Restaurant And Hospitality News – October 5, 2015
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
New Starbucks App Eliminates the Wait
Starbucks has unveiled a new app that supports mobile ordering at 7,400 of its stores nationwide, allowing customers to order and pay for their drinks before they arrive at their local Starbucks, according to ABC News. The app also provides an estimated pick-up time. Typical wait times average 3-5 minutes, according to the chain, depending on how many users are ordering and the complexity of the order. Once the order has been placed via the app, customers can head directly to the pick-up counter to retrieve their order. The order and pay ahead system was piloted in Portland last year, and has since expanded the service gradually. In addition, as of October 1, Starbucks has launched Mobile Order & Pay in the UK, allowing customers to pre-order their favorite drinks and food in over 150 London stores* and save time in the queue.
Starbucks CEO Adam Brotman explained the background of the app, stating: “We designed Mobile Order & Pay to be seamlessly integrated into the operational flow, for both the partners in the store and the customers in the store. But also for how the production engine works. How the hand-off plane works (where customers pick up their orders). How the routines for the partners work. We designed it from day one with the goal of making this a seamlessly integrated feature set and platform, much like we did with drive-thru, as a company. We had to have Operations be a key partner to this core of different functions that came together to work on this. What surprised me the most was how similarly operators in our company and the digital team think. It was fascinating.”
HITEC 2017 Will Be Held In Canada
Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) has announced that the 2017 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC) will be held in Toronto. This marks the first time a Canadian host city has been chosen. “As a global association, HFTP is thrilled to bring HITEC to our neighbors to the north in Canada,” stated HFTP CEO Frank Wolfe, CAE. “Toronto is a beautiful city and I am excited to see how HITEC will flourish in its first international locale.” HITEC combines hospitality education by industry peers and experts with an “unparalleled” trade show that highlights the latest industry products and services. HITEC 2017 is scheduled for June 26-29, 2017. Toronto is a perfect host city. It is Canada’s largest city, and more than 60 percent of the United States’ population can reach it by air in less than 90 minutes. “Our Toronto hospitality community looks forward to welcoming the best in hospitality technology from around the world for HITEC 2017,” said Johanne Bélanger, President and CEO of Tourism Toronto. “For HITEC’s first international meeting, a truly global city like Toronto will provide an ideal backdrop for delegates and exhibitors to meet and innovate together.”
Pizza Hut Pilots Beacons in its Chinese Stores
Pizza Hut and Sensoro have teamed up in a pilot of beacon technology at 1,471 mainland Chinese Pizza hut stores. The iBeacon technology pushes coupons, WeChat movie ticket prizes, and special offers and discounts to in-store diners when they interact with the technology on their mobile phones. Pizza Hut has long seen itself as a trend-setter in the industry, and the move towards beacons is yet another example of how they are leading the pack. The pilot ran September 3 to September 23, and allowed customers not only to receive special offers pushed to their phones, but also to view the menu digitally, “a feature which could challenge the place of the traditional paper menu in an industry where menus are already increasingly being replaced by tablets,” the company explained.
“Customers in Pizza Hut restaurants just need to turn on Bluetooth on their mobile devices and open up the ‘Shake’ feature on WeChat to get a chance to receive discounts or gifts such as free movie tickets or prizes,” Sensoro says. “The comprehensive use of iBeacon technology to create smart restaurants is intended to improve the customer experience and improve customer service, while also upgrading brand image to attract more customers,” says Pizza Hut. While there are currently no formal plans to roll out iBeacon technology at Pizza Hut’s U.S. stores, the technology could well find its way to U.S. locations in the future. Retailers and consumers in China are generally ahead of their U.S. counterparts when it comes to using beacons, making China a good location for initial testing. “The comprehensive use of beacon technology to create smart restaurants is intended to improve the customer experience and improve customer service, while also upgrading brand image to attract more customers,” Pizza Hut stated.