The restaurant business is one of ups and downs, drops in business and bumps in stock prices – or vice versa. Running a Beer Garden is no different, especially those that offer a food menu as well as the beer menu. However, modern technologies offer new tools to help restaurants succeed, including mobile apps.

Today, we want to focus on the very specific intersection between App technology and Beer Gardens. Why? For a couple reasons:

1. Mobility is key in this new world (aka Mobile First). Already there are billions of SmartPhone users and as much of the developing world comes online, they are entirely bypassing stationary devices (i.e. laptops) in favor of Smartphones/Tablets. An app is the best way to reach the biggest consumer market. Plus app technology today is amazing and offers the Business Processes Management we want in addition to the consumer-facing interface.

2. Beer Gardens, like Mobile Apps, are a Growth Market; in 2000, Beer Gardens weren’t even on the radar of most US citizens. Today there are some 5,000+. Anyone who lives in Silicon Valley can relate to this. Additionally, Beer Gardens especially attract Millennials; and Millennials are quick to adopt new technologies.

So let’s talk about the common problems a burgeoning beer garden may face and how an app can help mitigate these problems, while solving even more problems. As a caveat, we will break this down into 2 main sections: Consumer-side and Business-side. However we recommend developing a single app, with at least 3 distinct interfaces (Consumer, Business, Admin). It save you money, time, and creates a more seamless system for your business.

Also, please keep in mind, this can all be extrapolated to almost any business or sector – contact us now to learn more.

Consumer-Facing

As anyone who has ever worked in a consumer facing business can tell you, customers are a fickle beast. Bar owners spend a lot of money trying to keep updated menus (beer and food), possibly even offering forms of entertainment, or Tap Takeovers (where a specific brewery takes over all or the majority of taps at a bar). And, unfortunately, this often goes wasted. Weekdays especially are hard on business, especially ones that focus on selling alcohol. In general, people are less likely to go out during the week.

Look, we’re techies, so let’s put our techie spin on this: essentially the problem is a lack of foot traffic, or as we refer to in the tech world, User Engagement. When we look at the problem like this, the value of a mobile app becomes clear; reminding users that you exist. The good news is that the nature of a beer garden plays well into user engagement.

Most Beer Gardens have to constantly rotate taps and since most of them support local breweries, there is always something new. An app can help drive traffic by informing customers who have your app when you have a new beer being tapped. This also works for food menu updates, tap takeovers, live entertainment, et cetera.

Further engagement methods could include offering discounts or promos, offering information on the world of beer, even driving in-app merch purchases. Plus, you can use it as an in-store payment portal. Customers can place their order with you and automatically pay through their phone. No more leaving cards behind for customers – and no open tabs at the end of the night for you.

Obviously, consumer facing apps can do a lot more than what we discussed above but, alas, we should move on to how an app can help grow your Beer Garden by improving business processes – and the power of AI.

Business Growth

Apps for business growth are quickly becoming an exceptionally powerful tool in the kits of entrepreneurs and CEOs everywhere. A Beer Garden is no different: restaurateurs need to manage their employees, inventory, utilities, and so on. An app for business can help with onboarding, scheduling, reservations, inventory management, and so on.

But let’s take this a step further: using Machine Learning and AI, Beer Gardens that serve food can revolutionize their process. One of the challenges of serving food is offering quality meals, with good ingredients. Also important is menu freshness. The target market for a Beer Garden is especially fond of menus that are changed pretty frequently.

One of the benefits of AI is it’s ability to pull and process information from thousands of data points. So imagine an app that tells it chef that one of the local farms is having a deal on brussel sprouts soon. Or that beef prices are about to drop – after all predictive analysis is one of the crucial benefits of AI.

This can help a Chef create hip and fresh ingredients without paying an arm and a leg. Chef Watson even demonstrates that AI is capable of suggesting unique Beer-Food pairings based off the beers you currently have on tap.

Hopefully we’ve successfully demonstrated some effective ways that an app can help grow what is already a growth enterprise. So if you own a Beer Garden, why not call us at 408.805.0495 or 408.621.8481 for a free consultation (or click to contact us). Don’t own a Beer Garden? There’s nothing to stop you from creating an app and selling it to restaurants. In fact, it is a superb way to make a lot of money!