The Latest Website Apps to Wow Your Customers

In our increasingly digital world, your modern diners not only expect you to have a website, but they want the perfect experience when they come to visit.

Your customers expect your website to be mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, intuitive, clean, and with a few unexpected ways to interact.

The best restaurant websites nurture current customers while enticing new customers to stick around and place an order or stop in. (tweet this)

An engaging website with an exceptional user experience can do all of these things for your restaurant. To help you, we look at the latest website apps to wow your customers and keep them coming back to your website again and again.

LiveChat Software

Offering instant messaging through live chat software can be a terrific thing for your restaurant website as this often results in an increase in orders.

One study found that more than 90% of users actually want to use this option when they have a question and prefer it to picking up the phone.

Imagine the customer interested in ordering one of your dishes, but they are on the fence because they aren’t sure what’s in the sauce. With instant messaging, they can get their question answered and proceed to your online ordering system.

LiveChat is a some of the best live chat software for businesses. Why? It’s easy to use.

You can add it to your WordPress site in minutes. Then, with many customization options and a mobile app, you’re ready to take customer service to new heights.

You’ll also find it integrates with most support software, your CRM, and email marketing service provider.

This is a top notch way to wow your customers.

Get LiveChat

OptinMonster

With OptinMonster, you can grow your email list quickly. This helps your increase your sales and your profits.

While some visitors to your website come to place an online order, others come to check out your menu, learn about your hours, and your address. For those online orders, you gain an email address you can continue to market to.

But, what about those other website visitors? They leave and go on their way. You don’t get their email, and you can’t remarket to them.

If you have OptinMonster installed on your website, you can effectively get email addresses from your website visitors.

The plugin is super easy to use, and you can create high-converting, beautiful pop-up forms on your website.

Their campaigns provide many options including onsite re-targeting and cookie re-targeting. Their software also integrates with your email marketing service provider, so the customers’ emails go right into your email.

You’ve likely set up an automation, so your customers can now receive a welcome email and consistent emails about promotions and events.

Our favorite feature? Grabbing customers as they get ready to leave with a pop-up. You can grab their email by offering a small discount in exchange for their email.

Get OptinMonster

RafflePress

Many restaurants see a lot of success by offering giveaways on their websites (and social media platforms).

We like RafflePress because it’s a great way to increase your email subscriber list by running contests and having giveaways.

RafflePress is multi-faceted in that you can host these on your own website and social media pages. It also lets your followers and your website visitors get multiple contest entries for completing different tasks.

Another easy to use plugin, it offers a drag and drop builder. Use it to create an enticing giveaway that encourages your website visitors to provide you with their email.

Like the others mentioned here, RafflePress integrates with most email marketing service providers and CRM software.

You’ll increase engagement on your website by hosting contests. You can send people to your website through your social media platforms as well.

Your website traffic increases as people can refer friends, and they visit multiple times to enter.

Get Raffle Press

TrustPulse

Another way to wow your customers is with reviews.

You’ve probably seen those little popups on websites that say something like, “Susie just purchased the embroidered jeans.”

Wouldn’t it be great if your website had a popup that said, “Bob just purchased the steak with a Caesar salad and chocolate cake?”

Why is this important? Today’s website visitors care about what others think. They want social proof. They want to know that other people are ordering food from you and liking it.

TrustPulse provides them with this information.

While this isn’t a plugin, it’s just as simple to use. Just insert a bit of code on your website, and your website visitors will start seeing real-time diner activity notifications on your website with pretty little activity bubbles.

TrustPulse gives your restaurant instant credibility, thus increasing your sales.

Get TrustPulse

Envira Gallery

Your potential diners want to see images of your food. This plugin helps you create beautiful, responsive galleries that take it one step further.

Using Envira Gallery, you can create albums of your menu items, open your images in popups, and more.

It also allows you the ability to create an SEO friendly gallery with deep linking and pagination.

Eating is sensory experience harnessing the power of many senses. Using the Envira Gallery, you’re harnessing the power of the visual sense. You can create stunning galleries of your food that beg website visitors to purchase.

Get Envira Gallery

Referral Candy

With this plugin, you can reward your loyal diners with coupons, sales, promotions, and free menu items for referring their friends.

Another easy to use plugin with ready to go widgets, you can reward your most important customers. Plus, you provide new customers with more social proof that your restaurant is beloved in the community.

Word of mouth referrals have a great effect on diners. Your customers want to know someone else values you. When they receive the referral from your current customer (their friend, family member or co-worker), they’ll feel compelled to trust you, too,  and want to try your food.

In addition, you show your loyal customers your appreciation.

Get Referral Candy

Final Thoughts

Adding enticing website features to your website increases the overall user experience. By improving this, you improve your customers’ views of your restaurant, and even its food. (tweet this)

You can add a plethora of functionality to your website by using some of these website apps. You’ll wow your customers, improve the overall customer experience, and in turn increase your bottom line.

With a better user experience comes higher engagement. With more engagement, you’re reaching a broader audience and building quality relationships.

Ultimately, when you improve your website experience, your restaurant grows exponentially.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that drives business to your restaurant and edges you above the competition by using mobile-friendly design with a terrific user experience. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: Austin Distel and Fábio Alves on Unsplash