Yeah that’s a good point. I’m actually in the UK at the moment and Wetherspoons is the only place where I’m ordering with my phone (also, the Wetherspoon app is a great example of mobile ordering done right - fast and no collection of PII).
Compared to Melbourne where half the pubs I visit tell me to order via the QR menu where I have to punch in my number and get an OTP before I can order anything.
Wetherspoons phone app is excellent. You can order food/drinks and they arrive at the table immediately (quicker than going to the bar!). This would seem to be a more effective use of modern technology, rather than a me too social media presence.
I actually like the concept when executed properly.
If I’m eating out at a bar by myself, it means I don’t have to lose my table to get up and order. I also have social anxiety, if the bar is packed it’s a real problem for me. I’ll usually end up hovering while everyone else takes advantage and pushes in front of me.
The Wetherspoons app in the UK is a great example. Easy and fast to use, requires no account/PII just pay with Apple Pay.
I have the mobile number of the nice waiter I know in a café down the road for me, when I want to order baguette(s) I give him a call and he kindly starts making them so that when I turn up I pay and collect, rather than waiting 5-10 minutes there.
I would LOVE to see a Starbucks mobile app allowing me to do the same thing, so when I get to the store I could pick up my drink and walk out. In fact it would amaze me if Starbucks don't offer this in the next 18 months, given their recent steps into mobile applications (though, annoyingly for me, they test everything in the US first, so more like 3+ years until it will come to the UK).
Wetherspoons has about 4 apps to send you news anyway and most people who would sign up to the newsletter probably end up in a spoons frequently anyway.
At least you can order food to your table without having to move which is lazy but pretty cool.
My father runs a restaurant, so I guess I could give perspectives from both sides.
For a customer, it's inconvenient and sometimes daunting to call a restaurant and ask for the menu, then choose the items, then recheck the order with the call desk, then order the food and pay it in cash. With an app, you just need to do a few taps and then order directly from the restaurant, and even pay for it with your card.
For restaurants, you get the marketing reach through being on a platform while also getting delivery costs that are on par with what would have been if you hired your own drivers (if you're a low end restaurant). It's obviously much less beneficial for a high end restaurant that relies on dine-ins for higher priced menu items.
I've been trying to coax him into moving to Whatsapp based ordering systems (since Whatsapp is big in the old world), but it's hard to do that without Whatsapp chatbots and access to the Whatsapp businesses API.
Not to mention ordering via the app and collecting. QR code websites and tablet ordering machines are rapidly replacing humans taking your order across most restaurants, in the UK and Japan at least.
Absolutely - put your order in and pass it on to the next person to add their stuff. So much easier!
Ordering on the phone might be faster for some people and bad apps, but I find ordering on the app more chill. I can be sure what I ordered, see the whole menu with the latest pricing, and get delivery updates without ringing back.
(As a sidenote - i'm not sure it's actually faster though, particularly as most people seem to be talking about repeat customers. I usually order from Dodo's Pizza (dodopizza.co.uk) and just opened the app and attempted to order a pepperoni pizza for pickup, and the whole interaction took c10 seconds. I logged out and tried and it took 15 seconds instead as they have sign in with Apple).
As you enter a bar your phone buzzes. "I just got a Yo from Heineken!" If you're not disgusted at that point by an app tracking your location to sell you things, you will probably be more likely to order a Heineken.
My point is that if you have your phone in your pocket, you can use it to place an order directly, rather than relying on a separate single-purpose widget.
I'm not the person above, but I don't miss calling to place orders. I miss it even less at the end of a long day, a few beers in, in a country that speaks a third language.
I book through a screen when I can, at my own speed. It's nicer.
"ordering food is usually the simplest of all phone interactions"
It's reaaaaallllyyyy not though... Or at least not for everybody :-)
Never mind the jargon of main order you prepped for, I still freeze when I encounter dozen unexpected follow up questions on sizes sauces cooking cutlery garnishments combos packages savings whatnot. :O
I am with you on morality and approach and downsides of these apps, and how sustainable or fait the model is. But that's an entirely separate chain of reasoning from whether phone or app ordering is preferred :-/
- it helps to find new places I wouldn’t otherwise have ordered from
- I can spend 15 minutes being indecisive if I want. I’m not sure someone in the shop would want to spend that amount of time reading the menu to me over and over
None. Use the restaurant's own ordering system whenever possible. But I understand that often these systems tend to be not as good. My family recently started a small takeaway and currently we rely entirely on JustEat/Deliveroo for orders. They take a killer commission per order and you always have to have an offer running on top to compete with incumbents who are favoured in terms of listing order. In the end you end up getting barely 50% of your list price. They can barely make ends meet. Luckily they have me (software developer) as someone who can create an online experience that rivals these big companies but competing with billion dollar companies on marketing is always gonna be a losing battle.
Ordering on the phone means that I need to pay cash, which means I need to have cash, which means I need to walk to the ATM, which means I may as well walk the extra two to three minutes further that the takeaway place is from the ATM and skip the delivery fee altogether.
Also yeah, trying to explain an order to be heard by someone trying to relay it back to a noisy kitchen in some of these takeaway places which don't have a dedicated person to man the phones is also a problem.
b) Most people don't want to download another damn app just to be able to eat at your restaurant.
c) Being able to order before you arrive usually isn't really a big advantage -- otherwise places would have done it long ago by phone.
Might be useful for take-out food during the lunchtime rush, though -- order and pay for your lunch from the office, and then stroll down to collect it. But some places already have an web-based system for this, with no need for a separate app. Still, I guess the app-based idea might make life slightly easier -- just show the screen of your phone to pick up your order.
Besides the matter of whether the cut they take is unreasonable or not, there's the matter of user experience.
Ordering on the phone is very easy. I don't need to make an account, don't need to get out my credit card, don't need to fill out my name, email address, etc. All the restaurants I order from seem to have systems that remember the address associated with incoming phone numbers, so after the first call I don't even need to tell them my address. If I order from a restaurant frequently enough, I often don't even need to tell them what I want, because they remember that too. It frequently goes "Hey, Big Joe's Pies, same as usual?" Yep. "Paying cash?" Yep. "Okay it'll be about 20 minutes." How can fidgeting around with an app compete with that?
Compared to Melbourne where half the pubs I visit tell me to order via the QR menu where I have to punch in my number and get an OTP before I can order anything.
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