Why Your Restaurant Is Crazy To Not Be Mobile

Chris Towland

If you’re a restaurant owner, chances are that you have a smart phone, a tablet or other device that you use to stay connected and interact with your customers.

But are you doing enough to make sure you’re mobile-optimized? For an entrepreneur, especially those with a small or mid-sized business, it is important to be plugged into the growing mobile industry in every way possible.

Smart Phones and Mobile Devices are the way of the future.

Currently 91% of Americans use cell phones, and the number of those people who have smart phones is growing exponentially every year. 34% of Americans currently go online primarily using a mobile phone or smart phone. That is a huge number, considering how just a few short years ago you could only access the web via a computer. Of those same people who use their phone to surf the web, 30% of them use their phone to do business, shop, choose restaurants and more.

One final statistic: 87% of all connected devices, such as smart phones, tablets or other mobile devices, will be mobile by 2017, with laptop and desktop computers only making up a tiny 13% of the market! Those are surprising statistics indeed, and they show just how rapidly new technology can grow.

So what does that mean for your business?

If you’re not optimized for mobile with a mobile website you may see your business suffer in the coming months or years. People are simply doing more business via their mobile devices, and having a website simply isn’t good enough anymore. Small businesses need to focus on mobile apps & mobile websites more than ever.

So how can you jump on the trend?

First and foremost, make sure that you yourself, as well as your employees, are mobile. If you don’t have a smart phone or other mobile device already, get one. Make sure you have access to the web, any apps you need and have mobile access to SMS and email. If you’re going to tap into the mobile market, you need to be accessible by mobile yourself.

Is your business mobile accessible?

Most businesses these days have a website, but is yours accessible by mobile devices and smart phones? If not, you need to change that. The majority of customers are now looking at your website NOT from a laptop or desktop, but from an iPhone or an Android, a tablet or some other mobile device. If your website isn’t optimized for their viewing, you could lose a customer.

Once you’ve made the decision to go mobile, you’ll need to create a mobile website.

This doesn’t need to be a costly exercise and you won’t need to change your existing website (unless you want to). The easiest and cheapest solution is to have a mobile version of your website alongside your existing site. What then happens is that anyone who views your site on a computer sees your original site, but anyone who views on a mobile phone will see the mobile version of the site which makes it very simple to find all the information they need and they can simply press one button to call you.