Business


limited time. But Cornhill agrees with survey respondents that mobile ordering does not suit fine-dining. “There’s a place for ordering using your own device, and I don’t think it sits at the high-end,” he says. “If you look at the research, speed of service is clearly the key driver, so for quick-service environments, where things are time-driven, using your own device to order is a solution.” Cornhill claims operators can buy his mobile ordering solution for less than a cup


Who is using mobile ordering?


The outfit operates mobile ordering for pick-up or in-seat delivery at the Levi’s Stadium. “That’s all of its 65,000 seats,”


says Evans, “and it includes food and beverage as well as a limited menu of team merchandise.” Given a choice, about 45%


of people pick up with 55% having orders delivered to their seat, says Evans. And the firm is experimenting further. “At a Miami Dolphins game last


St Pancras Renaissance Hotel


Marriott Group Gareth Banner is general manager at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. He also looks after MI + ME, an upmarket quick-service restaurant on the grand terrace inside the station, where he’s trialing mobile ordering with tablets on tables. “The station is a very transient


location. There’s that awkward 10 minutes where you have got to catch somebody’s eye, they come over with the bill, then the chip and pin machine, then go away again and come back with a receipt. [In that situation] people should be able to vacate the table at will,” says Banner. “People’s expectations are very different than having afternoon tea in a five-star hotel.” If the trial goes well, parent


group Marriott International could roll it out more broadly. Banner says the group is also “having conversations” with the firm behind Wagamama’s payment app, which he rates from personal experience. “A big entity like ours, as much


as we would like to work with some exciting upstart, the reality is


people like to see it proven,” says Banner. “Wagamama has blazed a trail. We are talking to the same people at a corporate level.” The tablet trial has increased speed of service and Banner believes that mobile ordering and payment “will soon be second nature for all of us, so we need to future-proof the way we do business.”


Benito’s Hat Ben Fordham, founder of Benito’s Hat, says the Mexican restaurant has experimented with mobile pre-ordering with mixed results. “We’ve found that our


customers really value seeing our food. There’s all the same choice with a mobile pre-ordering, but you don’t get to ‘eat with your eyes’ and make the choices that way,” says Fordham. “We have a facility that enables


customers to pre-order, but the take up has not been as big as we had hoped. So improving and implementing a slicker system is on the radar – but not a priority for us at the moment.”


Centreplate Centreplate caters for stadia and major events. The firm has no mobile ordering and payment technology in the UK, stating that “robust” communications infrastructure is harder to fit in older venues. But the US is another story. “We have been using mobile


ordering via tablets and cell phones for years now,” says Diana Evans, Centerplate’s vice-president of marketing and communications.


season, we worked with Twitter on a test run of a new program that allowed fans to tweet @beerme and we would run them a Budweiser to their seat, and take a credit card or cash for payment.” Evans believes the main barrier


is reception and connectivity in a full stadium, and that the second factor is consumer adoption. “Consumers in the venue need


to be aware of the possibility and in a mind-set to use it. That is where integrating food and beverage with other facets of the stadium app – like ticketing and parking and instant replays or exclusive coverage – comes in,” she says. “That way it is a seamless part of the experience and they aren’t segmenting their mobile interface by function.”


“Speed of service is clearly the key driver, so for quick-service environments, where things are time-driven, using your own device to order is a solution” Graham Cornhill


IN ASSOCIATION WITH


of coffee per day. While cheaper than expected by most of those surveyed by The Caterer, Cornhill believes cultural inertia is a big- ger barrier than cost: many who profess an appetite for progress are actually fearful of systemic change, he says. Cornhill concedes those barriers will remain until the market drives change. “Con- sumers will ask, ‘why haven’t you got mobile ordering here?’ That is when the market takes off,” he says. “But I think we are at least 18 months off that.”


Levi’s Stadium www.thecaterer.com


REX


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