Mobile ordering has put the power back in guests' hands

An average of around 70% of transactions were going through customers' mobile devices during the restricted periods and at the company's Manchester site it reached as much as 90%. But this has now fallen to 10%-15% across the business as restrictions no longer apply. However, he adds: "It's still a big number for us. In cash terms it still represents big money."

The order and pay at table solution also gives NWTC venues the flexibility for their customers to use mobile ordering at particularly busy times. Townsend cites two locations where the summer seasonal uplift in sales will likely mean they will take up to 50% of transactions via mobile from diners and drinkers outside, while inside it will be predominantly table service.

Nick Holroyd-Doveton, director at Orderbee, an Access company that supplies the solution to NWTC, says another client, Marston's, will benefit in the summer months across its 350-plus pubs with mobile ordering available to all customers at tables outside.

Integral to the Orderbee solution is the QR code that has been around for years but really came into its own during Covid-19, when people became accustomed to scanning the NHS QR codes before entering venues. This mass adoption was acknowledged by Richard Carter, co-founder of OrderPay, who had been focused on promoting his app-based solution to clients. However, demand has now changed to the white label QR code option.

"The world is now educated in QR codes. Initially we focused on the app because people did not know about QR codes," he says, adding that there has also been a shift away from mobile ordering to mobile payments via QR codes.

"People are leveraging QR codes to pay at the end of their meal. Many businesses such as restaurant group Corbin & King have realised that it is the smart way to increase table turn and increase tips. So why not embrace it? Ordering at table is not as important for restaurants such as Pho and Giggling Squid, and these sorts of restaurants would now rather just offer payments at the end of the meal via mobile," he explains.

OrderPay is still delivering mobile ordering solutions, but it is now being embraced in other parts of the hospitality industry by the likes of food halls BoxPark and Market Halls, along with other players where outdoor areas play a central role. The company has also agreed a contract to supply an in-room mobile order and pay solution to The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO).

Personal service

Foster says the solution offers the flexibility for clients to "dip in or out of ordering" as they choose. For Luis De Souza, chief executive of NFS Technology, offering such flexibility is key as hospitality companies have over the past two years – against the backdrop of the pandemic – faced dramatic changes with dark kitchens, click and collect, order and pay at table, home delivery and meal kits all coming within their orbit and requiring technology solutions.

"Trying to get the attention of staff when waiting to order or to pay is one of the main bugbears for customers"

"The market is very much developing and one of the key questions is, how much do operators want to give a personal experience? They could have a waiter explain the menu and then give the diners a paper menu or a QR code.

"It's a work in progress, with some restaurants recognising the need for personal engagement, while others want speed. Some say I need to upsell and that it's best done by a great mobile experience, while others say it's better by a waiter," he explains.

Alison Vasey, group product director at Zonal, agrees: "We know consumers will always value face-to-face interaction – in fact, according to the Zonal and CGA GO Technology survey, 51% prefer to be welcomed in person when they arrive and so mobile order and pay technology should be used to free up staff to facilitate this, rather than as a replacement of it. For example, we know that trying to get the attention of staff when waiting to order or to pay is one of the main bugbears for customers, and a digital order and pay option can remove this."

For Mark Selby, co-founder of Wahaca and DF Tacos, the key objective remains to only use technology when it enhances the experience for customers. For Wahaca there was never any intention of introducing mobile order and pay whereas a mobile payments option using the QikServe solution has been eagerly adopted and it now accounts for 85%-90% of transactions.

At DF Tacos customers ordered at the till and Selby thought it would be an improvement for customers to order at the table through a tablet or a phone. To order they use the QR code or go straight to the website. An order and pay proposition from Vita Mojo has since been implemented and is proving very popular: "It's worked well and enhanced the experience where it's fast-casual, 45-minute visits. We'd not wanted this at Wahaca, where it's all about the dining experience and where people might not know about the food – we want to help people navigate the menu. If people are immediately on their phones and paying, it's not a nice experience in a premium dining offer."

For more experience-led restaurants like Wahaca an obvious solution is to maybe offer a mix of options, according to De Souza, who also cites Caravan as taking this hybrid approach by offering order and pay via a QR code and also traditional menus with waiter service.

"I think this will be the norm in the market with restaurants offering choice," he says, adding that the level of mobile ordering will likely be around 10-15% of transactions, while for mobile payment at table this will be in the 30%-50% range, with the most activity in busy city centre locations and pre-theatre occasions.

Air of sophistication

Over the past two years the mobile offerings have certainly become more sophisticated. Holroyd-Doveton says when the pandemic hit it was "pure utility – make it look good and that it works with the point-of-sale" but since then things have moved on and companies are demanding improved functionality and potentially linking mobile ordering and payments to loyalty programmes.

The Orderbee solution now includes a tab function that enables items to be added throughout the course of the meal before payment is made at the end of the visit. "The technology could not do this previously, but it now works with the tills to let us offer tabs," he says.

At NFS its client bao restaurant Din Thai Fung facedthe challenge of different people ordering items on the menu from the same QR code on the table. "It was difficult to track who had ordered what dishes. Now, multiple people can scan the same code and track their own spend before the bill is split. This is the sophisticated end of the market," says De Souza.

Rob Robinson, co-founder of Notes Coffee, has looked to incorporate loyalty into the company's mobile proposition, but this has not been part of a move to extend the order at table functionality. It has instead been a replacement for it because, once the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, he saw little value in continuing with it. "I thought we could carry on with order at table, but it had so little value. It's only of value if it saves time or for people who don't want to talk to anyone," he says.

With the best will in the world we could not offer table service across all our businesses

The strategy has involved Notes replacing both its digital loyalty solution from Embargo and its order at table/order ahead solution from Rituals, with its own app built by Pepper. The app is of benefit to regular customers who collect points for free coffee and other items, and it also has an order ahead facility for click and collect orders that have been most relevant to the company's Canary Wharf outlet, where it accounts for around 10% of transactions.

Looking to the future

Robinson notes that the app has an order at table feature which is clearly an option for the future, but for now he is instead exploring ways to engender greater loyalty to the people who download the app (in the first three weeks of its launch they numbered 1,400). This involves using the buying behaviour data that Notes is accumulating to determine relevant notifications to send to specific customer segments.

Vasey at Zonal recognises the potential benefits: "If a venue's electronic point of sale and online ordering systems are connected to a loyalty scheme, using key sales data, then operators can create personalised promotions guaranteed to drive footfall or sales. For example, if a restaurant knows a customer always orders the same main and dessert on a Thursday, through Zonal's integrated loyalty solution you could target them with relevant offers and promotions on these products to further boost sales."

Guy Bosworth, head of operations at bakery chain Ole & Steen, says his company has also been more focused on loyalty than mobile ordering. For this, the chosen route is an app because of the richer experience it can deliver compared with a web-based solution.

Customers check-in at the till via a QR code within the app, which loads points onto their digital loyalty card and it also throws a simple question at them as well as asking them for a comment on what was good and bad during their visit. This gives the company some granularity on their customer's behaviour and thinking.

There is also a click and collect option within the app for ordering ahead, but Bosworth says this type of transaction gains much more traction with the delivery aggregators like Deliveroo and Uber Eats, who he says have large marketing budgets to promote click and collect as well as delivery.

As for order at table, Bosworth does not completely write it off, but it is unlikely to feature across the whole business: "With potentially longer dwell times outside London we could do table service [at those units] and this could include mobile order at table. We've not done order at table so far because it does not drive the necessary return. It adds complexity for a [predominantly] food-to-go business and it requires people to deliver to the table."

Covid-19 certainly put mobile order and pay under the spotlight and although it has not quite delivered the revolution some people were predicting, it has definitely inserted mobile technology much more firmly within the hospitality sector.