Business owners managing their own cafés, restaurants, or coffee shops need no introduction to Square.
The payment processor has reported consistent increases in revenue year-over-year since its inception, and for good reason—it’s an innovative system that breathes new life into a static business model.
We certainly attribute Square’s success to its innovative nature; one of its key value propositions has always been its convenience for both consumers and business owners. It’s a flexible way to standardize payments, coordinate assets, and provide a natural and seamless customer experience for shoppers.
Of course, Square has been around for a while. Businesses wanting to stay on top of the payments game need more. They need solutions that haven’t yet become the standard—it’s the only way to provide unforgettable customer experiences.
And in terms of innovative payment strategies, there’s no better option than a dedicated Square Mobile Order Ahead App branded and tailored specifically to your business.
Isn’t the Square Online Store the Same Thing?
Let’s clear up one bit of confusion right off the bat. Square does offer an Online Store for its users, but this option is a far cry from a dedicated mobile order ahead application.
The Square Online Store works great as a makeshift way to bring your products online, but it’s not the most elegant solution. When you build a store, you have to re-enter all of your store’s inventory into the online database, which can become quite labor-intensive—particularly for restaurants and cafés that frequently update their offerings.
It’s also somewhat limiting in the number of details that you can add for each item, which can create situations wherein users are unfamiliar with what to do and how to proceed in the store. In many cases, this leads to them disregarding the Online Store altogether.
Yes, it’s a good start for bridging your physical and digital customer experiences, but businesses that want to create unforgettable customer experiences need to push further.
Order Ahead Apps Keep Your Customers Happy
When it comes to the customer experience in hospitality, there’s no better solution than letting customers order ahead. Customers have always loved the convenience of ordering what they want, when they want, and being able to do so through their favorite channels.
Mobile ordering is one of the best examples of this type of service. Mobile technology has finally become widespread enough to make mobile ordering a viable option for nearly any restaurant that wants to get customers in and out fast. Unfortunately, these efficiency goals often conflict with industry-wide mandates, such as the recent push in the U.S. to adopt EMV credit card processing as the national standard.
Square surveyed 1,000 consumers back in 2016 and found that 37 percent of consumers were frustrated by the way EMV chip cards slowed down their checkout experience. In fact, slow transaction times were the number one complaint users had with chip cards.
Of course, customer security is a top priority for any business, but there has to be a middle ground between security and efficiency.
Mobile Ordering Supports the Customer Experience
This is where order ahead solutions—such as the Square Mobile Order Ahead App—come back into play. According to what we know about industry-wide trends in hospitality, mobile order ahead apps present powerful business opportunities to companies that use them.
Consider research gathered by Wi-Q Technologies. Their data describes how 94 percent of Millennial consumers already use their smartphones inside restaurants, cafés, bars, and coffee shops. They also found that a majority of these consumers would like to have the option to order food ahead of time for delivery or takeout from their mobile devices.
But the desire to skip the lines is more than just a trend for the impatient—the ability to get in and out quickly is fast becoming a competitive differentiator for businesses.
Business Insider Intelligence predicts that mobile ordering will represent a $38 billion industry by 2020, with mobile order ahead apps encompassing over 10 percent of all quick service restaurant (QSR) sales. This trend maps out to an impressive five-year annual compound growth rate of 57 percent—one heck of a boost for the slow-moving payments processing industry. Business Insider offers insight into why mobile order ahead is taking hold so fast:
“…mobile ordering is not a simple substitution for in-store purchasing, but a channel that can enhance the lifetime value of QSR customers. This makes mobile order-ahead a critical channel contributing to the growth of the QSR industry.”
With that in mind, we have to ask why so few companies are taking advantage of this—particularly those that rely on Square for the bulk of their payments processing. In truth, we expect it’s because there just weren’t many mobile ahead ordering solutions available on the market until recently.
However, thanks to PoppinPay, businesses that utilize Square can easily break into this market and reap the ROI of these new solutions.
Your Business Needs to Get On Board With Mobile Order Ahead
Dedicated mobile ordering apps are strategically designed to drive ROI for businesses.
While any customer can use these apps, they’re most commonly used by engaged customers who are already loyal to the brand. These are the audience segments who will be most receptive to deals, promotions, and upsells made at the point-of-purchase.
According to research sponsored by GrubHub, restaurants that used online ordering were able to grow their takeout revenue by as much as 30 percent. And as of now, PoppinPay is the only mobile order ahead solution on the market that integrates directly with Square’s point-of-sale system.
This partnership let’s businesses build a custom Square Mobile Order Ahead App that are tailored to their unique brand identities. These applications sync directly with Square and even let customers redeem loyalty rewards directly from the application.
But really, these benefits only scratch the surface of what a Square Mobile Order Ahead App can do for your business. To learn more, check out the details. A stronger ROI and better customer experience are at your fingertips—and they’re easier to find than you think.