It’s the year of the custom-branded app, apparently
At least they're an easier sell than QR codes?
Another day, another product announcement from a technology company that wants to help restaurants connect with their customers.
Today’s announcement comes from restaurant point of sale and payments provider Toast, which now offers custom-branded mobile apps for restaurants. Toast says its internal data shows customers who order through a branded mobile app are four times as likely to become a repeat diner than those who order from a restaurant’s website.
Why? Well presumably it’s because a customer willing to download a restaurant’s mobile app is willingly taking the restaurant-diner relationship to the next level. It’s also probably because we’re really, really used to using ordering apps, third-party or otherwise.
In an early 2024 technology report from the National Restaurant Association, 80 percent of adults said they’d order delivery using a restaurant app; 71 percent said they’d order through a third-party service’s app.
Given delivery’s ubiquity and our obsession with convenience, these aren’t surprising numbers. But these are: In the same survey, 70 percent of diners surveyed said they’d use an app to order inside a limited service restaurant, and 63 percent said the same about a full service restaurant1. Just 52 percent of adults said they’d place an order using a QR code in the same limited-service restaurant… even though the functionality is fundamentally the same. Mobile apps it is!
Two weeks ago, DoorDash announced its own custom mobile app offering to restaurants.
Expedite covered the announcement with a letter dedicated to the tech industry days of yore, when investment dollars were easy to find and growth came at all costs. That’s the first time I remember executives publicly acknowledging that they copied features from competitors.
Now, everyone just builds the same functionality in service of, basically, the same goals. The goal of the apps, according to two releases, is to let restaurants “own their guest relationships and brand,” and “help grow their business on their own channels,” per Toast and DoorDash, respectively.
Also of note, Toast is adding AI-assisted text messaging to its product offering for restaurants, which means you can probably start to expect a lot more text messages from restaurants you visit. Per a survey Toast conducted itself, 57 percent of diners want to get texts from restaurants. Here’s hoping the AI gets creative so we’re not bombarded with the same scripts from every restaurant in town.
What else?
Google is testing verified checkmarks in search results. The test doesn’t seem to be rolled out widely, but designates some companies, including tech companies like Apple and retailers like Target, as verified results. I couldn’t find any verified restaurant brands, though ordering pages from DoorDash and Uber Eats (but not Grubhub!) each had a blue check. — The Verge
I regret to inform you that ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ has a restaurant-tech tie in. The show has inspired a huge uptick in Yelp searches for “dirty soda,” which is a concoction of soda and all sorts of other (non-alcoholic, often sweet) things; searches for the term are up over 600 percent. — Yelp
Ever wish you could navigate your grocery store using Google Maps? Instacart’s smart shopping cart is kind of like that thanks to a new update. The carts, which have been around for a couple years, now help shoppers navigate the store and can direct them to certain products on sale — or via ads. This is a fun and detailed look at their updated functionality. — The Verge
I realized I forgot to share one of my favorite ‘What happened to Red Lobster?’ stories, this one from the New York Times Sunday Business section a month ago. Tl;dr: it wasn’t just the endless shrimp, but it was also the endless shrimp. — New York Times (gift article)
Sometimes the best restaurant is inside the grocery store. A few suggestions for dining out while shopping for food in New York. — New York Times
DoorDash is courting big brands again. This time, it’s with new ad offerings for enterprise (that’s another word for “chain”) restaurants. Tech-fueled restaurant darlings Chipotle and Sweetgreen are among the first big brands using the self-serve ad platform. — Marketing Dive
The simplest way to define the difference between these two restaurant types is that “limited service” means you pay before eating and “full service” means you pay after.
These surveys are interesting. I think the context of their answers matters quite a bit.
For example, if you go to Sweetgreen everyday (or multiple times per week) for lunch, you are probably willing to have an app on your phone. I wonder if the question clarified regarding the frequency of the visits to a certain restaurant, I'm skeptical they would want to download an app for every restaurant that they only visit occasionally.
I think the implementation of QRs in most limited-service (and full-service) restaurants is extremely poor, and gives most diners a negative impression. Most of the destinations are formatted very badly for a mobile device, and / or the usability is poor, and I think that's why you see most of the negative responses. Some restaurants get it right, and they seem to be doing well with QRs. Aligning the service-level of the restaurant with the right tech approach seems to be a struggle for a lot of restauranteurs.
Finally, demographics of these surveys are also in question... obviously, older demos are probably more resistant to using QRs. The aggregates are probably skewed quite a bit from the upper age ranges.
As far as making the tech more accessible - using QRs embedded with NFCs on the table is a far better implementation, as it just requires someone to tap their phone to get to the destination, rather than opening the camera, aligning it properly, and getting to the said page. I think there is a lot of negativity toward QRs due to the usability issues.
As with anything, I think "it depends". :)