Must-Have Features of Restaurant App

Can you image an app without features?

One of the important elements that attracts users even prior to downloading an app, is its features. What an app offers values much more than other things, right?

And, when it comes to food, people search for apps where they can find access to multiple restaurants. They will check the features of restaurant apps from the Play Store, even before they decide to use them.

If you are the one looking for features just not to make your app clumsy or cluttered, then this guide is of utmost value.

During app development, deciding over the features is one of the difficult tasks. But not anymore.

Here is a list of must-have features for a restaurant app that will serve you right. Along with this, get a prolonged way over features needs and tips.

Let’s begin it together.

Basic Features of A Restaurant App

Here, we have divided the must-have features segment into basic and advanced features.

Let’s begin with the list of must-have features to create a restaurant app.

1. Authorization and Encryption

When a user downloads an app and sign-in to put their information, authorization plays a crucial role. Here you should ensure that the sign-in process is simple and clutter-free to encourage the user to continue with the app.

The authorization process signifies that the app is attentively related to users’ data safety index. The data should be safe and encrypted to enhance user trust. It will further result in increasing user satisfaction.

2. Navigation System

An app with a slow navigation system might result in frustrating the user over using the app. This can result in a bad user experience and may impact the brand image. Thus, you should ensure that the app contains a simple navigation format which saves time for the user.

A navigation process aims to direct the user towards a specific destination. A simple navigation can enhance user satisfaction and retention. It also assists the users to find information that they need and can access quickly.

3. In-App Search

You can offer an in-app search process to the user by enabling them to search for what they are looking for. This is one of the top features of the restaurant app that allows the user to browse for the perfect restaurant, food, or table that they can book in no time.

This feature saves time for users and helps them to enhance usability, which empowers quick access to the content. It is among the key features of a restaurant app that you cannot avoid. It also reduces the usability timings ultimately ensuring user satisfaction.

4. Online Ordering and Pre-Ordering

Online ordering and pre-ordering features are some of the basic features of a restaurant app that should be considered during the app development process. Through this feature, you will be able to minimize the guest spend time within a restaurant.

Through these features, you can permit the users to add cooking instructions according to their taste. It is one of the effective restaurant app features that take care of people who have specific allergies or have medical conditions such as diabetes and others.

5. Mobile Loyalty Program

Mobile loyalty programs are effectively increasing user satisfaction and are the most popular features of a restaurant app that cater to individual businesses’ needs. These digital programs have attracted many users when compared to old system cards and vouchers.

Loyalty programs are developed to increase user engagement over the platform. Here you can provide several types of loyalty schemes and programs to build trust of the users and encourage them to use the app.

6. Table Reservation System

A table reservation system is important to eradicate the frustrations of users who cannot plan to visit their favorite restaurant. Through this app, users can find a table and can reserve it according to their parameters.

This is one of the famous systems for restaurant apps that assist them in managing the customers and helps to reduce waiting time for the users. Through this system, users can find a prominent place to eat without even waiting for their turn at the table.

7. Online Payment

Online payment is one of the core restaurant app features. Through this feature, users can pay for the food without even interacting with the server. You should ensure that the payment feature is safe and encrypted to gain the confidence of the users.

Users want simplicity in payment with a secure network authentication process. Thus, restaurants need to adopt a technology that is clutter-free and provides customers the ability to place online food orders. You should select secure payment gateway integration for enhancing user experience.

8. GeoLocation

Providing location-based services to the users is one of the important features of a restaurant app. Here you will give users a way to admire and find the restaurants based on the locations. Ensure that your app contains GPS-based system that enables users to access the location of the app.

This feature is useful to streamline the reservation procedure. Through this app, users can make table reservations which ensures a seamless table-reservation procedure. While booking a table, location is one of the important elements that users evaluate, thus offering location is a prime need in an app.

9. Social Media Integration

Social media integration is one of the main features of a restaurant app that is essential to assist the users share their table or food bookings with their loved ones. This feature can help you connect more new users by enticing the existing ones to convert into repeat orders.

In the current era, social media platforms are essential to connecting with multiple users at a single point of type. Providing an integration facility over the apps ensures connectivity and improves networking resulting in long-term user synchronization.

10. Digital Menu

Over the app, you can make your restaurant menu available with just one simple click. This will enable the user to identify the diversified dishes and cuisines. These menus provide valuable insights into the user’s behavior and their preferences.

These menus facilitate informed decision-making over selecting the right dish and cuisine. It will encourage the user to book a table at the restaurant and increase the overall user experience. Digital menus provide effectiveness in discovering the latest dish or bestseller.

11. Customer Feedback Portal

Customer-feedback portal is among the must-have features for a restaurant app. This feature is essential to gain insights from the users for further required changes and improvements significant for the restaurant app.

After analyzing the restaurant’s customer feedback, you can improve its offerings and services. Which can automatically increase overall customer satisfaction and the restaurant’s brand image. With such restaurant app features, you can engage the users and create direct connectivity with them.

Now that you learned about the basic features of restaurant app development, the next section is all about the advanced features related to the same.

Advanced Features of A Restaurant App

Basic features are must-have features, although you can decide to choose advanced features based on your requirements of the restaurant app.

After the basic features, here is the list of advanced features that you can implement within the app.

12. Voice Ordering

Among the diversified restaurant app features, you can adopt voice ordering. It is one of the significant features that ensures a convenient way for customers to place orders. This is the feature that eliminates the hustle of typing and searching for their orders.

Enabling a voice ordering feature can assist users in saving time and effort over booking a table or ordering their favorite food from the restaurant. Voice ordering can simplify the process of using an app that enhances user satisfaction.

13. Real-Time Updates

Providing updates to the users related to the app and the order’s current status, helps them to keep aware of the order that keeps them in sync with a restaurant. It develops trust of the user over the app and they can check their order from anywhere and anytime.

Live updates related to confirming orders, payment, preparing food, or order tracking improve users’ relations and assist them in knowing their current status. With this feature, restaurants can build connectivity with their end users directly.

14. Chatbots

The use of chatbots while developing restaurant apps can increase the usage of the platform. It builds user engagement and is useful in addressing the queries of the users. Implementation of advanced AI chatbots can increase personalization by initiating dialogues and performing conversations with the users.

These chatbots are built to provide information related to current offers, discounts, or any update that is important to the user. This tool can work over social media platforms to bring repeated business. You can implement it to provide updates on orders to the customers.

15. Push Notifications

The use of push notifications can act vital among engaging restaurant app features. It can assist the user in knowing about current offers, updates about their orders, and useful information that can help them to continue with the app.

Push notifications can arrive on the mobile home screen or over the lock screen. These can also appear as notifications on the app icon while using the browser. Likewise, they provide an update to the users and keep them engaged over the platform.

16. Multilanguage Support

If you desire to launch your app around the world, the multilanguage support feature is among the essential features of a restaurant app to be considered. Under this feature, you can cater to a diverse customer base by providing them with multi-language support.

This is an important feature when it is required to provide users with personalization and customization. You can implement this feature by including multiple language processing systems within an app. It will automatically improve the overall user experience.

17. Gamification

Gamification is among the restaurant app features that should be considered to not let your customers bored while waiting for their order. The foremost reason to introduce this feature to the app is to create a happy customer.

This feature is effective in earning rewards by introducing a system of achievements, challenges, and tournaments that can promote loyalty programs among users. These rewards can be used to pay for orders or to have discounts.

18. Order Scheduling

Order scheduling is among the list of the top features to consider while developing a restaurant app. Implementing such a feature can allow the user to schedule an order for a specific time. With the help of this feature, users can place a variety of orders at a particular time.

This feature can assist the users in performing scheduling for their orders. With this feature, users can know their order status and schedule it successfully. You can implement a quick ordering feature to assist the user in adding their favorite items along with the previously ordered dishes.

19. Sustainability Tracking

Information related to the restaurant’s sustainability tools can result in enhancing operational efficiency. By measuring the aspects including waste production, energy, and water usage over cooking and delivering food, users can make their decision to order from the restaurant.

This can be among the advanced features of a restaurant app through which users can know about the practices adopted by the restaurant for cooking food or sustainably delivering orders. These practices can help them to decide over booking the table at the restaurant.

20. Third-Party Integration

The ability to book a cab within the restaurant app while the order gets ready to pick up can be a facility you can offer to the user. Performing an integration with third-party users can enable the customer to perform multiple tasks even when they wait for their order.

This can be among your restaurant’s mobile app features to improve user engagement and satisfaction. API development comprises incorporating features, functionalities, and data from an outside source within the existing software ecosystem.

This was the list of best restaurant mobile app features to be considered. These features can help to develop restaurant app and can increase its market competitive position.

Well, have you ever thought about why you need to select the right features for your app? The next section can help you in this scenario.

Importance of Selecting the Right Features

Till now, you learned about the basic and advanced restaurant app features. But why there is a need to select the right features for your app?

Here are certain important, you can consider to selecting the right features for the app.

► Contribute to the App’s Aim

Defining the features of an app clarifies the objective of creating one. It provides you with ways to understand the top priority features and the additional ones. Selecting the right features improves transparency towards identifying prominent reasons to invest in an app.

► Makes App User-Friendly

The foremost aim of developing an app is to improve user satisfaction and engage them to increase market presence. Selecting the right features can assist in meeting the user demand. With the right features, you can connect with the users changing preferences and results to retain them for the long run.

► To Attract User

The right features can pertain to users’ attention by delivering them what they seek the most. These features enable us to connect users over the platform and increase the overall value of the brand. This can further lead to an enhanced app’s market presence.

► Provides Clarity Over Resources

Deciding the right feature for an app can help to avoid mistakes in creating a restaurant app. It leads to allocating resources successfully after focusing on what values the most and deciding over features that can be added after the app gets launched in the market.

► Helps to Manage Budget

Identifying the right features can help reduce the cost of restaurant app development and automatically assist in managing the budget. Deciding on the right feature can create a lot of hustle that can impact the budget, thus this activity plays an important role in managing overall costs.

► Reach Over Target Audience

The right features can assist in reaching potential users. When you know how to serve the target people, it becomes easy to connect with them. Including the right features can be helpful to attain such heights by providing users with what they actually want.

Well, after learning about the importance of selecting the right features for your restaurant app, let’s get ahead with the factors and tips required to keep in mind while selecting features.

Things to Keep in Mind While Selecting Restaurant App Features

Till now, you learned about the top features to include in a restaurant app and the importance of selecting them. Now, it’s time to know important tips to keep in mind while selecting the right features.

Here is a list to consider.

A) Know the User

Learning about the user should be your first priority.

It can help in understanding prime users’ changing behavior while using an app. This will improve your selection process to decide features for the app.

B) Perform Market Research

Before deciding on the features, know the current market requirements.

You can perform market research to gain information about competitors’ strategies and their target audiences.

C) Maintain a Complete List of Features

Do you like to build an app like OpenTable?

Developing a complete list of core and additional features can help here. It will assist you in deciding the right feature by considering the target audience.

D) Keep an Eye on the Aim and Objective of App

Every app has a problem to solve.

Thus, deciding over features that neither match with app’s aim nor address users’ issues is a waste. Decide features after considering the aim and objective of an app.

E) Select Through the Alternatives

Now, you should evaluate the multiple features available with your app.

This can be a difficult task. However, considering the app’s aim, users’ needs, and reasons behind development it can help to make decisions.

Well, if you are still confused about selecting the best restaurant app features for your app, then consulting a team can help.

How Nimble AppGenie Can Help in Developing A Restaurant App?

An experienced team with budget-friendly parameters to meet your demand to make an app rarely exists, isn’t it?

With Nimble AppGenie, you can convert your dream app into reality. We are the best Restaurant App Development Company with a well-skilled team of professionals.

We are honest to keep our promise to deliver a successful restaurant app.

Conclusion

Selecting the right features for a restaurant app from a bunch can be a difficult task. However, with a list of basic and advanced features, you can make your decision.

The core features to include in a restaurant app can be a signup feature, authentication, online ordering, app search, geolocation, online payment, and digital menu.

Besides this, you can include AI chatbots, gamification, sustainability tracking, and third-party integration. It is important to select the right features to attract users, make an app user-friendly, manage the budget, and reach the target audience.

Maintaining a list of features, performing market research, and understanding the users can help you decide on restaurant app features. However, a team can help in this process successfully.

FAQs

Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma is the CTO of Nimble AppGenie, a prominent website and mobile app development company in the USA that is delivering excellence with a commitment to boosting business growth & maximizing customer satisfaction. He is a highly motivated individual who helps SMEs and startups grow in this dynamic market with the latest technology and innovation.