What do people mostly do when they are hungry? If we answer this question taking recent scenarios into account, they simple pick up their mobile and order something to eat.
With a huge chunk of young professionals, especially in metropolitan cities, the online food ordering industry has been emerging day by day. Being on a hectic schedule, people may not get enough time to cook food or go out to eat. Under such a case, they directly opt for a simpler and quicker option of opening their mobile, open an online food ordering application, and order food with plenty of options to order from, within almost no time.
Now we can safely say that gone are the days where you had to think a lot before cooking something special for yourself or get ready and step out of the comfort of your home to eat something good. Instead of following your mother or grandmother’s recipe and toil for several hours in the kitchen to finally eat that special food.
With changed circumstances, you just need your phone to order your favorite food (or anything you feel like eating) from your favorite restaurant barring any hassle.
Make Your Own Food Delivery Application
If you aren’t convinced yet, here is a list of advantages and reason for why you should be ordering food online:
- Vast variety of choices available
- Convenient use of the food ordering application
- Convenience of getting your favorite food from your favorite restaurant at your doorstep
- Real Time updates regarding the timings of the restaurant, reviews, ratings, and where your ordered food exactly is in the process of delivering
- Discounts and Offers which you may not get if you are dining out
- Hassle-free payment options
Following is a guide on how a person must go step-by-step while using an online food delivery application. This guide is focused on providing direction for 4 users who will use this application from 4 very different platforms. These 4 users are as listed below:
- Customer
- Restaurant Manager
- Admin
- Delivery Person
Here Are The Step By Step Guide How Does Food Ordering App Work
How Does Food Ordering App Work For for Customer
A customer definitely don’t have any access to the back panel of the food ordering app, however, the customer panel of the application plays the most important part in the whole processing of the business. If the customer panel isn’t working well, other three panels come to a standstill. Whenever a new customer visits the application or an existing customer visits, if their experience while on the application isn’t smooth, even if they have placing order on their mind, the probability is that they will leave your application without placing an order. Under such a case, they may not even visit your application ever again.
The above stated situation very clearly states the important of the smooth functioning of customer panel for an online food ordering application.
The steps that a customer follows while going through the application are as follows:
Step 1: Open Application
Even before your customer goes through your application, you need to reach out to the customer, making them aware of your application. Your reach should be strong enough to make the potential customers take on the hassle of downloading your application and use it. There are vast number of online and offline marketing strategies that a business follows to reach their pool of potential customers.
Step 2: Check Availability
Whenever a user visits your application for the first time, it is not necessary that they are visiting to directly place the order. Most of the time, they visit twice or thrice just to check the features your application is providing. They mostly check the restaurants you have listed on your application. Apart from that, the features that work as a major attraction for the customers include Banner Creative (this can include ongoing offers, discounts, and more), recommended restaurants from nearby areas along with their details like images, title, description, rating, reviews, and number of reviews
Step 3: Add/Change Location
Whenever a customer is visiting a food ordering application, two possibilities come up. One, they are ordering food to their own location and two, they are ordering food for someone else to a different location. If they are ordering to their own location, they simply turn their location on and the application with capture their current location and deliver to the location.
On the other hand, if they are ordering food to a different location, then they have an option manually add the address and the application will show food options delivered to the mentioned location.
Step 4: Search Categories
If a customer doesn’t find what they need on the recommended restaurant list, it means they are looking for something very specific. Under such a case the users can visit the search page, put filters according to their choices and go through the categories and restaurants that come up.
Step 5: Add to Cart
Once the user lands on their selected restaurant page, they can start adding food items to the cart. The customers also have an option to choose add-ons (for instance, extra cheese, quantity, and more), and add them to the cart. For convenience in the future, they can add the restaurant to their wish list.
Step 6: Check out
Once the user has everything they want from the restaurant added to their cart, the next process is to check out and make the payment. The users have the option of making the payment either online (Cards, Wallets, or online transfers) or through COD (Cash on Delivery)
Step 7: Tracking
When the order is successfully placed, all that a user can do is wait for their order to be delivered. During this process, the user can get the live updates about where the order is in the process of delivery. Once the order is out for delivery, they can also track their order and the delivery person on the map.
Step 8: Post-Order Activities
After a successful order delivery, the customer get the option to view their order in the history section. In the future, whenever they wish, they have an option to repeat the order. The users can also add rating and reviews for the food they ordered or the restaurant they ordered from.
How Does Food Ordering App Work for Restaurant Manager
Following are the steps that a Restaurant Manager performs when a customer places an order with them through the application:
Step 1: Restaurant Gets Notification
Once the customer successfully places an order, the restaurant manager receives a notification. It is the restaurant manager’s responsibility to be active on the panel and respond to the order soon as they can. The manager can click on the notification and the restaurant panel will open up. Now the restaurant can either accept or reject the order.
Step 2: Order Book Page
The next step is to open the Order Book Page. All the completed orders are listed under Completed Orders section and the new order will appear under the Running Orders section.
Step 3: Check Details
Open the order under Running Orders section and check the details. The details important for the restaurant manager include items ordered, quantity, price paid or payable, and mode of payment.
Step 4: Update Status
The restaurant manager is required to update on all stages that an order goes through on the restaurant panel of the application. The stages include:
- Order Received
- Order Dispatched
- On the way (with live tracking facility for the customer)
- Delivered (this update is made by the driver / delivery person)
How Does Food Ordering App Work For Admin
Following are the steps that Admin performs when a customer places an order on the app:
Step 1: Admin gets Notification
Just when the restaurant gets a notification a new order, at the same time, the Admin receives the similar notification. The Admin has a liberty to accept or decline the order. The admin can also check the details that the restaurant receives. Additionally, they can accept or reject the order even on the behalf of the restaurant.
Step 2: Assign Delivery Boy
The admin has the delivery to decide whether the delivery person will be assigned automatically or manually. If they opt for Manual Assignment, then admin or sub-admin (dispatcher) will select which delivery boy to select from list of nearby delivery boys (with filters)
Step 3: Tracking
Admin has the authority to track complete order stages and delivery boy on the map when the order is out for delivery. They can check delivery stages and delivery boy's delivery graphs.
How Does Food Ordering App Work For Delivery Person
Following are the steps that Delivery Person performs when a restaurant manager or admin assigns them to deliver the order placed on the app:
Step 1: Accept / Decline Delivery
Once a delivery boy is selected to deliver the order to the provided location, they receive a notification on their panel. Now it is dependent on the delivery boy to accept or decline the task.
Step 2: Check Items
If the driver accepts the task, they reach the restaurant location to pick up the order. They check the number of items and tally it with the details they have received on their panel.
Step 3: Manage Cash Orders
In case of COD (Cash on Delivery) orders, the delivery person collects the cash payment from the customers. Thus, it is their responsibility to manage cash orders with IOU system. This system calculates all cash orders at the end of the day which is displayed on the Delivery Boy, Admin, and Restaurant Owner’s Panel.
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