Today, when there are thousands of well-established restaurants, no independent venue will survive on the competitive market without having a sustainable competitive edge. By developing and implementing a mobile app for the restaurant business, a beginning restauranteur can easily stand out from their competitors who are not so keen on technology. Restaurant reservations apps provide venue managers with the ability to keep track of their table capacity, dining preferences of their guests, and reward points (“How Much”). App users can choose between different restaurants and make reservations using their smartphones.
This paper aims to outline a business proposal for a restaurant app. The paper will analyze a company’s competitive strategy and propose a design for the application.
Competitive Strategy
E-Spoon is a company that specializes in the development, hosting, and management of online restaurant reservation services. The company’s E-Spoon mobile app will be designed for the United States market and will allow its users to search for food venues and make reservations based on a wide variety of parameters that include, but are not limited to, dates, price ranges, and cuisines. The major company’s competitors are Yelp, Opentable, UrbanSpoon, and Zomato (“The Best Online Reservation System”). In addition to delivering reservation services, mobile applications developed by the competitors provide their customers with the information on open and closing times as well as special offers. However, none of those applications allow their users to browse wait times.
The company’s app will redefine attributes such as quality and excellence in simplicity by providing its customers with seamless user experience. E-spoon app will have the following features that are conspicuously missing from similar offerings by the company’s competitors:
- A paid feature that allows booking a spot on the line and skipping the line for.
- Wait tables.
- Siri, Cortana, and Google Now components for blind customers.
- Diet plans based on customers’ food preferences.
Web Design
Yelp Reservations app is one of the easiest booking apps on the market. Figure 1 shows the web design of the Yelp Reservations app.
Similarly to UrbanSpoon, OpenTable, and Zomato apps, the reservation system allows customers to make bookings using their smartphones (“How Much”). The app has a geolocation-based search that saves time for its users by sparing them from the necessity to enter a city of their residence. The user profile is another key feature that has to be a part of E-Spoon. It will allow the app users to store and review their photos as well as browse photos made by their friends (“How Much”). The design of the Yelp Reservations app also includes a review and rating feature that can potentially attract more customers. The analysis of the app suggests that the E-Spoon app should have a social sign-in option allowing its users to register through social media such as Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and Facebook among others. Other must-have features include, but are not limited to, video uploading, in-app purchases, filters integration, and activity stream.
E-Spoon will use two channels to connect its customers to the reservation services: a website, and a mobile app that can be launched on platforms such as iOS, Windows, and Android (“How Much”). By allowing the application to reside on PC and Mobile, the company will attract more customers and enhance their consumer experience.
Conclusion
The paper outlined a business proposal for a restaurant app that will include the following features: wait tables, diet plan suggestions, user profile, geolocation-based search, picture and video uploading, in-app purchases, filters integration, and activity stream among others.
Works Cited
“How Much does it Cost to Develop an App Like Yelp?” Cleveroad, 2017. Web.
“The Best Online Reservation System for Your Restaurant.” Restaurant Den, 2017. Web.