Is Convenience the New Hospitality? How QR Order & Pay is Changing the In-Venue Dining Experience.
The restaurant and bar industry has traditionally been a digital laggard but is showing signs of technology readiness. Recent adoption of emerging solutions, accelerated by COVID-19, highlight an appetite to modernize the customer experience and create an engaging atmosphere that feels unique and personal.
The QR code was invented in 1994 to track vehicles in the automotive industry during the manufacturing and distribution process. Not quite as sexy as a use case that these pixelated squares are most known for today — digital menus. QR codes opened opportunities for restaurant owners during the pandemic when usefulness for contactless payment and no-touch menus took off. But a QR code linked to a static PDF menu only offers so much value, with no real impact to the operational benefits of restaurants; sure, a few bucks can be saved by not having to reprint menu updates.
Static digital menus represent the first step of a larger shift we’re experiencing in the restaurant industry — tableside order and pay. Companies like hippo, barpay, bbot, and cheqout are among a few ventures that offer an independent contactless order and pay solution. With an increasing demand for this service, traditional restaurant point of sale (POS) systems like Toast and Clover are also building these solutions in-house. About 30% of existing POS systems now offer their own order and pay feature, with many more integrating across third party platforms. If this trend keeps up, point of sales will need to build or acquire this type of solution to remain competitive. But what are the chances an industry built on the hospitality of its servers adopts this new way of in-person dining? If done correctly, high, and here is why.
Hospitality. If in-venue order and pay is here to stay, this is the most important piece to get right. Nothing can replace human interaction — it’s the reason we eat out in the first place. The focus of these platforms cannot be on replacing severs, but instead on freeing up restaurant staff from transactional touch points like writing down orders and taking payments so that their focus can be on engaging and interacting with customers. The future is not technology vs. servers. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but complementary in a way that improves hospitality by bringing on-demand service and convenience that empowers the customer to control their dining experience. Convenience is a new form of quality. Take at-home coffee, for example. Households are swapping traditional presses and machines for pod driven devices like Keurig and Nespresso. I promise it’s not for coffee quality. Consumers place a value on convenience that has become a new component of quality itself. QR order and pay platforms have a similar opportunity.
Staffing. Order and pay offers a strong return on investment. Restaurant operators confirm that labor challenges continue to intensify with 75% reporting that recruiting and retaining employees is the top challenge facing their business. The industry is nearly 1 million jobs below pre-pandemic employment levels with 1.4 million openings based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. QR order and pay platforms alleviate tasks traditionally assigned to staff, allowing fewer servers to cover more tables and providing the complementary support that optimizes experience. This enables restaurants to operate at full capacity despite potentially long-term staffing limitations.
Table turns. According to the National Restaurant Association, 46% of consumers would like to see restaurants use technology to make the overall experience faster. Granting diners power to order and pay at-will significantly reduces table time. Customers are happy because they no longer wait for checks and can place on-demand follow-up orders. With quicker turnovers, restaurants seat more guest, bringing in more sales.
Spend. People order more digitally. The combination of tempting photos, add on suggestions, and instant service encourages additional spend. Leading platforms report increases in check sizes by 10% to even 40%+ on average. Venues have also seen improved tip amounts relative to traditional payment methods. These platforms provide flexibility to menu design, allowing restaurants to push higher margin products. If connected to an inventory system, these solutions can also boost dishes with specific ingredients to better manage stock levels based on expiration dates — significantly reducing costs tied to wasted product. We’re indecisive when it comes to picking our meal. Influencing customer purchasing decisions through technology leads to more sales and more satisfied diners.
Data. A transition to digital order and pay enables more tools for tracking and analytics previously uncaptured. This has significant marketing benefits, but more interestingly the ability to provide curated menus based on each customer’s individual preferences and dietary restrictions. Over time, these platforms can learn the ordering habits of their users — understanding favorite dishes and ingredients. Each customer’s menu starts to look different from their peers’ next to them. The most relevant dishes for you are front and center and those you are allergic to are hidden. Using data captured through order and pay creates a more relevant and safer dining experience.
With half of all full-service restaurant operators in the United States having already adopted the static QR code menu since the onset of the pandemic, a few startups are placing bets that this is the beginning of a new (and better) normal for in-person dining. #CBSDigitalLiteracy
