Mobile applications and its users have been steadily rising in number, with time and popularity of the mobile apps. With larger variety of apps setting in, it has become inevitable for the mobile apps to ensure customer engagement and user retention, in order to boost the success of the mobile apps being offered. Restaurant apps are one of the most popular among the mobile apps available and used by customers most often, than any other app. According to a research, it has been seen that more than 80% of the mobile app users abandon the mobile apps, in less than three days, after one usage. With hampers the success of the mobile apps to a great extent, since the retention of the customers have a major and significant role to play in the success of the mobile apps as well as business. This issue can be seen as a  major gap between the high expectations of the customers and lack of fulfillment of those expectations by the mobile app companies.

The question still persists, how to ensure app engagement and user retention in order to boost success of a restaurant app. Some restored to push notifications, while others tend to rely on email marketing or loyalty points. Let’s take an in-depth analysis to highlight all the possible ways to ensure app engagement and user retention, in order to boost the business and ensure effectiveness of the restaurant mobile apps.

Push notifications
This is one of the most conventional ways of customer engagement and retention, that has been used traditionally for a long time. Push notifications offer your customers with the latest discounts, sale, new launches for the company, such that the customers are always updated and connected with the company. This might interest the customers to stay connected with the app, in order to avail the latest discounts and get the latest products that are offered. This acts as one of the most tried and tested methods of customer engagement, helping the business to reach new heights of success, with ensuring customer retention.

However, a word of caution, sending too many push notifications to install and use the app, might be annoying, resulting in increased number of uninstalls and deflected customers than engagement.

Loyalty points
One of the most trending methods of customer engagement and retention is the loyalty points. Offering loyalty points can be a successful strategy for retaining customers and ensuring customer engagement. Loyalty points are special benefits given to the loyal customers, for their extended and extensive buying, using the restaurant mobile app.

Offering loyalty points is beneficial for the success of the company, since the customers will buy more, in order to effectively utilize their earned loyalty points, thus giving business to the company. This goes on as a cycle, where the customers buy to earn more loyalty points and then buy again to use those points and get the benefits. This is one of the key ingredients to boost the success of the restaurant app, with effective user retention.

Personalized and rich experience
Customers always prefer rich and personalised experience, while using the mobile apps, be it online food ordering, grocery delivery, parcel or any other service. Personalization includes offering the suggestions of the foods, restaurants that the customers have previously searched or ordered from. The mobile apps should be capable of tracking the ordering trend of the customers to offer discounts and new launches for those particular restaurants. This addresses the need for the personalized experience that the online restaurant apps should offer.

Moreover, along with personalized experience, seamless working of the app is also one of the most desired feature of the restaurant app, for customer retention as well as customer engagement. Hence, along with personalized experience, rich and seamless operations are also desired for a good mobile app, capable of adding to the success of the company.

Easy on boarding
On boarding the potential users on your app, is one of the essential steps that determines the success of your mobile app. This is one of the most initial stages in which the customer gets the first impression of the mobile app, that the person is about to use. Users and potential customers are not likely to have a great experience, if the start is a bad one. It is important that the following steps are successfully carried out as a hassle-free on-boarding process.

i. Make the logins and account creation a simple process, with quick OTP validation and less number of fill in forms. Offer a flexible and multi-channel sign-up option with popular social networking login-ids. This will simplify the process, thus helping the customers with easier and faster login.

ii. Help your customers with user guides, if they are using the app for the very first time. Guide them in every stage, instead of briefing them all in one go.

iii. Do not overburden your potential customers with huge amount of information at a time. Doing so will confuse the customers and might end up in stopping to use the mobile app and uninstall it.

Product iteration
One of the most commonly found out reason for the users to uninstall and desolate a mobile app is lack of new and interesting features for the app. Keep your customers engaged with new product features and iterations coming in. This keeps the customers engaged and thus retains them successfully. Customers love to explore new features and make themselves delighted with surprises offered by the app.

Offering the best of the features right at the beginning and offering no more updates for a long time is not a good marketing strategy and not at all effective for customer retention and customer engagement. Catch up with the feedbacks and expectations of your customers on a regular basis. Let them know that you working on their requests and feedbacks. These are proven to enhance customer engagement as well as customer retention.

Offer what you commit
One of the key factors that needs to be taken care is that you offer your customers what you commit. Deflecting from what you commit can prove to be a major reason of losing your customers. Commit to your customers, when you are confirm to provide what is being committed. Moreover, before you actually come up with a surprise offer for the customers, increase their curiosity and interest by sending notifications without revealing the actual deal. This results in increased curiosity along with the customers referring their friends and relatives to install and use the app, such that they are also able to grab the attractive offer.

Tactful pricing
The pricing strategy of the business should be strategic. Tactful pricing includes increasing the price and then offering huge discounts to highlight the huge offers and discounts that are given to the customers, who are using the mobile app. Tactful pricing helps the customers to stay tuned to the mobile apps, thus ensuring customer retention and customer engagement.

Retention and engagement of the customers are two major lifelines of the any business be it restaurant or any other. Without these it is almost impossible to make the mobile app as well as the business sustainable. Engagement of the customers help the business to gain more customers, spreading the wings of business successfully. Restaurant business and mobile apps have a huge competition in the market. Hence, sustainability is a major issue, without effective customer engagement as well as retention.