Mobile app development for restaurants, cafes and bars

Statistics show that the number of "Restaurants", "Cafes", "Bars" requests in the markets ranges from 300 to 600 daily.

All this proves that creating a mobile app for restaurant is an action that every owner of a catering business should think about.

Multi-platform mobile app for restaurant loyalty programmes

And today I want to share with you our cases of restaurant software development, which perhaps will prompt some thoughts on the digitalisation of the business.

A few years ago we were approached by a Restaurant Group representative to develop a mobile app for a loyalty programme. So our work with LRG, one of the most popular restaurant chains, began.

We discussed the client's main concerns, i.e. the reasons for which they came to us. This was, incidentally, a very important step. The fact is that many entrepreneurs don't fully realise what problems a mobile app can solve and what advantages it offers. Often it looks like this: "Everybody has one, so I need one too".

However, developing a mobile app for a restaurant is not cheap, which means you need to be clear about how long the investment will pay off, and how much profit it will bring in the future.

Our client was fully aware of the benefits and opportunities of digitalisation of his business, which is why we are still working together and, in addition to the initial development of the mobile loyalty programme, we have launched a number of other IT products, which I will talk about below.

Project goals and objectives

Our client needed a mobile app for iOS and Android, which would help their VIP customers to join the loyalty program. Since the main customer group is VIP, it was necessary to think carefully about the design and make it suitable for the target audience.

Development phase of the restaurant app

The work on the app can be divided into 3 phases, as we are now completely updating the app according to the client's requirements. In the beginning of the project (in the first phase) the main goal was to create a closed application for privileged customers of the establishment - Bar London - where they could follow the news and get personal discounts. We chose react-native technology as the mobile development technology. Here we developed the design in the shades of the establishment.

Basic application functionality

After a preparation and analysis phase, we have implemented the following features:

• Registration via SMS
• A personal office with two roles:
• Guest Office (personal data and QR code)
• Admin panel (web interface with user list, access time, invoices, waiter account (QR code scanners and information about the guests)

The process of implementing the application's functionality

The second stage of our development is to add a virtual loyalty card to Apple Wallet and Google Pay in order to create the possibility of purchasing event tickets and implement QR code scanning of the tickets by the waiter. In filling the mobile app with functionality, introducing new ideas and design, we decided to switch to Flutter mobile development technology.

With this in mind, we needed to provide a UI with already two roles: user and administrator/waiter.

Since the peculiarity of the client's region population is that they mostly go to the same places, it was suggested to allow the guests to send the invitation code to their friends.

Also, we suggested:

• record users' food and drink preferences
• add comments about the user (problems, habits, etc.), so that the customer can become truly useful to his customer and gradually become better to him.
• change the design of the app.

In the third phase, 'new development', the client went beyond just one bar and decided to add his entire restaurant chain to the app and combine them under the LRG brand. The main task here was to integrate all the restaurants into the app, link them to Navigation and Taxi, and develop a logical and clear bonus loyalty mechanism. We are also working on connecting a CRM which will allow us to pay bills using points.

This was the first app that, as you can see, went from being a simple MVP to being an effective way of retaining and attracting guests.