Restaurant apps are one of those love/hate things. Almost everyone loves to hate on them.
Whether it’s Yelp holding restauranteurs hostage for ad buys in order to remove negative reviews, or the weird way that Urban Spoon changed their name (what the hell is a Zomato anyway??? Is that like a Zestimate, but for a rare steak and some garlic mashed?), restaurant apps seem to come in two categories – short lived, and pretty universally despised.
[Tweet “Do You Need that Dining App to Get People to Your Restaurant?”]
For instance, I just did a Google search on my phone for “American restaurant near me”, and was very disconcerted when three of the top five suggestions were for Mexican restaurants, and one Asian.
I understand inclusion and all that, but I’ve got a houseguest from the UK, and he wants “American food”, and that’s what we’re going to have. Not pasta, not stir fry, not burritos. Even if they are practically all standard American fare at the moment.
So I think we’ll be going with the old standby, CPK. It’s fairly American as far as the menu, they sell drinks and it’s not too far from my house. But that’s the default choice, and not something else that could have been fantastic if only the owner had done a little local SEO or even claimed a business on Google+ properly.
But I digress… back to the topic at hand, which is not my Moroccan salad and BBQ pizza dinner, it’s about how mobile has such an influence on where and what we eat these days.
RetailMeNot – that old standby in the discount offers world, just released a new survey/report they commissioned, that has some pretty impressive numbers to back up their assertion that mobile is a big deal and failing to have a mobile plan as a restauranteur pretty much puts you at the mercy of the Zomato gods or something like that.
For all thats right with the world, if you own a restaurant and haven’t gotten yourself properly set up with some sort of mobile platform that includes push notifications, location and proximity (and does not include ONLY your business in it, please please say you didn’t try to build an app), then we should talk. Like really, we’re happy to answer your questions even if you never, ever, ever intend to buy anything from us or use mobile wallets to market your restaurants or even if you’re still using a flip phone… heh.