From a rise in contactless payments to a growing need for contactless dining, the world is evolving rapidly and this is also in part due to the effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Andrew Robbins, President & Co-founder, Paytronix Systems Inc. joins us in this interview to talk about the changes in direct to consumer experiences and payments.
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Hi Andrew! Welcome to GlobalFintechSeries!
We’d love a few of your thoughts on how the effects of the ongoing pandemic are impacting a shift in innovations and need for newer / more feasible products in overall direct payment systems?
The hospitality industry is under intense stress. It depends on people coming together, and that activity is exactly what the pandemic threatens. Much of the technology we need to survive this has been around for a long time and is ready for deployment and scale, but here in the States, consumer adoption has been slow. Asia, for example, embraced mobile payments much faster, to the point that it’s just natural part of life in many countries there.
The innovations here are less about entirely new technologies, but instead about helping the population embrace new ways of thinking. Most people have a smartphone. They understand QR codes, they know that their phone can be used to pay for things, and they’re used to shopping online. The new world of hospitality is about connecting the shifting consumer behavior to existing technology, then learning how to use that information to enhance the experience and build strong relationships.
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Could you tell us about Paytronix’s latest product and also, what other innovations / features do you and the team have planned for the next few months to help users / businesses meet challenges as the Covid-19 pandemic still remains and unfolds over the next few months?
Paytronix Contactless Dining lets restaurants offer a true restaurant experience while adhering to social distancing guidelines. It’s a mobile product that allows guests to select menu items, order multiple rounds of food and drink, make special requests, and ultimately pay at the end of the meal.
We’re set apart by two key features. First is the ability to keep tabs open, so just as you would have done at a bar before Covid-19, you can open a tab and order multiple rounds, or order an appetizer, then later order your entrée. This is very different from a mobile takeout ordering platform in which you order everything at once and then complete with a payment. Of course, we integrate with point of sale systems so that orders go right from the guest’s cell phone to the kitchen.
Second, by putting the payment timing in the hands of the customer, they can finalize the order and leave when they’re done instead of having to flag down a server and go through multiple physical touches to complete the payment.
What would you say are the top needs that ecommerce and direct to consumer businesses need more of now to help business continuity efforts as social distancing is also observed?
This is all about operational efficiency. One of the interesting things we’ve seen is restaurants entirely rethinking their physical infrastructure to cater to a changing sales environment. Dining rooms have turned into production and distribution stations, parking lots have become carhops, and curbs turned into drive-thrus.
Restaurants are going to need flexible technology that can integrate multiple layers and functions to meet the needs of the future. Every company, even the mom and pop restaurant, needs to learn to leverage ecommerce. That customization is key, and people want what they want when they want it. This means integrating loyalty with payments so that those transactions happen quickly and simultaneously. It means making sure that rewards can be used no matter how someone is ordering, and it means working carefully with the third-party aggregators like Postmates, Uber Eats and GrubHub so that you can access that audience without cannibalizing your own.
We’d love your thoughts on some new innovations in how emerging tech has changed ecommerce / customer experience in direct to customer delivery and product lifecycle, how do you see this impact the marketplace on the whole?
As we move forward, restaurants will need to learn how to balance orders coming from multiple sources and being delivered in multiple forms. A kitchen will have to parse orders coming in from the web, phone calls, third-party aggregators, or even from people who came to order in person. Those orders will need to be prepared simultaneously, then packaged and shipped to the right end point. Then they’ll have on-premise orders coming from the wait staff or a mobile device that need to go out to tables in a specified order.
On top of all of this, you’ll have menu decisions happening around both promotions and destinations. Many of our customers keep certain menu items off the third-party platforms, while others can only be ordered on-site. They will need technology to manage all of this, given that the pandemic has effectively trained the customer to order very differently.
Tag (mention/write about) the one person in the fintech /finance / B2B Tech industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read!
I would love to hear what Melinda Roylett would have to say about these questions. She has a unique set of experiences that span countries, companies like Square and Uber, and sales models from B2B to SMB and direct B2C.
Would you like to share specific finance management or business tips for Marketing and Sales teams struggling through this uncertain time?
I have three pieces of advice:
1) Be optimistic. I have found that with each market disruption comes a huge amount of opportunity. At this particular time, many businesses are feeling an existential threat. They know they have to change what they are doing to survive, and that means they are willing to adopt new technologies, even technologies that may disrupt their operational practices.
2) Listen to the Customer. Forget what you know from many years of experience of talking to customers. Right now, assume you know nothing and that you are listening for the first time. Customers are talking about problems in slightly different ways. Words like “contactless” are taking on new meanings. The subtle differences in language provide clues as to how you can reposition your marketing and sales pitch efforts so they resonate with new client needs and create new demand.
3) Be Nimble. The best way to be nimble right now is to shorten your time scale. There are dramatic changes going on and you may be enticed into making very big long-term product changes that may take a long time to deliver. Right now, there may be small changes that will let you address a new opportunity quickly.
Paytronix is a provider of SaaS customer experience management (CXM) solutions for restaurants and convenience stores. Through its innovative software design and integrations with more than 30 widely used point-of-sale systems, Paytronix empowers more than 400 brands across nearly 30,000 locations, giving them the flexibility to deliver unique, revenue-enhancing guest experiences.
Andrew Robbins is the President & Co-founder of Paytronix Systems, he loves technology and using technology to solve basic human problems. He was drawn to the restaurant industry because he saw a way to build a platform that would make the restaurateur money while also solving basic problems around communication, ordering, and loyalty. He loves swimming, rowing, woodworking, and any project in which he can engage a family member, from siblings to parents.
