Guest Post: Serving Up Frictionless Experiences with Mobile: How Payments Technology Helps Restaurants Weather the Storm
By Dirk Izzo, President & General Manager, NCR Hospitality
Restaurant operators and the industry as a whole are not out of the COVID-19 pandemic woods yet. However, as restrictions gradually ease, restaurant operators continue to pivot to new technologies and models allowing them to reopen and serve customers’ favorite meals again.
Lessons learned from this past year will be needed to create safer restaurant environments and guide best practices moving forward. One such example: how to maximize the value of payments technology. While this technology continues to help restaurants better manage their books and create frictionless customer experiences, today, it is also a tool for operators to better protect customers and reach them where they are – digital platforms.
A RENEWED FOCUS ON MOBILE
Mobile ordering is nothing new, but when the pandemic hit, it became one of the safest methods of payment, requiring little to no contact. Furthermore, among top QSR apps, a recent Mobiquity report found a 36% year-over-year increase in the number of people saying it was their first time using a restaurant’s mobile app. As more people migrate to digital platforms, it is essential restaurant operators make mobile payments a top priority moving forward.
All that to say: mobile is here to stay. Smartphones are now essential dining companions— restaurant patrons turn to mobile for all their needs, from placing delivery and carry-out orders to viewing a menu at the table or at home. In fact, 56% of consumers aged 21 to 38 reported placing a delivery or takeout order using a restaurant app or website in the last year and digital sales are expected to make up more than 50% for QSRs by 2025. Not to mention off-premise orders placed digitally – through mobile apps, websites and third-party app – generate additional revenue and are, on average, 20% higher than in-restaurant purchases.
That is why every channel matters for restaurant operators. They not only need an exemplary, engaging in-restaurant experience, they must be able to accommodate customers’ digital needs as well. Since guests do not need to touch a card reader or hand over their card, mobile payments have the power to help guests feel more comfortable and protect them from unnecessary contact.
DIGITAL AT THE FOREFRONT
As the restaurant industry increasingly adopts digital technologies to meet consumer demand, technology providers can and should help these businesses prioritize cybersecurity and safeguarding customers. With more than 62% of consumers concerned digital transactions at a QSR will lead to fraud, ensuring operators have the right technology and education will be key. Consider the previous decade’s rollout of EMV technology at the physical point of sale (POS) – the transition from legacy magnetic-stripe transactions to chip transactions is ongoing to this very day. Digital technology reinforces the security advancements made due to EMV, but leadership on the part of payments and card companies will be required to advance adoption.
The same goes for how restaurant operators communicate safety and security parameters to customers. Today’s contactless cards are just as secure as other card payment technologies and, in the case of mobile phone payments, have the potential to be even more secure. Equipping operators with data and knowledge on how sensitive customer information is protected will be key.
THE FUTURE AHEAD
Restaurants are serving guests who are more digitally enabled than ever before. Customers expect digital ordering capabilities, on-demand options and services tailored to their digital lifestyle, such as contactless or mobile payments. And the rapid spread and impact of COVID-19 has magnified this trend on a global scale.
As we return to our decidedly abnormal ‘new normal’, contactless and mobile payments will play sizeable roles in how restaurants not only keep their guests and staff safe but help them feel safe as well. Creating an exceptional dining experience remains important, but to see guests coming in and out of their doors (socially distant, of course), operators will need to go that extra mile with their payments technology adoption and strategy.
More than 30,000 restaurants have already closed this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital, contactless payments may not be a complete solution, but it has the power to help restaurants weather one of the most deadly, disruptive events in recent history. Payments companies and financial technology providers have the unique opportunity, and responsibility, to spearhead this vision and make it a reality.
Dirk Izzo, President and General Manager at NCR Hospitality
Dirk Izzo serves as President and GM of NCR Hospitality. He is a seasoned leader with experience in building and marketing innovative cloud-based solutions to help clients optimize their business performance.
In his current role, Dirk is responsible for developing simple and innovative solutions that run the restaurant from end to end. NCR is the technology provider of choice for restaurants around the world and Dirk is focused on delivering the next-generation software, hardware and services that delivers on what customers want, when they want it.
Prior to joining NCR, Dirk spent 19 years with Nielsen in a number of global assignments. He joined Nielsen as a Senior Vice President of Product Management. He also lived in Singapore for three years where he was the Chief Operating Officer of Asia, Middle East and Africa. In his last role, he was the Senior Vice President and General Manager responsible for Nielsen’s technology transformation.
Dirk holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and marketing from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, and has served on the boards of the Humanities in Management Institute, The Blade Junior Golf Tournament and the Meyer Center, a school for children with special needs.