Want to Order a Meal on Mobile? So Does Your Restaurant of Choice

It’s not hard to envision that diners are interested in pulling out their mobile devices and ordering food. It’s not much harder to think diners want to be able to order and pay for that meal from the same device.

A new study from the Chicago Tribune makes it clear that, as much as the customers want it, the restaurants want diners to use it as well.

While there are some concerns about pre-ordering—customers are concerned that businesses might start making the order when the call comes in and just leave the order to sit in a refrigerator or under heat lamps, depending, until the pickup—businesses are eager to note that that’s just not so.

More businesses have been moving in this direction, some cases of which we’ve noted here. Delivery-heavy restaurants like Pizza Hut and Domino’s have been pushing in this direction, and even fast food restaurants like Taco Bell have been getting in on the act. Starbucks might be the most notable example, with Dunkin’ Donuts not far behind.

The benefits for diners are obvious—greater efficiency, faster dining, and a better overall experience—but the benefits for restaurants are actually even more impressive.

Restaurants can help smooth out some rougher times by making some orders in advance and potentially get more diners in and out of the restaurant faster.

Plus, with a background of orders to draw from, restaurants can use analytics tools to discover what sells, what doesn’t, and what to offer more often.

Plus, there’s some evidence that says customers spend more on a mobile app; Starbucks now pins five percent of its total sales to the mobile app, and at peak times, that number can go as high as 20 percent.

So with this in mind, it’s really not surprising to see that restaurants are as interested in this technology as diners are, and potentially, even more so.

There’s a lot to be considered yet, though, and businesses need to work out some of the kinks associated with such a program before really going forward.

The good news, however, is that businesses now have every incentive to carry on. There are plenty of advantages for businesses who bring it into play, and since the customers clearly want such services, there’s every reason to get it in place.