Contactless Tech Adoption | What are the early stats?
Our Head of Ready Laurent May was recently featured on The Tech Chef podcast with industry veteran Skip Kimpel. The discussion focused on contactless payment, which has really come to the fore during the COVID-19 crisis. Among other things they also touched on Ready user adoption rates, o we thought we’d share some early insights on the reception contactless tech is receiving.
Are guests comfortable with QR code technology?
There is no question acceptance and adoption of contactless tech/ QR codes has accelerated greatly with COVID-19. People are discovering that this new and safer way to pay is also a really powerful way to seamlessly interact with the world around them. Although QR codes have been considered less approachable in the past, recent circumstances have meant people are more willing to try things they perhaps weren’t open to previously. While QR codes may not seem very friendly at first, there are no shortage of opportunities within the digital experience behind them to surprise and delight guests.
Was Ready contactless payment popular pre-COVID?
Over the last 2-3 years within the Ready network we were seeing usage stats sitting anywhere from 12-20% during peak times, and these stats were heavily skewed by the demographic of the guest, what was happening in the restaurant, how busy the staff were, their engagement with the product, and how long guests had to wait to pay their check. While our focus is and has always been on removing every point of friction we could from the payment experience, unless guests were desperate to pay and leave, or just interested to try our solution, the majority of diners (up to 90%) didn’t have the opportunity to experience Ready. We knew that would change in time, we just didn’t anticipate a global pandemic would be the precursor.
Where is contactless payment now?
As venues begin to reopen mid-COVID, apprehension and health concerns are high, and diners are having to adapt to a completely new on-premise dining experience which no doubt has accelerated product market fit for the contactless payment space. As such, barriers to product adoption that used to exist have now been replaced with an expectation of safety and most importantly, choice. Recent usage data shows we have restaurants in the Ready network that have with the majority of payments going through Ready. We’re seeing 50,60 and up to 70% of payments being processed on the Ready platform and being an integrated solution, operations are streamlined considerably for the venue.
Why such high adoption?
Obviously, people’s desire for contactless options is driving our usage up – but we believe it’s more than that. We encourage restaurant operators seeking to implement contactless payment to consider the longer term, and what level of payment experience they want guests to have at the conclusion of their meal. It is after all an opportunity not only to offer choice, but to ensure the new process of paying the check far surpasses the old one and is as free of barriers as possible. Turning a 10-20 minute wait for the check into less than a 30 second payment experience? That’s pretty powerful.
There are a lot of solutions out there checking the ‘contactless payment’ boxes but we are encouraging venues to really dig deeper to see what the transaction involves from the guest perspective. Is the signage standardized and clear? Do they have to download and app? Do they have to register? Does its Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards? Is it fast? Is it friendly? Is it approachable? Is it intuitive?
We’ve refined and improved our product over years of development, and we believe it is now paying dividends in our adoption rates. The reviews restaurants are seeing also points to high guest satisfaction at the conclusion of their meal, with payment being of course just a small but integral part of that.
Reframing the essence of ‘transaction’
The Ready difference is that we approach the dining and payment experience holistically, and from a user’s perspective. We urge operators to wishing to partner with new tech solutions to like Ready to embrace a much broader vision. This is not a technology product, this is a way for people to interact with your restaurant however they choose – and that has always been the cornerstone of our product philosophy.
Listen now for more on the Ready payment experience and learn about our additional products that cater to the dining experience end to end (from digital menu to reviews).