How to Hit a Home Run with In-app Mobile Ordering Experiences and Avoid Striking Out with Customers

Mobile ordering has become the norm over the last year with COVID accelerating this feature on many product teams’ roadmaps. PYMNTS research finds that 92 percent of top-performing restaurants offer the ability to order using a mobile app, compared to only 31 percent of the lowest-performing restaurants. On top of that, they found that 56 percent of restaurants that offer mobile order-ahead options have seen their revenues increase since the start of the pandemic.

At this point, mobile order and pay is a necessity for any restaurant. Customers expect the feature, so the focus is now on perfecting the full experience and reducing friction along the mobile customer journey. Consumers have no patience for glitchy interfaces or hard-to-navigate apps.

A great example of this has been the rollout of mobile ordering at MLB ballparks. They adapted their gameday experience to be contactless and cashless. While great in theory, the rocky app experience caused hoards of fans to flock to the app stores with their negative feedback. If you look at the Apple App Store or Google Play Store ratings in 2021 for this app, you’ll see mostly one- or two-star reviews.

And if you look on social media, you’ll see hundreds of posts from disgruntled fans who had to wait hours in line for their food in crowded lines (virtually canceling out any health benefit of the mobile ordering system). In fact, things were so bad at most stadiums that they disabled the feature completely.

The food situation at Dodger Stadium is out of control!

Fans order online and are emailed a confirmation, which they take to the spot and pick up their order. But, no organization whatsoever. #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/He3POEjqdc

— Jonathan Garza (@ijonathangarza) April 9, 2021

So, what are the most successful brands doing within the mobile experience that stand out from the competition? How can you avoid the same fate as the MLB Ballpark app?

Invest more money in perfecting the mobile experience

As we mentioned earlier, customers have zero patience for friction in the mobile ordering process, especially after it’s become so normalized over the last year. Minor inconveniences, counter-intuitive UI, or buggy features can cause customers to uninstall the app and never give it a second thought. If you’re a brand in a competitive market (like quick-service restaurants), this can cause them to switch over to your competitor’s app in an instant. Brands that have invested significantly in perfecting their mobile experience are the ones that win time and time again. Especially as the world opens up and people start spending more time on the go on their mobile devices (and less time sitting at their computer) the app experience needs to be a priority.

Proactively gather feedback from customers

After seeing the response to the MLB Ballpark app flood the app stores and social media, it’s never been clearer that brands need to have systems in place within the mobile experience to gather feedback. If apps don’t provide this opportunity (through message centers, surveys, etc.), customers can and will take to other outlets that are far more destructive and less useful for product teams.  It’s critical for restaurants to be able to track customer sentiment over time and prompt for feedback from the right people at the right time and place.

There are systems and tools you can set up quickly and easily to get the most out of customer feedback such as:

• In-app surveys
• NPS+
• Love Dialog
• Rating prompts
• Message centers

Incentivize the use of mobile ordering systems

If people feel like they’re being inconvenienced by ordering through your app, they’re likely not going to give it a second try. Restaurants can take a page out of most retailers’ books and start offering discounts to customers who use their mobile ordering system. This makes it feel like less of a chore or a hassle for customers. In fact, they’ll feel like they’re being rewarded for using the system and therefore have more patience when things go wrong.

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Ready to get started perfecting your in-app mobile ordering experience? Chat with us today!