Technology is fundamentally improving, if not changing, the way many food businesses in Cebu are operating. Restaurant owners, inevitably have to face the fact that location and quality of food are not the only things that matter to their clients, especially the young ones perpetually holding their mobile phones wherever they go.
Nowadays, owners have to realize that delivery of customer service does not start at the moment a customer steps into the restaurant’s intricately-carved door; it starts when they are attached to their glowing tablets or smartphones, downloading mobile applications, and inquiring about your food on social media. And, at the time they are doing this, they could be anywhere—in the comfort of their beds or slouching behind office computers half listening to the ticking clock or inside public vehicles fiddling with their mobile devices.
Wise restaurant proprietors are aware of this scenario. They are also conscious of the fact that the rate of mobile adoption in the 21^st century is outpacing both the Personal Computer revolution of the 1980s and the Internet Boom of the 1990s (source: International Data Corporation). Essentially, this means that restaurants have to be on mobile, if they want to stand a chance in increasing customer satisfaction and engagement and strengthening their brands.
In Cebu, several restaurants have signed up to be part of MyAPPetite (on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MyAPPetitePH), an Android app and browser-based restaurant reservation system developed by global IT services and solutions company Alliance Software, Inc.



Some of these restaurants include Chika-an sa Cebu in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City and Golden Cowrie Native Restaurant in Banilad, Robinson Cybergate, Mactan Marina Mall, SM City Cebu, and Barangay Lahug; and Hukad sa Golden Cowrie in Parkmall.
Customers who want to eat in these restaurants need not make a telephone call to make table reservations. They simply use the MyAPPetite app or log on to www.myappetite.com.ph to get table reservations done in one go.
Apart from that, users of the app can search for restaurants near them, post reviews, and be updated of promos.
MyAPPetite is fairly new, having been founded in December 2013 yet. Still, the potential for it to grow is remarkable as a report from Gartner predicts that mobile apps will be downloaded more than 268 billion times by 2017.
Gartner Research Director Brian Blau hinted that mobile apps have become the official channel to drive content and services to consumers, and “as users continue to adopt and interact with apps, it is their data—what they day, what they do, where they go—that is transforming the app interaction paradigm.”
These figures are encouraging food businesses across the world to maximize existing platforms like MyAPPetite to further revolutionize how they do business with the radically changing times.
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(Featured image source: etfliveandlearn.eu)