Mobile App Maker Pro

The Simplest Way to Make Android, iOS, and WebApps

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Personalized Restaurant App vs. Grubhub

I wanted to take a week and write about food delivery in today’s age.  Food delivery apps are a spin off in concept from what Uber was able to deliver.  The biggest benefit from the customer perspective is convenience.  People are using mobile devices for everything conceivable.  Food ordering is no different either.  The restaurant has a super convenient platform and on the surface has very little to do.  That’s where it ends and let’s dig into the “nuts and bolts” of what happens.  The graphic below from Modern Restaurant Management does a good job comparing things below. 

Info graphic from Modern Restaurant Management

 

 

 

Here’s some considerations when it comes to integrating these third party services. 

Restaurant costs:

Commission-There are varying rates for the commission depending on the platform that is utilized.  Don’t forget to add in an extra cost if you wish to be listed at the top listing within your area as well.

Time-When a third party delivery person is utilized, they have to have knowledge of food delivery to deliver the goods to the customer as hot or as cold as possible.  This is not a problem if you are using a regular person.  However, in today’s society where it’s easy to join a service as a “side gig” for extra income coupled with minimal company loyalty, it’s easy for drivers to quit and join a new delivery service and/or select  who they will deliver for.  If a restaurant owner or other personnel has to consistently explain things, it will be a much harder prospect to effectively utilizing time while in the shop. 

Customer cost-As you can see in the above mentioned graphic, there’s a number of options that the customer may have to absorb as well. 

One of the things I’ve noticed within my area is that the restaurants that tend to use these services belong to a chain.  These costs are more easily absorbed through the chain if they do not use an independent franchisee model. 

Mc Donald’s is one the fast food “king” and they have seen the benefit of developing their own food delivery service and that’s where I’ll go. 

The first thing being in an app with literally all the other restaurants is imagery.  You are under the “Grub Hub” or other food delivery app “umbrella” and there’s no specific branding on the devices’s home screen.  What really sets you apart when a user opens up the app aside from scrolling or sorting on a variety of different factors?  Your restaurant is obviously competing with others in your area.  What is being done to set yourself apart?  The loyalty by seeing the app logo and not your own can lead people away from your service and filter to another.  Give the people a reason to keep coming back.  One example is Google and all the services they offer.  They have email, videos (YouTube), news, along with many other services that make it hard for a person to consider moving away since everything is all “there” in one specific location. 

The next thing is the Grubhub type set up is good for two things-ordering and reading reviews.  What is being done to encourage people to come back?  As I’ve stated in the Parma Pizza app, that you can get via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, you can integrate more than just ordering.  Reward frequent customers and integrate specials so people can view what they can get in short order.

These things are obviously a contrast to the services I offer at Mobile App Maker Pro.  you’ll get the following:

  • Low flat investment fee for a mobile app plus an add on of a website
  • No commissions-at all
  • Individualized mobile app using nothing but your branding
  • Your rewards system integrated
  • Your loyalty program integrated

With this and other things in mind, feel free to reach out to me at info@mobileappmakerpro.com and we’ll get a time set up to talk on the phone and upon your approval, I’ll get started with the mobile app for you.  Within a roughly 48 time period, I’ll deliver a working model for you. 


Looking forward to hearing from you today!

Head on over to this page and see what was done for one pizza shop-Parma Pizza & Grill Haines Road. 

 

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Small Business Affiliate Selling

The referral is a nearly sure fire way to generate a sale for someone else.  Have you ever recommended a product and/or service to someone?  One simple example is a movie bought up in casual conversation.
Were you ever on sure if you should watch a particular movie or not?  Perhaps before buying a particular car brand. You did not know if you should go to a particular restaurant.  Whether or not you realize it, what people in your "sphere of influence" say has some bearing on you.  The recommendation from a trusted resource can help encourage or discourage a person to engage.
What makes for a good recommendation?  It comes down to one thing, trust.  The trust a person has is developed has one of the following foundations from the educational perspective:
Expert Authority: Information based on knowledge
Legitimate Authority: Formal/legal authority-can include certifications an individual has obtained
Referent Authority: Positive relationship
Reward/coercive: Praise positive actions/condemn negative ones
Typically a small business owner is going to have some sort of the relationship with their client. It may start with the expert Authority but over time it may become a reference authority if the owner engages relationally with their customer/client.
Aside from Engaging with a customer/client on the product or service that is offered,There may be a further of exchange of information regarding who else the client may support.  If this businessHas other owners that they associate with,It is very simpleTo recommend them as well.  The most common way of supporting a business is business card placed at various locations within an establishment.  However, if somebody is therefore a particular service,They may not noticeThat business card that is there.There is another way of promoting your business. Simply include a link within the mobile app.The mobile app can be the one-stop shop not just for your particular organization, but any other that you affiliate with as well.  These affiliations may come via:
Personal contact
Professional organizations such as the local Chamber of Commerce
Either way, this is a way to help encourage transactions within your local area and extends your functionality as well.  This is a very simple way ensure this happens and that's using the "Link/Links" feature within the Mobile App Maker Pro platform.  To get started all you need to do is go to the button below and get started.

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Spurring Savings with Technology

Increasing efficiency and reducing overhead. Many small to medium businesses Watch what they spend on a regular basis.  Technology has become a great equalizer. I’d like to examine just two ways a business can do both.

 

PHONE SYSTEM

Many businesses are still tied to a landline of some sort. Should that be the case in today's society? Many small medium businesses run service off of a mobile line.  Depending upon you business type, it may be worth scrapping phone service all together and simply leveraging existing technology-the internet connection.  One method of doing this is simply utilizing Google voice. This is a completely free service so long as you're not making international calls or you have switched a phone number once your Google voice account is set up.

If you wish to simply cut the landline yet still utilize cell phones, Google Voice does possess the capability of directly answering the call or sending to voicemail.  Another benefit is transcription so if you are in an establishment that takes orders, you can quickly copy/paste the information for further action.  

Marketing: The “old” way of marketing was to take an ad out in print media and/or have a TV spot air.  The major problem with this is targeting when an individual sees it.  Location is everything and that included where the ad was printed or viewed.  Prime spots cost more than less visible spots and things were priced accordingly.  

Today it is much simpler and cheaper and more effective two in gage in social media marketing. In lieu of indiscriminately targeting and “hoping for the best,” the targeting can be extremely specific based on a specific number of traits for whom you wish to target based on a specific number of factors.  One example is Facebook.  When you scroll through, you may probably see ads for products.

With that in mind, this is not a “build your app” type of article but merely one that just wants to encourage you to explore looking at a new way to utilize technology to reduce your overhead today if you’ve not done so already.  

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Mobile Importance

NY Times-Mobile Importance

This NY Times article covers a number of important points.

-Encouraging mobile downloads via discounts.

-Promote deals via push notifications

-Sending feedback to the company.

Each aspect is something that has a long term return on investment.  The article further goes on to address the 780% increase in a period of just five years.  What’s driving this now?  Mobile shopping.

Furthermore, what’s needed is a good, solid design much like any product an individual may utilize.  If not, it’s easy to delete the app off of the device.  The benefit for the app company is the tracking of consumer data to entice customers coming back.

Walgreens, Regal Cinema, and Panera Bread are all mentioned.  The last, Panera is used as a case study.  Approximately 30% of the users are opening the app every month.  It’s used for all things Panera regarding nutrition, delivery time, and tracking the loyalty program.

That said, the article does go on to state that once deleted, there’s no chance of getting it back which stresses the need to get it right the first time out.  Although it doesn’t take much to create an app, once deleted, people may not ever get it back.  To help prevent this, depending on the establishment, one could get potential end user interaction.  The simplest way of doing this is to take a computer to a limited pool of clients as they are in the establishment and ask them for direct feedback.  This will help give the customer a say.  This is more important regardless of the hard work that has gone into the design and potential delivery of the mobile app.

This allows you to roll things out on a limited basis to solicit honest feedback.  The best way to do this is via what's called the web app.  Here's an example using the Mobile App Pro platform.  It's running in a mobile device's native browser and loses minimal functionality (essentially push notifications).  Go here to the live apps page and download the app for your device and you'll see the differences.  Once done download the build manual on the side of this page and get started today!

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App Considerations

Developing an app sounds like a fairly simple proposition on the surface.  The steps most think are:

·         Get in contact with developer

·         Submit requirements

·         Make and submit the app

Although this may look to be easy there are a huge number of variables.  One of the primary questions is where will one get the developer?  Can the developer take care of Android and iOS or just one?  It’s not unusual to get a developer from a foreign country since “offshoring” makes one think it is cheaper.  Although this may be true initially, if it takes too long to develop your app, you are losing time which in turn costs money.  The developer may present communication challenges as well both regarding terminology and time.  The developer is the part of the process that takes the longest amount of time.

The second consideration is they may or may not follow your specifications exactly.  If they do-GREAT.  However, if they do not it may take them a few tries which again means a time loss to develop an app.

Once this is done, the decision needs to be made if you should use an existing developer account (app developer) or create your own.  If you do the latter, you will still need to give your credentials to the developer regardless.  To get an app through the review process, Apple and Google are different.  The more stringent lengthier of the two is Apple.  It may take a week or two to get the app approved if it meets their guidelines the first time out.

To maximize time and minimize costs, it is best to design the app yourself.  How fast can this be done?  It can be done in hours.  There are a few steps but the “hard” stuff is:

Connecting your social media accounts (if you choose) to the app platform.

Resizing images

To “build” the app one thing that will make things so much easier is utilizing the “Facebook Import” feature.  So long as you have a Facebook page, you can import five pages within a minute.  All that you need to do then is copy and paste the applicable types of pages into the app and arrange as you see fit.  Once this is done, you are essentially finished.  All that remains is payment.  You are essentially taking the time to build your app at no cost and there is no charge until you are ready for the app to go live.

From there, we take care of the “hard” stuff regarding all technical aspects of the app. We will take care of any possible “bugs” in addition to coding the app for you.  Once it’s live, we will assist you in getting the app promoted and getting people to download.

We are looking forward to helping you out today after you build your app using the link below to get started.