Millions of people swear by apps like Zomato and Food Panda. Thanks to these apps, people have explored food from restaurants and cafés right at the comfort of their home. The reviews have further helped people in deciding a perfect go-to place for their eating out plans. But recently the individual restaurants have launched their own apps. What do these apps help in? Especially, when places like the Beer Café launch their app.
Guardian 20 spoke to a few restaurant and café owners to understand what exactly these apps help in for delivery is mostly not the option there. In the words of Joy Singh, co-partner, Raasta Delhi & Mumbai, “We have taken one more step to keep the patrons updated about what has been brewing at Raasta HQ! To capture the cyberspace, we have launched the mobile app: Raasta Lounge. It is not just a usual app; it is a loyalty e-card on the go with some amazing offers in store. The app is super accessible and works on the point-system which has been infamously renamed as Raasta Joints that are redeemable at Raasta Hauz Khas Village, CyberHub and the recently launched Raasta Mumbai. One just has to scan the bill with the built-in scanner to earn the loyalty points.”
In metropolis India when a new bar or café pop up every day these owners have found a new way of promoting bar loyalty and patronage. “The Beer Cafe app was designed and created to engage customers, drive loyalty and grow revenue. The user interface is clean and simple with graphics that tempt you to head on over for a chilled mug. It offers a personal channel of communication to interact with customers and receive their feedback. We also announce offers, promote events, update menu, give directions to stores and monetise the brand via push notifications.
Not just this the app also allows customers to buy a range of merchandise as well. “One can also buy Beeroshere range of merchandise from the app. The program is designed to reward loyal beer patrons with gifts worth upto 30% of the amount spent. To use the program, a customer has to simply download the Beer Café app, visit the Brew Miles section and scan the QR code on the receipt to ‘Earn’ points- one point for each rupee spent. Points earned can then be ‘burnt’ or redeemed with one-click for a variety of rewards listed in Redeem section listed within the app. Accumulate enough points and you could also redeem it for a mug/ pitcher of popular domestic and international draught beers!” says Rahul Singh, Founder and CEO, The Beer Café.
“Our app is based on all this kind of research and we are quite sure that people will really like it as compared to all these other app out there.”
But why have individual apps and not tie up with the pre-existing ones? To this Sahil Gupta, co-owner TabulaBeach 2.0 says, “Our app’s name is Eat. Drink. Play. is going to be very unique and different from all the other apps that are out there. Eat. Drink. Play. users will get benefits/offers from this app that are not available on any other app. there are many offers, some very fun and exciting things, which I can’t mention but they are going to be a surprise element and no other app can bring any of these things. We have very different brands which we don’t wanna get lost among whole lot of brands out there and we feel that people who like our restaurants will definitely want to download our app. We have made sure of that, we have done whole lot of research, as to what kind of apps are downloaded by people and whether they would like to use such an app or not. Our app is based on all this kind of research and we are quite sure that people will really like it as compared to all these other app out there.”
Since almost all café owners understand this and have started coming up with their own apps how does one make their own app more exciting or popular? “With the competition rising, Raasta Lounge app is one of its kind, One can avail Raasta specials and signature drinks, Its user friendly. With the change in trends, we plan to move along with it by bringing more exciting offers for our users and continue to bring new things to indulge people to use the app even more,” says Joy Singh of Raasta.
He further added, “Raasta Lounge app is available on Android and IOS and within a month has over 1000 installs. The response has been great. Every app user has started redeeming their points, there have been guests who have more than 1Lakh Raasta Joints(Points), which they can redeem anytime and avail Bongtails and other drinks available on offer.”