Apps For Bars – The Best Apps All Bars Need for Success
We present various categories of apps for bars that you can incorporate into your daily operations and use to forge long-lasting relationships with your customers.
In an age where digital presence is all that matters for your bar business, you must carve a sound online brand persona to stay competitive.
As a bar owner, you may boast of a user-friendly and vibrant website, but it doesn’t end there.
Your unique selling proposition lies in crafting amazing customer experiences and making their lives easier.
If you are a bar owner wondering if this is possible, it is.
How to leverage apps for bars to increase your bars chances of success
1. Do bar bands need an app?
2. Marketing/social media apps for bars
3. Ordering and payment bar apps
4. Accounting apps for bars
5. Loyalty reward apps
6. Staff communication apps
7. Stock tracking bar apps
8. Self-serve bar tap apps
9. Staff recognition apps
10. Data analytics apps
1. Do bar bands need an app?
Well, the simple and obvious answer is “Yes.”
Like customers of any product or service, bargoers wish to enjoy a comfortable and hassle-free experience of ordering, paying, or accessing services from their handheld devices.
Besides, as a bar owner, your tasks of tracking inventory, communicating with your staff, managing and processing your accounts—all this and more—get a lot easier with apps, relieving you of unnecessary stress and workload.
Apps for bars simplify your jobs, boost efficiency, reduce costs, and save time.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all app for all bars, check to see if you have these primary apps in your kitty:
2. Marketing/social media apps for bars
In today’s digitally interactive age, almost anyone can be found on a social media platform.
That said, carving out a solid digital presence on channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest is imperative.
With these apps in place for your bar, you move closer to your customers.
Say you post a video on Bloc about the Christmas celebration at your bar.
In no time, you will see hundreds of likes, shares, and comments on your post.
So, you are not just connected, but constantly engaged with your customers.
Besides, Instagram also offers the option of sharing Reels, which lets you bring forth your bar events, staff stories, and behind-the-scenes events, sparking excitement and interest among your customers.
Managing multiple social media accounts can be a daunting task. But with apps like Buffer, it’s a breeze.
This app allows you to track, analyse, monitor, and manage every social media platform from a single mobile app.
So you can stay on top of your social media game without feeling overwhelmed.
3. Ordering and payment bar apps
Bars need to keep channels open for customers to order and pay.
If your bar offers home deliveries, this makes still more sense.
In any case, with a majority of smartphone users, the importance of enabling an ordering and payment app can’t be overstated.
As the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated contactless delivery, these ordering apps gained more prominence.
Using bar apps like Order and Pay, your bar visitors can conveniently complete the process without any hassle of operating a payment device.
4. Accounting apps for bars
Profitable businesses are characterised by healthy balance sheets.
This means you must keep your accounts in place to ensure you stay successful.
While accounting is not everyone’s cup of tea, thanks to the plethora of accounting apps that make the job much easier.
Some favourites include Freshbooks, Quickbooks, and Restaurant365.
With these apps, you can take control of your finances, empowering you to make informed decisions and reduce unnecessary costs.
5. Loyalty reward apps
It’s an open secret that retaining existing customers requires you to invest less time and money than acquiring new ones.
Nevertheless, you must make some effort to retain them. This is where loyalty reward programs come in.
It is easier to appreciate and promote loyalty rewards when you have a loyalty reward app.
There are various such bar apps; a common example is the Eber loyalty program.
6. Staff communication apps
While there aren’t staff communication apps in a strict sense, tools like Slack come in handy.
It’s not mandatory, but if you need to manage diverse bar outlets that are locally dispersed, it makes sense to use such tools so that all your staff are in sync.
Your staff at various locations can send messages or emails and stay connected.
7. Stock tracking bar apps
It’s always good to stay updated on your inventory and costs to avoid surprises.
Some apps, like xtraCHEF, let you manage your inventory, process accounts, and manage expenses on the go.
Such tools also offer food costing analytics, which helps improve your buying practices and eliminate the risks of being under-stocked or over-stocked.
8. Self-serve bar tap apps
While this idea may only work for some bars, you are certainly in if you wish to cut down your staff.
An example is the PourMyBeer, a self-serve bar tap system that makes it convenient for guests to get their drinks.
9. Staff recognition apps
Rewards and recognition are powerful ways to keep your staff motivated.
While you may not always be available to pat a staff member on the back for their good work, you can opt for tools to help you with this.
Recognition tools like the Bonusly app let you award points to your staff, which you can later use to buy gifts, prizes, or other items for them.
Stay updated with new apps
In managing a bar, you rarely spend time on something like daily reading.
Nevertheless, it would be good if you could stay updated on your business trends.
Thanks to modern-day apps like Feedly, which offer access to millions of worldwide publications and keep you tuned to what’s happening in your industry.
10. Data analytics apps
In today’s data-driven world, understanding customer behavior and business performance is crucial.
Data analytics apps can provide invaluable insights to bars by collecting and analyzing various data points.
By tracking customer preferences, sales trends, and staff performance, bars can make informed decisions to optimize operations and increase revenue.
These apps can help identify peak hours, popular drink combinations, and customer demographics.
Additionally, they can track inventory levels, labor costs, and other key metrics to improve efficiency and reduce waste.
By leveraging data analytics, bars can gain a competitive edge and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
Wrapping up
With the digital era evolving to full throttle, businesses are vying to capture a larger share of the market by leveraging the robust forces of technology like user-friendly apps.
And that holds true for bars as well. Use the bar apps outlined in the blog to boost your efficiency and serve your customers to your full potential.