There is more than one way to skin a cat!

Contactless order and pay is here to stay. Introduced to the world back in 2007, this technology became especially popular during COVID-19. Moreover, it seems that the relevance of contactless order & pay is only growing and there are multiple reasons for this; Increase in order value, increase in efficiency and increase in profitability.  We can be sure that ordering at restaurants is changing forever – this is in part due to the large step forward that the public made towards digital adoption during the COVID pandemic.

Given this trend, it’s not surprising that more and more hospitality businesses are implementing contactless order & pay in their venues. Whether it’s a local coffee shop or a large event complex with catering services, at seat dining on trains   the technology is easy to set up and use efficiently.  In recent years we’ve spotted, not only the growth of external providers of contactless services but also more hospitality businesses deciding to launch their in-house solutions  Such well-known brands as Pizza Hut or Joe & Juice have successfully utilised their own apps – but is this not an option for every hospitality company?

To help you with an informed decision, Ordamo has prepared an extensive guide for both options.

In-house solution – Why should you choose this?

User experience and trust
The customer journey is tailored to the brands requirements and options like; loyalty, reviews, takeaway etc. can all be consolidated in to your own solution.  
Guests will be able to make the most of this convenient approach – you build the platform with the functionality and process that matches your needs.
In-house solutions may increase your customers’ trust too. The attitude towards the digital trust environment is still building up in the UK.  Having a digital ordering option of your own brand can give confidence to hesitant customers.

Availability and support

Having your own technology team on board allows you to drive the direction and speed of development. Design and functionality can be discussed directly with your developers as your technology team is focused purely on your requirements.
Your own technology support team will be totally focused on your own issues (That will undoubtedly pop up!) and the journey to resolution is set by your own team setting expectation levels.

Marketing and brand management

Having an in-house “contactless order and pay solution” can be beneficial for brand management. Integration of this solution to your online channels for digital marketing is an essential part of business these days, with more on-line engagement from customers and then offering them a shop window via the contactless order and pay solution can provide a great ROI. 

Why should you choose a partner ?As the hospitality industry required an immediate response to COVID-19, tech professionals rapidly stepped up to deal with this challenge, at last the QR code was put to good use. Today, we can see that the demand for this solution is quickly growing: BigHospitality reports that over 60% of Gen Z and younger millennials spot the importance of the mobile ordering function whereas only 15% of over-55-olds share this view too.

Since the pandemic started, sales through digital ordering have increased three times and most of that came from new customers. Certainly, these numbers show that demand is high – this means that there is a high risk of damaging the potential revenue to your business if you are unable to offer this solution to your guests, speed of delivery is essential. Can you afford the time to build your own ? 

Optimised time and finance
For many hospitality businesses, outsourcing software development saves a lot of money. According to Brickhost, having an external digital provider is cheaper than bringing together an in-house team. In addition, you’re working with experienced  professionals – and this means that you are spending less on design, specification, development, QA & training and leveraging the combined experience of a team who has done this many times before.

Bamboo Agile highlights that, when working with a partner, you are  exempted from the internal issues and complexities of running a team and can focus on the deliverables from the solution.   What’s more, Arkbauer  states  that outsourcing technology can be more efficient for  human resources departments, as there’s no need to manage lengthy hiring processes anymore let alone meet the challenge of finding good staff in the current climate.

Reliability and flexibility

The total cost of a reliable, robust infrastructure today is only going one way, up! The initial specification of a solution soon experiences “scope creep”, more storage and processing power is required and the only way to make this affordable at the small to medium sized end of business is to share the cost of this with other customers and take advantage of the economies of scale.

There is more than one way to skin a cat’. Leveraging the combined knowledge and experience from a team that have built and installed contactless order and pay technology in to restaurants before Is undoubtably a short cut to immediate success. The many ways various restaurants and other industries have worked can be shared and new process and customer journeys can offer a very different view on the best way to run your business.  
Highest expertise level available

Hiring people consumes time. Additionally, it’s not always possible to get the best industry talents on board. Although the availability of experienced tech developers and consultants may look like a small detail in the whole picture, this shouldn’t be underestimated.

Working with a solid partner and  renowned technology experts, is one of the key factors helping your hospitality business to stand out in the competitive environment nowadays. As more and more brands are going digital, your partner should provide exceptional knowledge and experience, giving  you an advantage. The smaller business can now complete with larger ones by picking premium specialists. 

Closing the loop, hospitality tech providers, Ordamo benefit from team members with extensive industry experience. Their experience and knowledge is fed in to the development cycle creating what feels like a bespoke solution.

The final decision?
We appreciate that each hospitality business is different. A lot of things depend on your budget, size, resources, skills and available time. 
So before you start implementing any contactless ordering platform, consider your business plan and strategy, take in to account the  digital expectations of your new customers, understand that this environment is moving fast and what the customers expectations are today will probably be different tomorrow.We hope that this guide will help you in considering some of the details and if you are looking for a partner that really is “the cats whiskers” then don’t hesitate to contact us at Ordamo

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