How to Create a Restaurant Management App

Restaurant management apps are must-have tools for owners and managers. They help them take orders, track what’s in stock, decide when staff should work, and keep customers happy.

In this guide, we’ll check out the essential features a restaurant app must have, outline a step-by-step plan for developing one, and discuss how much it might cost.

What Is A Mobile App for a Restaurant?

A mobile app for a restaurant is a special software that helps staff run their establishment. This app does a lot of different things, like keeping track of orders, managing reservations, checking inventory, keeping in touch with customers, and analyzing data.

Current Trends in Public Catering App Development

Restaurant app development is changing fast, influenced by what customers want, new technology, and what’s popular in the culinary world. Here are some of the big trends happening right now:

Contactless Ordering and Payments

Since everyone wants to stay clean and safe, more establishments are letting people order and pay without touching anything. Apps now have things like scanning QR codes to see the menu, ordering on your phone, and paying without handing over your card.

Integration with Delivery Services

Lots of restaurants are teaming up with delivery services like UberEats, DoorDash, and Grubhub so they can reach more people and deliver food through their own apps. This makes it easier for customers to order from their favorite places.

Curbside Pickup and Delivery Management

Since so many people are getting takeout or delivery, restaurants are adding specific features to their apps to make it easier. Now you can order ahead, say when you want to pick it up and see where your order is in real-time.

Personalization with AI

Restaurants are utilizing smart computer programs, powered by AI development, to make their apps more personal. These programs look at what you like to eat and what you’ve ordered before and suggest things you might want.

Essential Features of a Restaurant Management App

When developing a custom restaurant app, it’s crucial to include the following essential features:

• Order Management System: An effective order management system helps managers take orders, send them to the kitchen or bar, and keep track of their progress. It should be able to handle different types of orders, like those for dining in, takeout, delivery, and catering.
• Table Management: This feature helps dining establishments make the most of their tables and seating plans. It lets staff see which tables are free, assign tables to customers, and follow how dining is going.
• Menu Management: A menu management system helps instantly update menus, add new items, change prices, and showcase specials or deals. It should allow for customization, dietary preferences, and displaying allergen information.
• Inventory Tracking: Good inventory management tools monitor how much of each ingredient is left, watch stock levels, and automatically reorder when needed.
• Staff Management: Tools that handle staff schedules, assign roles, and control attendance are necessary for managing the workforce well. They should also have communication tools so teams can work together and send messages to each other.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): a tool to develop and maintain client relationships. Usually, it includes such features as customer profiles, order history, loyalty programs, and means to collect feedback.
• Analytics and Reporting: Analytics tools give you info on how sales are going, what customers do, which menu items are a hit, and how efficient things are running.
• Kitchen Display System (KDS): Connecting with a Kitchen Display System (KDS) helps the front and back of the restaurant communicate better, cut down on wait times, and make the kitchen work at its maximum.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Restaurant Business App

Based on our experience creating a custom restaurant app requires careful planning, design, development, testing, and deployment. Below is the process we adjust to:

Specifying Essentials

First, we figure out exactly what your business needs are: the type of food you want to serve, who your customers are, any problems you may face, and what you want to achieve. If you have technical requirements in place, we review them and provide project roadmap and estimates. If you do not have ready-made requirements and need extra help, you may opt for our BA services.

Selecting the Right Components

Next step, we discuss the features you want to equip your app with. It might be managing orders, booking tables, updating menus, scheduling staff, collecting customer feedback, and analyzing data. We select the most important features first, considering how long it will take to do. We suggest you develop an MVP to test drive your app on the market to get feedback from real-time users.

Designing User Interface

At this stage we design user-friendly and attractive screens for both restaurant workers and customers. We do our best to make it easy to navigate, accessible to everyone, consistent with your brand’s style, and easy to use on phones.

Development and Testing

After that, our mobile app developers start creating the product closely collaborating with you. Whether you need an app just for iOS, for Android, or one that works on both, we can make it responsive on all devices.

Integration and Deployment

When the app is thoroughly tested, we connect it with any other services it needs: payment gateways, systems for booking tables, or tools for analyzing data. Then, we upload the app to the App stores (like Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store) for them to check and approve before people can download it.

Collecting Feedback and Improving

Our partnership doesn’t end with the deployment. We continue to develop the features that end users require and keep an eye on how well the app is performing to see where it can get better.

Our team also keeps improving the app based on what’s popular in the market to keep it successful in the long run.

How Much Does It Cost to Create a Restaurant App?

The price of making an app changes depending on what it can do, what devices it works on, how it looks, the team making it, testing, keeping it running, and following rules.

Simple apps with just basic stuff, like looking at the menu and ordering online, might cost a couple of thousand dollars. But if it does more, like having a rewards program or letting you talk in real time, it could cost a lot more.

The cost also depends on how good the design is, how good the team is at making it, and if they do extra stuff like testing it and making sure it follows the rules.

It’s important to do a lot of research and talk to different restaurant mobile app developers to find the best price for what you need.

Conclusion

A restaurant management app can completely change how food service works, making things faster, easier, and more profitable.

By learning about the important features, what’s popular now, and how much it might cost, you can start making a great app that helps your business and your customers.

If you are looking to develop a restaurant app, get in touch with us and we will help you to get to the market with your personalized restaurant management app as soon as possible.