Fast-Casual Success Story: Chipotle Mexican Grill
The Mobile App Smart Guide for Fast-Casual Restaurants Blue Rocket, Inc. ©2014
About Blue Rocket
Based in San Francisco, Blue Rocket was founded in 2008 and has delivered hundreds of mobile applications to Apple’s App Store. The company is a leader in iPhone and iPad solution development as well as native Android mobile applications and HTML 5 cross-platform mobile applications. Blue Rocket’s customers conceive innovative mobile concepts and strategies that transform or extend their business. They turn to Blue Rocket as a trusted partner to bring their mobile vision to life. Blue Rocket delivers a promise of a commitment to excellence and a guarantee of thoughtful design and efficient, quality execution.
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