Mobile tech that could save a year of your life
Look around you. New technology is everywhere. The power you now have in the palm of your hand is phenomenal, it’s changing the way you complete everyday tasks for the better. Mealtime has been revolutionised, you can now get a takeaway from just about anywhere using Just Eat or even have a meal from your favourite restaurant Deliveroo’d to your door. This convenience is great for when you’re hungry, but what about when your thirst remains unquenched?
Across the country, coffee drinkers and pub goers are estimated to waste 25 million hours every week simply standing in queues. There are fewer things more irritating in this world than being trapped in a perpetual line of despair. The agonising wait to order and pay is frustrating, especially when you came to chat with friends or family. The only thing we all share is 24 hours each day, why are we wasting these precious hours fulfilling this mundane chore? The average Brit spends over a year of their life in retail queues — insane!
Changes must be made, processes transformed and queuing eliminated. 8 out of 10 people say a fast-moving queue enhances their customer satisfaction, an eye opening opportunity for many companies. But the questions remain, how to improve this? Is spending a year in queues inevitable? Where better to turn to for answers than the remedy to all our other inconveniences — technology. We have already seen self-service and contactless technologies improve this situation for many businesses. I for one welcome these advancements as they drastically heighten my convenience and satisfaction for many daily activities.
Yet, I still find myself caught in a long queue on countless occasions.
To claw back some of this wasted time, we need to analyse our daily routines as wasted time adds up. Whilst Pub queues are horrendous, most of us don’t visit on a daily basis. Coffee on the other hand is a genuine necessity for many, with 1 in 5 of us visiting a coffee shop everyday. Shaving 10–15 minutes off this routine would make a huge difference; you would have so much more time for things you want or need to do. What are we waiting for?
Industry leaders, such as Starbucks, are unearthing these opportunities and breaking away from the competition. Forget coffee, Starbucks is really a technology company. Wireless chargers, connected machines and location beacons are all being tested to enhance the in-store experience.
The real game changer is their Mobile Order & Pay (MOP) service.
Customers can order from anywhere using their smartphone and skip straight to their freshly made order in the pick-up area. Your order will be right every time and you don’t have to stand around in a queue. Starbucks has said the app could save customer between 10 and 15 minutes each day! Wow, this is the answer to recouping lost time spent in queues.
“Bringing Mobile Order and Pay to our customers is about meeting their needs of convenience and customization at any time of the day,” — Adam Brotman, Starbucks’ chief digital officer, said in a press release.
For Starbucks lovers, the technology to save time is now a reality. This service was recently implemented in 7400 US stores and announced for London on the 1st October 2015 in celebration of International Coffee Day. This caffeinated roll-out plan highlights MOP’s success as consumers relish the opportunity to save time and show off this cool technology to their friends. Starbucks’ focus is clearly on driving adoption of their app, MyRewards programme and MOP. This will offer unprecedented ways for Starbucks to connect with their loyal customers. Just like in food, mobile technology is about to vastly improve customer convenience, efficiency and satisfaction for the coffee industry.
This is fantastic for the 824 Starbucks stores in the UK, but what about the other 18,000 outlets? Whilst Costa might be snapping at Starbuck’s heels in the mobile app race, other big chains are falling further behind and independents are nowhere to be seen. In this day and age when we are using smartphones for everything, the majority of the coffee industry is unable to take your order. The local independents that we all love to visit just don’t have the resources to compete in this technology race. While their coffee is probably better than Starbucks’, they run the risk of losing sales as we start to appreciate the benefits of MOP.
Physical loyalty cards, long queues and cash payments won’t be around for much longer! The coffee industry is ripe for smartphones to revolutionise it, bring on the change and please let me avoid these queues.
Ordable is a digital gateway to order and pay in advance at your favourite cafes and coffee shops — beating the queue and earning loyalty rewards.
Sources:
http://www.home.barclaycard/news/2014-111.html
http://boxtechnologies.com/2014/12/brits-spend-year-stuck-shop-queues/
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/860d06cc-d13c-11e4-98a4-00144feab7de.html#axzz3ngKMYveL
https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-mobile-order-pay-now-available-to-customers-nationwide
