Your restaurant’s website is a hub for discovering and keeping loyal customers, so make it easy to find (and even easier to use). Click here to learn more.
Thinking about the user experience is key. To get started on your UX audit and truly get in the shoes of your customers, check out your mobile and desktop website. Launch your website on two different devices of your choosing (ex. tablet, cell phone, desktop/laptop) and note what the experience is like on them. Are they the same? Are there images, graphics, or actions that are unavailable in either version? These user experience walk-throughs are completely transparent and show where the cracks of your company funnel could be and, most importantly, help you see what to fix on a regular basis.
This is one of the free and easy ways to start an internal review. This information will provide you with a check and balance to ensure you are not your company’s own worst enemy by preventing/losing purchases on your own website because of a lengthy or difficult customer journey.
“Most users (over 70%) visiting QSR sites are on a mobile device. The site must make it easy for mobile users to view the menu, find a location and place an online order,” says Jeff Putnam, UX Lead at Investis Digital.
A simple fix that could help your website rank higher all surrounds how efficiently the process on your website is and you can even compare your current site map to our best practices when hosting tons of creative content.
Here are the Dos and Don’ts of maintaining a good overall Mobile UX for restaurants:
THE MUST HAVES...
- Make it responsive, meaning the page design is fluid or that it fluctuates between desktop, tablet, and mobile devices to fit each screen properly but keeps the original features and design. Like dining in an actual restaurant, digital experiences should create an atmosphere that is organized, highly visual, and inviting—no matter where you’re sitting.
- Keep up with your competitors on the paid media front. Paid media is the most cost-effective way to get content and promotions to potential customers. With more users online than ever before, paid advertising has become an extremely competitive channel. Paid media is often a pay-to-play game, so, enter into it with a flexible budget.
- Invest in local SEO and keywords. This has been the most effective and affordable way to promote QSR and fast-casual restaurants for years, and the space has only become more competitive. In today’s business climate, a planned and optimized SEO strategy is a must-have for restaurants. In 2021, US local eating and drinking services invested 10.9 percent of their digital services budgets in SEO, and this number will only rise as the race for digital space continues.
- Make things easier to find. Most users are visiting restaurant sites with their mobile devices. Potential customers are on the go, and they rely on their smartphones for “near me” searches. With the importance of mobile experience in mind, it’s not enough for restaurant websites to include the important information; it needs to be easy to find for the user. Some quick ways to bolster your restaurant’s Google search presence are to claim your online listings (On Facebook, Yelp, Google, etc.) and show off your reviews (which can boost conversions by 270%).
THE MUST FIXES...
- No calls to action? Calls to action (CTAs) are an absolute prerequisite to driving online orders and other conversions. If your restaurant website lacks clear CTAs, you are missing out on conversions.
- Missing location information? Including location information provides a double benefit. Location information is crucial to users and search engines alike. Google wants to connect users with restaurants near them, and missing location information creates a poor user experience for users and signals low quality to Google.
- Difficult to order online? Friction-free ordering is more important than ever. COVID-19 caused a clear uptick in online orders, and any difficulty with ordering results in lost conversions. While those who invested in easy-to-use apps and pick-up saw the biggest conversion rates, from cart to customer.
How do you measure the success of your restaurant’s mobile design?
According to the UserZoom “State of UX Survey 2022,” 63 percent of UX professionals mark customer satisfaction as the most important indicator of good user experience design. Great design starts with listening to your users’ concerns—whether that’s through reviews, ratings, or customer service feedback—and adjusting accordingly.
In the same survey, UX professionals cited business metrics, like sales retention and product or site analytics as the most valuable signs of smooth UX performance. Having a robust system for reporting and analytics is key to evaluating the overall success of your mobile design.
Other factors like your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and composite UX metrics are additionally valuable in quantifying the success rate of your user’s journey through your site or app. A system usability scale (SUS), for example, allows you to gauge a system’s efficacy/ease of use through 10 survey questions. There are many tests like this that can be used to evaluate the usability of and intuitiveness of your design.
Contact Investis Digital
Ready to upgrade your customer’s digital experience? Get in touch with one of our restaurant experts or learn more about our Web Design and Development services here.