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Sif Rai, COO of QikServe, provides insight into building a unified restaurant team for successful tech adoption. From self-ordering kiosks to order and pay-at-table systems,
What is it that unites digital commerce across size, industry, business model and geography? The answer, unfortunately, is fraud. Whether you’re running a luxury hotel
In the ever-evolving landscape of the hospitality industry, technological innovations have played a pivotal role in enhancing customer experiences and optimizing operational efficiency. One such
There’s no question that customers and hospitality businesses alike have lived through monumental changes and challenges in recent years. And after these years filled with
In the rapidly evolving world of the hospitality and restaurant industry, menu management is the backbone of delivering customers a seamless and memorable dining experience.
Stripe, the global financial infrastructure firm powering QikServe Payments, surveyed more than 2,500 payments, finance and product leaders around the world about how they’re planning
Self-service kiosks have become an increasingly familiar sight in restaurants throughout the world over the last few years, and it’s hardly surprising, given the benefits
There’s a lot to consider before you venture across borders, and by following a basic strategy and taking a careful and thorough approach, going global
The restaurant industry has undergone significant transformations in recent years, with one of the most notable changes being the exponential growth of services that enable customers to order food online for collection at a time of their convenience. While the COVID-19 pandemic was undoubtably the catalyst for this shift, customer demand for convenient ways to order from their favorite restaurants is here to stay.
The restaurant industry has undergone significant transformations in recent years, with one of the most notable changes being the exponential growth of services that enable customers to order food online for collection at a time of their convenience. While the COVID-19 pandemic was undoubtably the catalyst for this shift, customer demand for convenient ways to order from their favorite restaurants is here to stay.
As digital ordering continues to gain momentum globally across the industry, this presents both huge opportunity and its own challenges. Fraudsters are evolving to become
These days, everything from entertainment to travel to food is available on demand and at the fingertips of consumers. When we want something, we want it now. But while our appetite as consumers for faster and more convenient ways to get what we want only continues to accelerate; the good news is that the investment to turn these conveniences into reality leads to enormous operational benefits for businesses.
You know your business better than anyone, and you know that company culture plays a vital role in the overall performance and satisfaction of your employees. The personality and character of your organization is one of the significant factors that employees consider when applying for jobs and workplace culture can help you impact an individual’s happiness and improve your employee’s (and therefore your business’) performance.
As an adaptive business, here’s how you can use payments as a growth tool…
In our increasingly digitised world, seamless and efficient payment processing for digital transactions has become a priority across industries. Traditional payment processing systems no longer suffice as hospitality operators require a comprehensive payment platform to streamline their tech stack, drive sales and unify siloed data. Implementing a new system may seem daunting as budgets are tight and labour is strained, but innovation is the key to remaining competitive and it has never been more vital to provide a quick and painless way to pay.
Seamless integration enables redemption of loyalty incentives and special offers through web,
mobile and kiosk ordering.
We are settling into a new year and a fresh start, and as we plan ahead, we also reflect on how the past few years of disrupt has affected us. Our industry has been hit hard and continues to struggle to a full recovery – as soon as the fallout from one global crisis begins to heal, we are faced with the next. Hospitality operators constantly face a fight or flight decision as your venues must adapt to survive and it can be overwhelming trying to keep up.
As the QikServe team continues to grow, we are delighted to welcome Ethan Martin to the team as Chief Experience Officer. Ethan has packed in a wealth of experience and success to his career so far as Founder and CEO of ROUND – a UK based table service app. Ethan was featured in Forbes as well as being nominated for TechRound’s 29Under29 and the Great British Entrepreneur Awards in 2021.
The Office for National Statistics have officially published figures that show there were 173,000 vacancies in the sector across the UK last month.
What different digital ordering journeys are there, and which ones do you support?
There are a few different types of digital ordering journeys which can make things confusing. We like to break down journeys by those that happen in-restaurant (on-site), and those that happen outside of the restaurant (off-site):
This year, QikServe celebrated 10 years since it first launched its ordering and payment technologies for food and hospitality businesses. The market has come a long way since those early days, indeed, adoption of digital ordering has accelerated in the last 18 months.
integration, the leading digital ordering solutions provider, is working closely with Acteol, the award-winning enterprise CRM solution for the hospitality, retail and leisure sectors, to provide restaurant brands with more accurate, individualised data on their customers for better marketing experiences.
As part of QikServe’s 10th anniversary celebrations, we take a closer look at some of the people that have made the company what it is today.
I started my career in the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service as a trainee scientific officer. Once I qualified, I loved the thrill and excitement of working emergency on-call as well as the satisfaction that I was contributing to life saving efforts. I stayed in medical science for some time before fulfilling a lifetime ambition by starting my first business. Since then, I have started several businesses in ecommerce, consulting and customer service improvement. In 2011, I found myself on vacation in London with two young children. I found it incredibly frustrating trying get service. Not one to stand by and let a problem go unsolved, I started QikServe.
As part of QikServe’s 10th anniversary celebrations, we take a closer look at some of the people that have made the company what it is today.
Restaurant ‘at table’ options explained, Thanks to continuous innovation in technologies such as mobile web applications, digital payments, NFC, chip and pin and so on, operators have several options when it comes to digital ordering and payment at the table. Here’s a quick overview of what these options are and their pros and cons.
Discoverability, If you’re considering offering guests the ability to order and/or pay at their table using their mobile, you might be wondering how they can get started with the whole journey. We explain some of the most common methods.
QikServe has partnered with QSR Automations, the global leader in kitchen automation and restaurant technology, to streamline food order fulfilment for customers.
In this guest post, our partner – Impact Data – takes us through what a successful customer engagement journey looks like and how brands can use their customer data to its full potential.
The Serving Superstar competition saw customers and colleagues nominating service professionals they felt provided a consistently excellent guest experience to receive a £1,000 mega tip. Following an intense round of judging, it was Kelly Lewis from Petrou Brothers in Chatteris who claimed the Serving Superstar title. After 18 months in which the food and hospitality markets have suffered tremendously, the event was an opportunity for QikServe and its partners to give back and celebrate staff in this hardworking industry.
In just a few weeks, Natasha’s Law will be enacted. The new regulations are being brought in after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died following an allergic reaction to an unknown ingredient in a Pret-A-Manger baguette in 2016. It took another three years for the then Environment Secretary to confirm that legislation would be brought in to strengthen allergen labelling rules. Michael Gove was quoted as saying at the time:
Mexican-style street food chain, Wahaca, has partnered with QikServe to offer guests a range of digital ordering and payment services, now accounting for over 90% of all payments in the restaurants.
We recently sat down with one of our newest partners, Otter, to find out what makes them tick and see if they had any words of wisdom to share with the market.
QikServe is proud to announce that it has been chosen by Tribe Kitchen to provide the technology for its unique multi-restaurant ordering and delivery system.
Contemporary loyalty programmes are all but unrecognisable from the methods retailers first used to promote loyalty and repeat spending. More than 300 years ago businesses realised that handing out tokens (which could be used for future purchases) was an effective strategy for retaining customers. Through the years this method has evolved; in the late 1800s stamps were switched for tokens, and by the 1990s, loyalty cards had been introduced.
As part of QikServe’s 10th anniversary celebrations, we take a closer look at some of the people that have made the company what it is today.
As of now, passengers can use the Schiphol app to order food and drinks and make contactless payments for these at any time. The orders can be picked up in the food & beverage facilities across the security control at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Following the success of a pilot which found the service to be popular with travellers, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is extending the app’s food and beverage feature in partnership with HMSHost International.
Twice a month, QikServe will publish a new QikTips video, offering fast, easy way to get hospitality marketing tips and operational advice from our expert team.
I doubt that anyone would claim that the digital hospitality technology market has now reached its full potential. If anything, most still see it in its infancy if not early adolescence.
QikServe has released Advanced Order Slots, a new dynamic ordering feature, to its QikOrder platform.
This week we launched our latest report: The Diffusion of Digital Ordering. The report considers the theory of the Diffusion of Innovation and explores the position of digital ordering within the technology adoption curve; has it yet crossed the adoption chasm?
Pubs and restaurants in England have only just reopened after being closed for months during lockdown. But their efforts to make up for lost time and money are being hampered by booked-in customers not turning up. Again, and again, the press carries stories of beleaguered business owners, struggling with the result of guest no-shows. Is this just a problem of the moment, or are we facing a long-term issue? How can companies counter industry no-shows?
It’s a fast-food option barely known are partaken of outside the UK. Battered fish (or sausage) and chunky chips with just the right amount of grease. How you eat it depends on your personal taste, but also on where you live within the UK. The further North you are, the more likely it is that you choose haddock, down south, it’s cod. Head to Wales and you might be dipping your chips in curry sauce, while Londoners prefer a dash of ketchup and sometimes some mayonnaise.
At QikServe we love the opportunities we have to work with the fish and chip shop industry, and we are therefore very excited for #NationalFishandChipDay on Friday.
When brands were mandated to close their dining rooms to guests in 2020, many took up digital ordering (online or mobile app) to facilitate off-premise ordering. This technology enabled to them to keep revenue streams open and maintain direct customer communication.
Consumers are excited to be released from lockdown and are eagerly making plans to see their friends and enjoy a drink at the pub, but after the initial excitement wears off, a sense of caution and concern will remain. For the hospitality sector to fully recover, brands will need to make their customers feel safe and confident eating and drinking with others inside their premises, as well as outside.
QikServe has announced the launch of its accessible ordering platform. As part of the company’s commitment to giving all brands and their customers access great digital experiences, the platform has been enhanced to meet the needs of people with visual, auditory, physical and cognitive disabilities.
The healthy eating venture currently operates from 12 high street locations across London, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
Aria Resorts, the UKs fastest growing holiday company, is preparing to reopen to the public. As part of its investment in the safety and comfort of guests, it will do so with a new offering: digital ordering, powered by QikServe.
We’ve got some great plans for our partner content in 2021; we’re therefore kicking off Spring with a spotlight on our partner iiko; we recently sat down (virtually) with its Managing Director in the UK, Simon Dadswell, to pose some probing questions.
Lagardère Travel Retail has partnered with QikServe to bring online ordering to consumers, enhancing convenience and speed of service for thousands of people, every day. The group will make the company’s QikOrder platform available to guests visiting Costa Coffee at its sites in Czech Republic and Slovakia.
QikServe and Impact Data will be presenting ‘The Great Data Game’ in a webinar on Thursday 11th March at 11am UK GMT
Since the start of 2021, QikServe has added three countries to the list of regions in which it provides customers with online ordering and payment technologies. The latest QikServe countries added include the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia; other global customers include HMSHost (Vietnam), TGI Fridays (UK), Legoland (USA) and Fafas (Finland).
Each month, we will be using our blog to highlight a small selection of the amazing brands we have had the pleasure of starting work with in previous weeks.
We’ve read it and heard it repeatedly in the last year; COVID-19 has changed the hospitality industry forever. The way that businesses and operations are run, the consumer outlook, their needs and requirements have all switched direction to adapt to what has been termed, the ‘new normal’.
Born in Bray has launched for the residents of Bray, County Wicklow. Powered by QikServe, six ultra-cool food and drink outlets on the town’s seafront esplanade have joined together to form a multi-venue ordering platform.
QikServe works with a great range of food and drink brands: restaurants, takeaways, food trucks, pubs and bars, hotels and stadiums, we are proud to support all sorts of businesses – including some amazing vegan ones.
Whether it is after gaining confidence with your online ordering and collection solution, or because you feel delivery is the best option for keeping your staff safe through the ongoing pandemic, you may be considering switching your takeout food service to delivery only. With tightening restrictions on click and collect, you might also want to prepare should delivery become the easiest option.
It’s not as catchy as: ‘When is a door not a door?’ (answer, when it’s a jar) but it speaks to the idea that in-car collection, and the technologies that support it, are flexible enough to bend to the needs of a business and its guests. This is particularly relevant as Scotland heads into a tighter lockdown. With click and collect services restricted, and speculation that England may follow suit, curbside is a strong and viable alternative to click & collect.
Each year we put forward our predictions for the coming year. This year is no exception, though it will be exceptional! This is a time of mixed emotions and, at the time of writing, there’s no telling how restrictions placed on the food and beverage market might change from one week to the next.
In the UK, the word drive-thru was has been almost synonymous with the Golden Arches since the 1970s. Things quietly began to change when Starbucks launched its forecourt drive-thrus in 2010, with Costa following suit at retail parks in 2011. The drive-thru in 2021 may no longer be associated solely with fast food, but neither is every coffee shop or fast casual brand investing in the solution.
A benefit frequently spoken of in relation to the adoption of an online ordering is the impact it has on operations and staff productivity. With shortened queues to manage, a reduction in orders taken by phone and tickets automatically sent to the kitchen, order ahead services save businesses valuable time. That time can be reinvested in other areas of the business, boosting business profitability. Similarly, when online ordering is used on-site, it frees up waiting staff, reduces order errors and streamlines payments.
Christian Milton is a Customer Success Manager at QikServe. What does that mean? Customer Success is about ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes while using our product or service. Relationship-focused, the team’s objective is to align customer goals with our own for the benefit of everyone involved.
The year 2020 has brought with it many changes, whether social or medical, the happenings of the last few months will have a lasting impact on the food and hospitality industry and the consumers that make use of it.
If you want to be successful in this new, socially distant and digital world, it might be time to change your operations.
Merlin Entertainments has partnered with QikServe to bring digital ordering and kiosk solutions to those visiting its global Resorts. The solutions include Order-to-Table, Kiosks and Order Ahead, while Hotel guests can also make use of a new Order-to-Room service.
As the election approaches, the restaurant industry is rightly encouraging its staff to hit the polling stations on November 3rd, and vote. Indeed, many brands have incentivized their employees with paid time-off to participate. Some, like &Pizza have gone even further; it’s giving workers three days of paid time off for employees to participate in “activism of their choosing.”
Anyone in marketing will be used to the terms: persona, Millennial, Gen X, Y and Z. While they might be less familiar to those in other areas of business, their effect can be felt throughout a company. Who a company’s prospective customer personas are, impacts everything, from the food being served, through to the décor and technology in use.
It’s all well and good companies like us, QikServe, turning around and saying – there’s a crisis, you need to start using our online ordering solution and offer a collection or delivery service to your customers. The reality for you is more complex – your menu might not be designed to be taken away from the dining room, or your customers might be from a demographic not used to eating/drinking in this way.
Anyone that has an Amazon account will likely be familiar with 1-Click, a fast track through the checkout process to payment with just one click of a confirmation button. The technique, used most often by online retailers, allows customers to make purchases with the payment information needed to complete the purchase without having to re-enter any personal details.
With the backdrop of COVID, it’s more important than ever operators can rely on an online ordering solution that suits their needs both now and into the future. From switching on and off different types of customer journeys such as to-go and curbside collection, to having the right pricing model, many operators are finding that not all online ordering solutions are created equal.
While the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have lasted longer than many of us expected initially, the world remains confident that the virus will be beaten. Whether it fades away naturally, or a working vaccine is found, we will come out the other side of the pandemic and life will resume.
Since lock-down, demand for online ordering has sky-rocketed. And it’s no wonder if you look at some of the remarkable successes operators have had with it over the past few months:
With a surge in ‘staycationing’ this year thanks to the pandemic snuffing out many families’ plans to holiday abroad, we take a look at how theme parks and resorts can make the most of this spike in domestic travel.
Check out how some of our fantastic customers have used digital ordering to stay open and adopt new revenue streams during lockdown:
Across the globe, cities, towns and states are in a state of flux, removing and reintroducing restrictions based on localised infection rates for the COVID-19 virus. The lockdown, or ‘stay at home’ orders may be necessary, but they make it difficult for operators to plan for recovery.
For years, industry commentators have forecast a time when the high street would go cashless. Most agreed it would happen eventually, however, while consumers continue to carry their bank notes, cashless has been blocked from becoming a reality.
The G1 Group, Scotland’s largest hospitality group, has partnered with QikServe to bring its Order to Table product to guests across Scotland.
In a first for the UK rail industry, London North Eastern Railway (LNER) will begin trials of an ‘at-seat’ catering offer onboard trains this August. The service will enable customers to order and pay for food and drinks from their phone in the comfort of their own seat, without having to visit the onboard cafe bar.
For years, salespeople and marketers have been thinking about and planning how to attract the ‘modern consumer’. Naturally, who that consumer is has changed over the years.
QReservations, powered by Cunninghams EPOS Group has integrated with QikServe’s Preoday platform to bring a formidable combination of reservation, ordering and payment software to the hospitality industry.
Shake Shack, a critically acclaimed, modern day “roadside” burger stand, known for its 100% Aberdeen Angus beef burgers, griddled flat-top dogs, fresh-made frozen custard, crispy crinkle cut fries, beer and wine, and more; is launching click and collect ordering.
And so, the pubs, cafes and restaurants have reopened! While the redtops featured images of drunken revellers falling about in the street, for the vast majority, the reopening of their businesses was a much calmer affair. Some venues chose to delay their opening to see how the first weekend of business was dealt with by their industry colleagues, while others opened but with very limited service times or numbers.
Welcome Break, one of the UK’s leading motorway service operators, has launched its first click-and-collect ordering and payment service at Burger King at its South Mimms (M25) site ahead of a wider roll out across more brands and sites over the summer.
Given the levels of anticipation and excitement gripping the nation, it would be easy to see 4th July as the beginning of the end of the sector’s challenges. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.
With just ten days until what some people are seeing as an Independence Day for the English hospitality industry, the rules, regulations and restrictions that are to be posted on pubs, restaurants and other businesses as they re-open, are being set forth.
Support for the local community, as well as their own staff and frontline workers emerged as the most important thing a business or brand must demonstrate in order to win customers back into pubs, bars, restaurants, cafés and stores.
The most popular thing consumers are looking forward to doing first as lockdown eases is going to a restaurant (cited by 37% of consumers), while 21% want to visit a pub or bar. The last thing they’re likely to do is attend a sporting event, according to 42%.
We have all adapted our lifestyles to suit our personal living and working situation, whatever they be. Bike stores have seen sales soar (online retailer Wiggle says its UK sales have increased by 192 per cent since the start of lockdown) as people seek fun ways to exercise and spend time with families, while restaurants, pubs, coffeeshops and delis have adopted digital ordering to meet rising consumer demand for takeaway meals, grocery boxes and recipe packs.
Moto, Britain’s biggest motorway service operator, is taking another big step on the road to recovery with the launch of a click-and-collect food ordering scheme at 48 of its sites. Powered by QikServe’s Preoday product, the service will include Moto’s on-site brands and will start with the company’s Burger King outlets.
Last year, our President and Founder, Daniel Rodgers spoke at The Airport Food and Beverage (FAB) Conference and Awards about how to change consumer behavior. In Dan’s example, his favorite bus stop was crashing into. This created a burning platform situation, whereby it drove a change in his behavior. COVID-19 just set the whole hospitality sector on fire and everyone just had to jump off the platform. We now need to build a new platform, with a whole new set of service models and behaviors.
Fans of TGI Fridays will be excited to learn that from Wednesday 6th May they will be able to get their fix following the launch of its brand-new Click & Collect service at 24 carefully selected restaurants. Digital ordering provider Preoday, a QikServe company, is proud to supply the vital online ordering service which will allow fans to successfully order from a specially tailored menu made up of 22 Fridays favourite dishes.
QikServe has launched Curbside Collection, a new feature for its online and mobile ordering platform. The solution allows customers that have purchased food for takeaway to remain in their car, while operators easily locate them for on-location delivery.
For businesses wanting to engage their customers and ask them to help them in their ‘pay it forward’ mission to supply those in need with extra food and supplies, we’d like to share some suggestions.
Fabulous farm shops are stepping up and going the extra mile to support their communities in this time of need.
Digital ordering will be crucial when restaurants emerge from their COVID-19 hibernation. But what can you do now to make sure you hit the ground running when you’re able to trade freely again?
The events taking place across Britain are unprecedented, and a ‘national effort’ has been called for by economic and scientific minds. Financial help from the government has been announced, but naturally, restaurants are seeking alternative methods for attracting revenue in order to survive.
In response to the worldwide COVID-19 issues, we’re taking the following steps to ensure our service and business operations continue without disruption, but more importantly to protect our team, their families, our customers and partners.
Restaurant brands, even the smaller ones, are doin’ it for themselves!
As we wake up to the dawn of a shiny new decade, we take a look at how good past predictions were about 2020. You’ll find an eclectic mix; some hilarious, some that missed the mark and some that were scarily accurate!
The fast-casual sector, much like other areas of the hospitality industry, has been faced with multiple challenges in recent years. Recovery from the recession, minimum wage rises, increasing ground rent and changing consumer preferences and behaviors have forced operators to rethink not just their digital strategies but also their operations, especially around fulfilment. We take a deeper dive into the challenges of the fast-casual sector and how digital innovation can help not just minimize their impact, but proactively drive success.
It’s no secret there has been a steep decline in cash payments in the last few years. For the generations that have grown up with mobile in hand, never knowing the inconvenience of a world without internet, cash is being used less and less. As restaurant operators eagerly explore ways to reduce costs, make operational efficiencies and, at the same time, deliver an outstanding customer experience, we consider if cashless restaurants are an inevitability worth preparing for.
With 69% of diners saying waiting for the check the most frustrating part of the dining experience, we show how mobile pay at table can transform the payment experience for guests.
In our last post, we got to number 8 out of 12 things every restaurant operator needs to think about when preparing for a Pay at Table implementation. This week, we cover off the rest. From how guests discover your pay at table solution to, critically, getting staff buy-in, here’s what you need to consider to make sure your implementation is a success:
Here are 12 things every restaurant operator needs to think about when preparing for a Pay at Table implementation
As a guest, being able to use your mobile to pay your check the moment you’re ready to leave has the obvious benefit of being super convenient. In fact, QikServe the company was born out of an experience our Founder and President, Daniel Rodgers, had when he was eating out with his young family. He had just got settled at the table, on his own with two kids, when he realized he needed to leave them to go to the counter and order. It was then he thought this whole process of ordering and paying for food should really be available on his mobile. Quick. Easy. No need to leave kids unattended.
This article is based on Daniel’s talk at The Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Conference and Awards 2019 on ‘The Phygital Revolution: the importance of a relevant digital strategy and engaged employees for successful consumer engagement.
14 guest motivations for tipping in a restaurant and how to use them to ensure your payment interface is primed to receive gratuities
This article was first written for LinkedIn on April 12 2019. View it in its original format here.
Why removing non-value added steps from the guest journey is key to unlocking your restaurant’s maximum revenue potential
Kiosks are taking the quick-service restaurant industry by storm. From McDonald’s to Taco Bell, to Shake Shack, there’s hardly a fast food joint in town that isn’t jumping on the self-ordering bandwagon. And for good reason. Kiosks are proven to drive sales, reduce overheads, increase loyalty and streamline operations in the front and back of house. With clever menu design and strategically placed upsells and cross-sells they typically increase a store’s average transaction value by 20%, rising to 50% with best practice.
Food allergies affect an estimated 15 million people in the U.S and are responsible for around 30,000 hospital admissions and 150-200 fatalities each year. Top allergens responsible for 90% of allergic reactions to food are, in order of prevalence: dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy. Allergies are on the rise worldwide, with the number of reported allergies to peanuts in children doubling between 1997-2002.
Are you moving from a legacy system to a new state-of-the-art point of sale (POS) system?
For the purposes of this post, when we refer to travel concessions operators, we mean business that have franchise agreements with various brands and operate globally in locations such as airports, train stations and service stations.
Your restaurant staff are your biggest asset for onsite marketing and have a significant influence over guests’ use of any in-store digital solution. It is essential that front-of-house teams are properly trained on how to walk customers through the process, and field any questions they might have.
Anyone visiting Europe these days will likely have noticed the differences in the way Europeans and Americans handle card payments in restaurants. Most restaurants in the US still bring your check to the table in a wallet to place your card in, come back later to take your card to the point-of-sale system, swipe it, bring the printed check back to the table and leave it to be signed, and for you to add the tip, of course.
Business student Eilidh recently spent a week interning with the QikServe Marketing team. Read on for her daily diary to find out how she got on and what she took away from the experience.
Download your copy and check out some of the industry’s hottest topics, curating compelling insights from both in-house experts and valued partners in the payments and loyalty sectors.
QikServe has a new face in the office! Eilidh has been working in our Edinburgh HQ as part of her university internship programme. With a keen interest in health and fitness, Eilidh has been sharing hacks on how to keep healthy in the workplace, as well as interviewing staff to find out what they eat to keep their brains fuelled.
With omnichannel self-service on the rise across the F&B industry, we look at common mistakes and how to avoid them as you expand your guest-facing digital offering.
A bite-sized rundown of the top news stories from the hospitality technology industry in 2019 so far.
Opting for kiosk hardware that is cheap or incorrectly sized can affect the success of your restaurant digital strategy. Kiosk positioning is just as important,
Technology aimed at making people’s lives easier is rolling out en masse wherever you look. From asking your car to turn your lights off at home, to paying instantly by tapping your phone against an NFC point, to unlocking your device through facial recognition – 2018 tech trends have been all about stripping friction from every day transactions and providing the ultimate in convenience for time-strapped customers.
Whatever your reasons are for implementing a kiosk solution, you won’t see the results you want until people are using your kiosks time and time
Successfully deploying self-service kiosks hinges on getting a wide range of people from across the business to buy into the idea and the deployment process.
Phil’s knack for problem solving, unstoppable optimism and keen ability to really listen to people makes him the perfect person to drive our customer success activities. Here he sheds some light on what customer success is all about.
We sit down with our newest Intern, Matt Martin, to find out about his experience at QikServe so far.
With digital ordering solutions on the rise, careful and clever menu design is more important than ever. Even small formatting adjustments in a restaurant’s menu layout can have a significant economic impact on customer purchasing habits.
As part of our QikServe: The People series, we sat down with Priya to find out about her first months working with the company as a Software Engineer.
For a company developing customer-facing software, the term “User Experience” (UX) is one of the most important in our vocabulary. But what does it mean, how does it work, and how does it ultimately make a difference to the hospitality operators that use our solutions?
There’s truth in the old adage that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’ With that in mind, here’s how folk at QikServe work very hard at not being dull! From special effects to mushrooming, and archery to tarot readings, the team have a pretty weird and wonderful mix of special skills.
Do you know what tryophobia is? It’s the fear of uneven patterns. And it’s just one of the quirky
traits possessed by the eclectic mix of characters and personalities that make up the QikServe team.
From Deliveroo to DoorDash, to Uber Eats, Amazon Restaurants, and more recently – food ordering through Facebook, it seems like if you don’t occupy any real estate on third party delivery apps these days, you’re missing out, right?
This article was first written for Kiosk Marketplace on 23 July 2018. View it in its original format here.
From a notorious rabbit who thought it was a dog to an uber fluffy Samoyed who’s always in the driving seat, we have some pretty amazing four-legged friends here at QikServe.
This article was first written for LinkedeIn on July 30 2018. View it in its original format here.
We are quickly becoming a society built on instant gratification. We know what we want, we want it now, we want you to remember what we want, and we want the ability to personalize it, too!
We sit down with Customer Support Manager, Phil, to find out about his first months working with QikServe.
This article was written for LinkedIn on April 27 2018. View it in its original format here.
My colleague Mick recently blogged about how staying agile as a company helps us meet the needs of our customers. And how right he is! The agile philosophy extends throughout our business – especially into the way we develop our software.
From travel, to retail, to hospitality – self-service technology is everywhere. We are becoming a society that expects to be able to order in our own time and customize products to our liking. And with the increased efficiencies and reduced staff costs that come with self-service technology, operators are all too ready to buy-in, too. But where did it all start? New forms of consumer buying behaviour don’t happen overnight…
QikServe sits down with its subject experts to find out their take on digital self-service tech as part of their new video blog series.
This article was written for LinkedIn on April 2 2018. View it in its original format here.
We sit down with Head of Development, Alistair, to find out what his first six months have been like working from our Edinburgh-based office.
Did you know that when you order your meal from a kiosk you typically spend an average of 20% more than when giving your order to a person?
We’ve all heard it. There’s nothing worse than feeling flustered at the self-checkout; trying to flag down a member of staff while searching for tomatoes on the vine… (why are they in the vegetable category, they’re a fruit!)
When QikServe was founded nearly a decade ago, we were a mobile app service and our ‘Waiter in your Pocket’ brand fitted nicely with our position in the market. Skip forward to today, and QikServe is a very different beast to the days of the waiter in your pocket.
Going mobile can unlock a wealth of potential for your hospitality business– from an increase in bookings to easier processing of payments. The millennial customer
Order and pay technology – both in store and off premise – is nothing new in the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry. From order, pay and loyalty apps to self-service kiosk, fast food outlets such as McDonald’s, Domino’s and Panera Bread are rolling out customer-facing digital order and pay systems on mass and reaping a myriad of benefits in return. From boosted revenues (up to 20% on average), more loyal customers and reduced staff and operational-associated costs – it’s clear to see why digitising the order and pay process is a no brainer for Hospitality brands focused on customers looking for speed and convenience from their dining experience.
QikServe sits down with Project Manager and resident Australian Cait over a cuppa to find out what her first months have been like working at the company’s Edinburgh-based office.
Oracle recently published a survey looking into the use of cash in the Hospitality industry. The leading point of sale provider asked 15,000 consumers around the world about their use of cash and other payment methods in restaurants and food service outlets.
In this insightful new blog series we’ll be shining a spotlight on the passionate people at QikServe who work together to innovate and deliver order and pay solutions to the Hospitality industry.
Before implementing a digital order and pay system it’s important to make sure your business is ready for the technology.
From chatbots to biometrics to VR, 2018 is sure to be a fantastically creative, innovative and progressive year for Hospitality technology. But before we show you the future, let’s start with a quick look back on the past 12 months.
QikServe and Waracle take a look at how app store optimization (ASO) can help your mobile ordering app stand out amongst the millions of apps in the store making sure you have top billing for the long term. Waracle explains what top 3 things Hospitality operators could do to make sure their app ranks well in the app store charts:
It’s understandable that some of your staff might look at Hospitality customer self-service kiosks with some trepidation but as we explain in a previous blog, automation isn’t about replacing man with machine. Getting all your employees on board, from floor staff and management to back of house and kitchen staff, is key to making your kiosk deployment a success.
Interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown in recent years as people revere and debate realistic applications across all industries. AI activity within both the Retail and Hospitality space has been steadily increasing as brands look at ways to gain that slight advantage over their competitors and innovate, with their success or failure resting on a knife-edge as we emerge from some difficult economic times.
It seems like common sense that the more tailored the information and offers you send to your customers, the more likely they are to buy
As we covered in our last blog (3 reasons why a platform approach is the only answer to your digital strategy dilemmas), brands are recognising the need for a better, simpler way of managing their complex mix of non-integrated back end systems. In a recent study by Oracle and MCA, having enough time and integration came across as the 2 main frustrations for leaders in the restaurant sector. By moving to one master integration platform, you’ll be able to harness the power of your POS, existing CRM systems and databases, payment solutions, marketing and loyalty platforms and more. This allows each system to let their particular, specialized functionality loose on the front end for the customer’s benefit.
CMOs in the Hospitality industry are sitting on a technology systems time bomb. The past few years have seen brands in the industry go from tentatively considering web ordering as the next stage of their evolution to a full blown omni-channel land grab frantically testing kiosk, mobile and tablet ordering with suppliers of all shapes and sizes. As lauded as this enthusiasm should be, it has led to many operators facing big digital strategy dilemmas. Should they focus their efforts on one guest-facing channel? To integrate or not to integrate? And indeed, what to integrate? One digital ordering supplier or separate channel ‘specialists’..
Operators about to launch their app for ordering food often ask about how to drive engagement and get people to continue to use their app following download rather than rashly deleting it when they need space for photos or music. Strong engagement and offering real value within the mobile order app is hugely important but unless your guests can find your app, they won’t download it in the first place. This blog takes a look at how app store optimization (ASO) can help your mobile ordering app stand out amongst the millions of apps in the store making sure you have top billing for the long term.
With the dust barely settled from one of the hospitality industry’s biggest shows, we wanted to bring you a couple of our top takeaways from this year’s NRA!
The widely publicized bottleneck issues Starbucks has suffered from a pile-up of mobile orders have highlighted an interesting dilemma for quick service restaurants and coffee chains looking to embrace digital self-service but concerned about the pressures this places on fulfilment. So how do you walk the fine line between digital innovation, fulfilment and the human touch? And can brands really be all things to all people – from the digital native Millennials and Gen Zs right through to the baby boomers and those who prefer or need face-to-face assistance?
We’ve all heard about the cost-savings moving to automation promises you but what about the direct ways customer-facing self-service solutions such as mobile, tablet and kiosk can actively drive revenues for you? Here are our top 5 ways automation in your quick service restaurants can play a direct role in bolstering your bottom line:
Self-service solutions in general and mobile order and payment in particular, couldn’t be a more perfect antidote to the bustling and often stressful quick service dining environment. From moving customers through stores more efficiently and reducing staff costs to driving greater loyalty from guests, a mobile order and payment app has the potential to transform many areas of the business for the better.
In the raft of obligatory ‘Hospitality Trends to watch out for in 2017’ that we saw at the beginning of the month, one trend seemed to trump all others in terms of popular prediction coverage: Intelligent, conversational systems. We lift the lid on this emerging trend to find out what it means for hospitality and if it really deserves the top spot for tech-watch this year.
Are you a restaurant operator looking to dip your toe in the waters of automation but befuddled by the various channels on offer? Struggling to decide whether mobile order and pay is the best way to cut labour costs, if self-service kiosks are the most effective in improving the overall guest experience or if a mix and match of channels is the best way to go? Well, stop ruminating. We compare and contrast mobile, web, tablet and kiosk and how each stack up when it comes to 4 core aspects:
Funding will enable rapid roll-out of QikServe’s innovative software platform across the hospitality sector
Technology all tied up,2017 will be the year for Hospitality Operators to get their house in order from a technology solutions perspective. Many in the industry have spent the past few years testing and trialling everything from mobile ordering and payment, self-service kiosks, Bluetooth beacon marketing, digital menus and signage and much more and one of the key learnings that has come to the fore is the need to remove the complexity of underlying disparate databases and systems and for a unification of back-end systems for front-end gains.
You can’t go to any restaurant tech trade show or conference or read any hospitality resource nowadays without being bombarded with the words ‘omni-channel’ or ‘multi-channel’ guest experience. Its overuse by tech suppliers offering an all-singing, all-dancing solution, as well as the media keen to promote an impressive, progressive vision of the industry has, understandably, led to confusion as to what omni-channel and multi-channel really mean, not just for the consumer, but to operators too.
Smartphones have literally changed the way we view the world in the last decade, as shown by the incredible contrast of these two pictures taken at St Peter’s Square in Rome of crowds gathering to witness the appointment of new Popes in 2005 and 2013.
Following recent changes in the UK and US of the National Living Wage and Minimum Wage, many Hospitality and Retail operators have turned to automation to off-set their growing staff costs. A knee-jerk reaction might be to think that the robots are here to take jobs and ruin lives but there are several very valid reasons why there’s no need for a gun-toting John Conner just yet.
Your wait staff really are the unsung heroes of the hospitality industry. Often the focus of nefarious customer wrath, less than hygienic table manners and, shall we say, challenging working conditions, yet they’re the human face of your brand and, in most cases, aim to provide service with a smile. Here are some of the top things servers hate dealing with:
Waiting too long a key factor in reasons given for not tipping or leaving without paying
QikServe’s Head of Sales, Gillian Jones explains how mobile food ordering apps can take your service to the next level.
From the ALS Ice bucket challenge to WWF’s Last Selfie Snapchat campaign, the potential for a clever idea to go viral promises huge returns for brands and causes. And the market responsible for spreading this social content at such efficient pace? Millennials and Gen Z. They’re a large, diverse market with significant spending power. Pretty much born and raised with smartphone-in-hand and web at their fingertips, restaurant marketers shouldn’t underestimate their relationship with technology and social. With that in mind, here are 5 viral social media campaigns you can take inspiration from making it easy for guests to share what they love about you online and via apps:
QikServe’s Head of Sales, Gillian Jones explains how mobile order and pay apps can help restaurants, cafés, bars and other Hospitality operators engage guests to foster greater levels of loyalty.
During the summer months, there’s nothing better than adding a dollop of sun worshipping to a platter of your favorite food and a glass of chilled rosé – presenting you with some sizzling sales opportunities. But outside dining also poses some real operational challenges. When 70% of people would increase their dwell time if al fresco table service was available and 48% say slow or poor service most puts them off eating outside, let mobile pick up the slack to make sure your sun worshipping diners never leave early because of bad service.
QikServe’s Head of Sales, Gillian Jones explains how restaurant food ordering apps can be used to really get to know your guests with automatic data capture that informs preferences and drives personalisation.
In the wake of the recent manslaughter verdict Hospitality operators should turn to technology to better protect guests
QikServe’s Head of Sales, Gillian Jones explains how Restaurants, Bars, Cafes, Casinos and other Hospitality operators can use mobile apps to attract guests to their venues. From personalised offers, smart mobile loyalty to location based alerts – here’s how you can use mobile get ahead in a highly competitive market.
Over two-thirds of consumers are using mobile devices for travel research/booking but they’re unimpressed by hotel apps or unaware of their existence
Still undecided about whether we should stay or leave the EU? Unsure of what your decision will mean for the Hospitality industry? As the referendum looms ever closer, we’ve done a round-up of what’s being said from both camps which might help you make your decision:
Welcome to the final installment of our short blog series on loyalty in the restaurant sector. In our last blogs, we uncovered five key areas for loyalty improvement, and today we want to round things off by covering the final five points to help you make the most of your program.
Is your guest-facing technology plagued by silos of information, disparate databases and a spaghetti junction of separate systems that don’t talk to each other? Are you failing to get the most from your data and CRM systems and overwhelmed by where to start to fix this situation?
Failing to uncover those crucial, profit-boosting insights from your customer data? Here’s an expert to explain what’s going wrong.
This year, some of the lowest paid workers (mostly in the retail and hospitality industries) will receive a basic pay rise on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US, wages are set to raise to $15/hour from a federal minimum of $7.25 and in the UK a national living wage of £7.20/hour (up from £6.70) come into force this month for anyone 25 years or over.
we introduced the idea that loyalty programs in the fast casual sector have fallen far behind the programs seen in other sectors and that mobile technology has the ability to change things for operators.
Prolific, global smartphone adoption matters because if you’re a restaurant, hotel, casino or stadium and you don’t have a mobile strategy, it’s time you got one! Whether operators are ready for it or not, smartphone penetration will only grow along with consumer expectation for mobile self-service.
Lackluster schemes and blind guessing at what customers want are killing loyalty program effectiveness for fast casual restaurant operators. So what’s the secret to conquering
A beautifully convenient mobile app, engaging, interactive digital signage, handy table-side tablet ordering, a redesigned, responsive website – whatever sparkly, new technology you’ve just invested in, you won’t see a penny of ROI if your customers aren’t using it and many won’t without a good dollop of encouragement.
Are you a restaurant, hotel, casino, stadium or other Hospitality provider that’s guilty of overlooking the over 50s when it comes to implementing new guest-facing technologies? It’s costing you sales.
An EMV storm is brewing in the US and has got many hospitality operators battening down the hatches. In short, EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa have clubbed together to set the standards for chip card payment.
Gaming profitable but need a boost of those ancillary sales? Desperate to keep players at tables for longer but flagging down wait-staff getting the better of them? Look no further than the digitalisation of your guest-facing services.
Room service revenues have dropped 9.5% from 2007 to 2012 according to Market Watch, prompting some hotels to ditch the service altogether. If your room service sales in need of resuscitation and you want to modernise this legacy service but unsure of how to do it affordably, well, forget little white linened trolleys and Downton-style silver cloched dishes.
Are you a restaurant, hotel, casino or other player in the Hospitality business looking to modernise the order and pay process but find you’re wrestling with the age-old mobile vs. tablet debate?
5 crowd-busting tips to keep your customers happy throughout the holiday mayhem
5 lessons on improving conversion rates from the online world that work just as well with diners
Is your restaurant striving for lighting fast service and high speed turnaround but not willing to compromise the customer experience? Are your staff efficient but sometimes find they’re jumping the gun on bringing the bill? We take a look at how over-eager staff might mean losing out on some last minute profits and how mobile might be the answer to getting your timing just right.
Millennials’ love of mobile is nothing new but the level of that addiction might surprise you. A Cisco report revealed that the internet is as important as air, water, food and shelter to 1 in 3 college students and young professionals and the way they access it is through their phones.
Restaurant owners and operators are catching on fast. They’re realising that tech-savvy brands are reaping the rewards of new web and mobile-enabled services that get tables turned faster and keep customers coming back for more.
Loyalty is unquestioning trust but restaurant owners and hospitality operators need more than that to keep their customers coming back. Emotional sentiment is the secret sauce to consumer loyalty, and when a dollop of positive emotional feeling is added to trust, it can elicit more than just repeat business – you may even have gained a valuable social brand ambassador.
Business travel has its upsides: you get to go to some interesting locations and more often than not, have interesting conversations.
Tripadvisor is riddled with reviews such as, “Excellent facilities, shame about the hard sell,” and “Terrible restaurant, hard sell all night.” It just proves this sales approach is seen as an annoyance at best and a scam at worst.
The word ‘loyalty’ is banded about by marketers pretty flippantly nowadays but for many restaurant owners and operators, it really does make or break their business so they can’t afford to get it wrong.
With the astonishing rate of deployment and, more importantly, success of mobile self-service throughout the Travel industry today, Hospitality should really sit up and take note.
Today’s mobile addiction has many restaurateurs up in arms. USA Today reported that US chef R. J. Cooper branded mobiles at the table “one of the worst trends ever” because they distract customers and restaurant workers from the dining experience.
Edinburgh, April 8, 2015 – QikServe, which provides technology to the hospitality industry allowing customers to order and pay directly by mobile phone, has announced a deal with HMSHost International, the world’s leading provider of food and beverage services to travellers at over 100 airport locations worldwide.
Go digital, seriously digital Gen-Y expect connectivity and instantaneousness in where they live, work and play. Make sure your website is informative, accessible on any
The 2014 Oracle’s MICROS Users Conference is designed to strengthen
your knowledge and open a dialogue with your peers, with our MICROS
team as well as with our business partners, as we discuss current trends
in our industry. We are confident that the coming days will allow you to
deep dive into all areas of modern hospitality, to share stories and your
passion of our day-to-day opportunities and challenges.
It won’t be a surprise to those attending @Hotelympia as you have probably seen us on the MICROS stand but for some time now we
QikServe and PayPal enable customers to order and pay for food and drink on their phone.
In exactly 100 days from now, the world cup begins, and this year is set to be a massive year for sport and hospitality. Without
TCG’s flagship Covent Garden venue offers at-seat ordering and payment via QikServe app as firm seeks to engage and build loyalty with consumers.
Introduction Don’t just pay, have it all your own way! As a tech business dedicated to helping hospitality consumers access service through their smartphone the
Portsmouth FC is pushing the boundaries of fan engagement with innovative technology solutions. Augmented reality programmes, Ticketing via social media and large screens all there
Southampton, the smart airport. Customers traveling through the airport will be able to take advantage of our innovative service. This will make their time in
Pompey’s innovative partnership with QikServe takes another massive step forward at the Exeter game on Saturday. Fans in the Fratton End will be able to
Get merchandise delivered to your seat Portsmouth Football Club is delighted to announce an innovative partnership with the mobile technology company ‘QikServe’ to provide fans
QikServe has partnered with Delaware North Companies (UK) to bring mobile self-ordering to the passengers at Edinburgh International Airport. The Fringe Bar is the first venue in
Well, Isn’t this weather glorious? As I sit outside a coffee shop with my laptop open I realise just how many service barriers exist even
PRESS RELEASE Saltire Hospitality rolls out QikServe app for over 4,000 seats Edinburgh, UK – March 1st, 2013 – Mobile technology company,QikServe, today announced the first
So, a new year is always a good time for a bit of reflection. One word springs to mind about 2012, WOW! It is clear
Insight into consumer behaviour costs you money, right? Wrong! In these hard times operators are resorting to heavy discounting and promotion to gain access to
Amongst stiff competition from over 300 of the most innovative hospitality brands from around the world, QikServe was voted the Great New Idea by the
Mobile restaurant ordering app using customer’s own smartphone launched in UK by Peter Ruddick Click on the link to read the articlehttp://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Business/Mobile-restaurant-ordering-app-using-customer-s-own-smartphone-launched-in-UK
Well, what a reception we got at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago! In the ever-growing technology pavilion there was a clear trend evident,
QikServe™ is a revolutionary product that enables diners to place food and drinks orders via a smartphone. We have a stand (#5666) at the National
The second service is a frustrating dilemma on both the part of the restaurant operator, and the diner. The operator looses a sale and the diner is
The benefits of customers self ordering in reducing costs are actually really obvious. It is the other stuff that can really impact your bottom line.
QikServe is not just about business efficiency and customer convenience. We want to see more people eating out and being social. QikServe is designed from
So, we haven’t let up and are still moving at pace! Working hard to get a QikServe restaurant near you. We have also been finding
Well, today was a big day!! Our website went live, as did all our social media. This is a massive milestone for the QikServe™ business
A search for the food and hospitality industry’s best servers has been launched by QikServe. The Serving Superstars competition is open to any professional food and/or drink servers; the winner will be awarded a £1000 super tip. Servers can be nominated by anyone including their employers, colleagues, or satisfied customers.
