Fast Casual: Learning From the Best and the Worst Restaurant Apps

The unfortunate reality is that most fast casual restaurant chains have not yet risen to the expectations of their mobile customers, even though one in four U.S. consumers have at least one restaurant app on their phone, according to RetailMeNot. I recently completed an exhaustive study of the top 100 restaurant chains – including fast, fast casual and casual dining – and learned that nearly half (45) of them didn’t even have a native app. Customers today expect richer, location-based and transactional engagement and aren’t satisfied with a mobile website that just displays locations and a menu. I went through more than 1 million app reviews and gleaned some lessons for fast casual restaurants looking to create a native app or boost their app’s rating.

Top restaurant apps make profits inevitable

When done right, an effective mobile app profoundly impacts the bottom line. Consider these facts:

Starbucks’ mobile app accounted for 21 percent of its Q1 U.S. transactions. Its top feature—Mobile Order & Pay—represents 10 percent of total transactions at high-volume Starbucks stores, directly contributing to increased sales

Domino’s supports payment across 15 platforms, including Apple Watch, Amazon Echo and Samsung TV. More than half of U.S. sales are driven through digital

Taco Bell experiences 20 percent higher average orders on mobile than in-store purchases

These success stories prove that restaurants win when brands match and surpass consumer expectations.

The good news for fast casual restaurant owners that launched native apps is that customers are gravitating toward them. Fast casual chains even beat fast food chains as the highest-rated restaurant type with an average score of 49 out of 100. But while customers liked fast casual apps more, fast food companies are dominating revenue generation.