Toast Adds Branded Mobile App and SMS Marketing for Restaurants

Toast added a branded mobile app and SMS marketing features to its technology platform for restaurants.

These new mobile features are included in Toast’s Fall Product Release and are designed to help restaurants build new revenue streams, a stronger brand presence and a deeper connection with their guests, the company said in a Tuesday (Oct. 8) press release.

“In today’s competitive restaurant environment, reaching new guests and enticing them back again and again is easier if you meet them where they are — on their phones,” Toast President and co-founder Steve Fredette said in the release.

Toast’s new branded mobile app enables restaurant owners and operators to launch and customize their own iOS and Android apps, according to the release. With this white-labeled solution, they can customize the apps with their logo, fonts, colors and imagery and integrate them with online ordering, point of sale (POS) and loyalty.

One user of the branded mobile app, Courtney Gray, director of customer experience at Slim & Husky’s, said in the release that the app “keeps our brand at [guests’] fingertips.”

Toast’s new SMS marketing features allow restaurants to communicate with their subscribers via text, sending them marketing campaigns, promotional offers and messages in real time, per the release. The offering also enables automated campaigns and an artificial intelligence writing assistant.

Jason Wolbransky, a general manager of Dog & Bull Taphouse and Kitchen, said in the release that promos sent via text are often redeemed the same day.

“These innovations are some of our most highly requested features,” Fredette said in the release.

In an earlier addition of new features to its platform, Toast said in May that it debuted digital storefront and marketing tools. The company’s Digital Storefront Suite offers website and online ordering capabilities, while its Marketing Suite combines marketing tools and automation technology.

In April, Toast launched its Restaurant Management Suite with new features for multi-unit, enterprise brands. These additions included an improved Multi-Location Management tool, an enhanced Menu Manager and Publishing Center, and a Benchmarking feature.