Rebecca McFarland, Flybuy:
Hello! My name is Rebecca McFarland and I am the Vice President of Marketing at Flybuy. We’d like to welcome you to our 9th episode of the Flybuy webinar series: “Restaurants Emerging from Covid – The New Not-So-Normal.” Today we will cover current market conditions, technology and innovation in off-premise solutions, and of course, the challenges that the restaurant industry still faces from Covid. I am really excited to hear from our industry experts from IHOP, Qdoba, and Tarka Indian Kitchen who will share their insights on the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Feel free to leave a question for our panelists in the comment box during the webinar, and we will try to answer as many as possible at the end of the episode.

A few topics we will discuss today are:
– How to address the labor issues and maximize labor efficiency post-Covid
– How to juggle off-premise and dine-in customers
– How to grow your mobile/online ordering
– How to invest in the right technology for your restaurant
– How to successfully shift from FIFO (First in, First Out) to a term that we coined, FAFO (First Arrived, First Out) — where restaurants prioritize the order prep based on arrival times instead of the time that the order is placed.

Now, I’d love to introduce the panelists:

Matt Davis is the Director of Strategic Operations Implementations at IHOP. He has over 25 years of experience in restaurant, retail, and e-commerce-focused organizations. His career started in the restaurant business, but before joining IHOP, Matt was Director of Operations for an LA-based consumer goods startup and a District Manager for Starbucks Coffee Company.

Vik Rao is the Senior Project Manager with the Operations Services team at Qdoba Restaurant Corporation. Vik has been an Industrial Engineer in the food service sector for more than a decade, leading initiatives to help elevate restaurant operations, efficiency, and guest experience. Prior to joining Qdoba Mexican Eats, Vik oversaw Ops Simplification and digital strategy for brands like Pizza Hut & KFC in the US and Canada.

Tinku Saini is the CEO & Co-Founder at Tarka Indian Kitchen. He has been running restaurants for 25 years, and was previously the executive chef and owner of a contemporary full-service restaurant, Clay Pit, in Austin. Tinku is responsible for operations, business development and expansion, and he has hopes to grow his 9-store Texas chain to become THE national fast-casual brand for Indian Food in the United States and beyond.

Last but not least, I want to introduce you to our very own, Jeff Baskin, who will moderate the discussion today. Jeff is the Chief Business Officer here at Flybuy and is responsible for the strategic direction, growth, and expansion of our off-premise solutions. Jeff has more than 20 years of omni-channel retail experience, and he has worked with hundreds of major brands in the restaurant, retail, grocery, hospitality, and sport & entertainment verticals, helping provide great customer experiences and operational efficiencies for off-premise solutions.

And now, I’ll hand it over to Jeff!

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy
Thank you so much Rebecca.
I’m very happy to be hosting such a diverse group of operators today from IHOP, Qdoba, and Tarka. Very different food concepts and service models, but all dealing with very similar issues affecting their businesses. I’ve had the opportunity to work with each of them for quite awhile now, so I know their expertise in the space, and what they have been dealing with over the last 18 months…and more specifically, what they’ve been working on over the last 6 months will not only be informative but also inspirational.

I was recently meeting with a large chain partner of ours and the dinner discussion was about their district managers having to make decisions on trimming store hours, closing doors, or turning off online ordering because they simply couldn’t manage the order volume in the current environment. These are the types of decisions that operators have to make right now and it’s crazy. These are very different problems than what we spoke about in our webinar last year, and frankly, even a little more difficult. As we come out of Covid, dine-in restrictions are being lifted, but restaurants are now facing these new challenges. Staff are juggling dine-in guests and a continued increase in off-premise orders, as 68% of consumers are now more likely to order takeout than they were before the pandemic, and they’re striving to deliver an exceptional experience for both. More concerning, and less predicted, restaurants are also dealing with major labor shortages and disrupted supply chain issues. Not surprisingly, a survey of restaurants found that 72% of operators rated recruitment and retention of workforce as their top challenge.

If you would have told me 18 months ago that the skyrocketing price of chicken and huge incentives for hiring would be what we are talking about now I would not believe you. But that is where we are and why I’m excited to speak with Matt, Tinku, and Vik about how they are handling these issues, and continuing to build innovative off-premise solutions.

Matt, are things starting to improve with this labor shortage? What has IHOP done to ensure your restaurants are running as efficiently as possible with less staff?

Matt Davis, IHOP
I will say that it is a mixed bag. We’ve got franchisees that have one restaurant, we have franchisees that have 3 restaurants, and we have franchisees that have 100 restaurants. Everyone came out of Covid in a different situation, and it depended on how you handled it going through. In our case IHOP, we are the franchisor, so we don’t have company operated restaurants, our focus is primarily supporting franchisees through our field teams consisting of business consultants and marketing groups. Our marketing group had a national hiring day for our franchisees, and we had some great results. We have an engagement page on the IHOP website where there is a simple ‘apply now’ button that helps out franchisees staffing their locations. But generally speaking it is case by case. The labor shortage feels like the backdrop for a lot of the issues, not exclusively, but primarily for the restaurant industry. In areas that you mention in chicken, and the supply chain, and costs of goods. Being able to get items off of ports and into containers. From restaurant staffing, to restaurant vendors, to downstream supply chain, all are pieces of the labor shortage pie affecting everyone right now. I would say, If I am looking back on my career in the restaurant industry, people are looking at restaurants and QSRs, and looking at this space in general, it is a great place to start building skills and start a career. My dad had a military career, and he said that the restaurant industry is a great place to start building skills, and a way to have cash in your pocket for a lifetime. We hope that things change and start moving in that direction. We see signs of life out there, and we are hopeful.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
When it comes to your off-premise solutions and the increased volume that Qdoba is seeing, how are you handling the surge during this shortage? What types of digital solutions or other processes have you put in place to optimize labor efficiency?

Vik Rao, Qdoba:
You are absolutely right. The supply/demand situation has changed significantly over the last 18 months. For Qdoba, one of the things that has helped us navigate the situation right now and mitigate the field to initiate the system that we put in place. On a management level, where we quantify operation on complexity, and what a new strategy could bring to the field. The calling approach to show the impact of all initiatives. From a technology perspective as well, our main focus is introducing solutions that are making life easier for our managers and crew members. For instance, focusing on the distilling side of things, for our assembly line the goal is to streamline all of the orders, trying to tackle online and in-person orders at the same time. Streamline the entire order process. Similarly, Flybuy has a solution for us to streamline our curbside orders through the geolocation capabilities and the color-coordinated notifications. This helps our team members understand when to actually start working on an order. This helps us time it correctly, and have the food more fresh and not sitting on the shelf for too long. In addition, Flybuy also helps us improve operations on a performance basis, by helping us isolate and solve specific problems. It has taken a lot to get us up and running again in these past 18 months.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
Staffing levels remain 14 percent below pre-pandemic levels according to the National Restaurant Association. Have you had to use some incentives to attract new talent?

Tinku Saini, Tarka Indian Kitchen:
“Yeah, of course. Just like everyone else we had to compete with everyone else. We have had to do a number of things, and chief among those is to make sure that your pay rates are competitive. I think the days of thinking you can get a dishwasher or a line cook for 10/11 bucks an hour are gone. Now you have to make sure that you are paying a competitive rate, and I think thats the first thing. A lot of our employees work multiple jobs, so we’ve had their second jobs try to poach them, offering them ridiculous amounts of money. Hourly rates of $20-25 dollars an hour. What we tell them is ‘look, that’s not sustainable. You’ve been here with us, we want you here to stay.” and we have a company culture that they enjoy. It did not always match what other companies were offering, but you have to be competitive regardless. The other thing we found to be pretty impactful was our employee referral program. So $200 to the person who refers an employee after they have been there for 90 days. We were presently surprised with the amount of applicants we got through that. We also considered doing the signing bonus and we ultimately decided against doing that. And then you know making sure that your application and hiring experience is as frictionless as possible. Now our hiring signs have QR codes where you can just put your camera on it and apply quickly online. When someone applies, the speed you have to get back to those people is extremely important. For us it’s 30 minutes, man. We just feel like for us, if you don’t get back to them that quickly, they are already going to have moved on. For me, the most important thing is to hold on to your existing trained employees for dear life. The amount of time it takes to train an employee to make fresh to order Indian food, is a little bit different than, you know, making a hamburger. There is a lot of value, even when you are paying a little bit more per hour, then the alternative and turnover rate. Even when you get a new employee, the food quality is not going to be as good as it is from a trained employee. So all of those factors, we feel that just paying a bit more is far more advantageous than dealing with that turnover. Ultimately you have to be less picky now. We have always liked to give people chances, especially in regards to if they did not have a ton of experience at the start. We feel like we can train you up to be the person we need you to be, as long as you have certain personality traits and have reliable transportation, you show up for the interview. There are some basic things you need to have done. You still need to be able to make cuts if the newer employees just are not getting it by a certain time frame.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
Matt, Dine Brands just announced the launch of Flybuy PIckup at Applebee’s and IHOP locations. How have new technologies like location based solutions helped with the increase of off-premise orders, and more importantly, how has it been received by staff?

Matt Davis, IHOP
Let me answer that in reverse. Easiest to hardest. For our employees, it is super intuitive. I’d say, driving and early adopters, at the employee level has been remarkably easy compared to some other technology based initiatives. Even, you know, you’re talking about things like point of sale and kitchen placements. This is not like that, this is easy, the user experience is very friendly, and it enhances their experience to perform great with the guests, and that is something every employee wants to do. I’d say it is a little early for us to say in regards to how much it has really impacted our traffic, specifically where we would target repeat business. I will say one of the trends we have notice when we get guests feedback, and that is huge for us, nothing is better than direct customer feedback. The average guest appears to have higher expectations for curbside and in-store pickup, and we have had to pivot in meeting that demand. We are confident that these off-premise solutions we have, induced with a little marketing, can really have great success in this department. We are feeling really confident, and with a ton of customer feedback, reaffirming just how high the expectations are now for off-premise experience.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
Is third party delivery a necessary evil? Are you embracing the 3rd party delivery marketplaces or are you trying to steer traffic to your site for delivery? And how can you make that process more efficient and more profitable?

Tinku Saini, Tarka Indian Kitchen:
I kind of look at this in 3 different phases. There was pre-pandemic, where 3rd party delivery was increasing every year, and I do not think we were quick enough to react to the net margins on that. The sales were great, but the margins were not where they needed to be. So once we solved for that, which was in early 2019, through premium pricing and negotiating rates, we got to a point where we were more or less neutral on those orders vs direct orders, and that allowed us to lean in. Where as before it was maybe a love-hate-hate relationship. During the pandemic it became a necessary evil. The sales doubled during the pandemic by almost a 40% increase. Now it is back down to about 25%, and I think organically that is happening on its own. So for curbside, we look at that as a legit alternative to delivery. You know, someone who is in their pajamas, and guess what, you can get in your car and still be in your pajamas and we will bring your food right out to you. People feel that it is a viable alternative, because we are now making it extremely convenient. Almost as convenient as bringing it to your door, but it is far less costly. There are a lot of advantages to that. To this point, as long as you can get the margins down, then it is definitely something that everyone should lean into. You have to meet your customers wherever and however they want to interact with your brand. And the goal is that the experience is consistent and seamless across all platforms. Now, we are definitely doing things to help our channels. We have engaged postcards from us through 3rd party systems, our rewards program was big in regards to getting people to keep buying directly from us. The next step for us is to probably offer delivery from dispatch on our own online delivery channel. Yes we want to drive those guests into our own ordering channels, primarily because we want that guest data, we want to know who our customers are. But there are still going to be people who just want to order through 3rd party delivery, and those guys have spent a ton of money on marketing and gaining that customer base. So even if we had our own channels, at this point the vast majority of those orders are still coming from those DSP’s. Regarding curbside, when customers pull into the premises, and we are outside with their order before they are even parked, the delight they experience is priceless.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
What are you doing to help drive app engagement? Are you using your app to communicate with your customers who have engaged the app for ordering or at other times as well?

Vik Rao, Qdoba:
Frictionless, that is the key. Not only for the guests, but for app engagement as well. Today, it is not about the wow, it is now a basic requirement, and that is what our 3rd party engagers throw back at us, the standard has been set. So it is important to try to learn from them, and from our competition as well. Focusing on new strategies to bring more guests to our existing platforms, and even more repeat visits from these guests as well. We have done a lot of competitive research on different strategies used by other brands, but at the end of the day, understanding the motivation and desire of the guests and the demands for certain features. We are in the middle of updating our loyalty program. We want to make engagement with our loyalty program even easier, whether it’s a QR code or a simple text message when they arrive. Our guests being able to redeem their reward points is a vital part of a friction point between us and them. So trying harder to make it easier and more attractive for our guests to redeem those rewards is very important. Make is simple, and least confusing as possible about what the reward points can get them, and how many they have. Figuring out what the 3rd party guests want compared to the pickup guests is very important as well.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
A survey showed that 92% of vaccinated diners plan to continue ordering online post-Covid. What is on your roadmap to make sure that the Tarka online experience remains best-in-class?

Tinku Saini, Tarka Indian Kitchen
We are always looking at different platforms to do best in class, that’s a term you hear a lot. One thing I would say about that is what is best in class for a 9-unit chain that is growing like us, is different from what is best in class for IHOP or Qdoba or the other big chains. Just because we don’t necessarily have the same resources as they do. Some of the best in class platforms don’t even talk to the brands that have less than 15-20 units. So best in class means a lot of different things. For us, we’ve chosen Resto Labs as our online order provider. It is a small up and coming company. Como our rewards program, small up and coming company. Ultimately we chose the partners we have right now because we have their ear, and as they keep growing they can better accommodate the unique needs that we have for us. Rather than just being a small fish in a very very big ocean. The big are always going to gravitate towards the big chains. So you know, we, at some point, will likely outgrow some of our partners, maybe not Radius perhaps, but some of the other ones. We are always looking, we are always on the prowl, and even in one quarter, something completely new could come out, but I also don’t want to be chasing every shiny new object. Because in the digital age it is so critical that all of your platforms work well together. So for us, it starts at our POS and online ordering system, and our rewards program, and we use a survey system, and we use curbside. Not all of these systems work perfectly together, but they work pretty well together. Now if you take one of those pieces out, things start to change a little bit. We are very deliberate on how we go about things, but never stop looking and never stop talking to all of the new technology partners there. We have considered switching to Paytronics because they have a sort of all in one platform, they have the online rewards, and the online ordering platforms. So it would be nice at one point to go to one partner for multiple channels, or multiple systems in place that you have in your tech stack. We have all separate partners right now, but they work well together. Take your time and be diligent in creating your tech deck and your ecosystem.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
Matt, A lot of restaurants are looking at new ways to serve their guests and create new concepts like ghost kitchens and pickup only locations. I know that IHOP recently announced your new brand, Flip’d! Can you tell us a little bit about that, and how it’s different from IHOP?

Matt Davis, IHOP:
I can’t tell you too much. I need to save some for a surprise. It is similar in that it is simple food, it is cravable and it is fast. You need a smaller footprint to run one. The traditional IHOPS are big buildings, they are 4400-4500 square feet. You do not need that to run a Flip’d. The basic menu is inspired by the classic IHOP menu items that people love and satisfy guests across all day parts. It is a faster, smaller IHOP. It is committed to modern times. For people that are on the go that want to pick up a coffee, or a breakfast sandwich. I can tell you personally that the food itself is fantastic. We’ve gotten to try it a number of times in the test kitchen, it is really good. We are starting to see that it is a different concept, and more on the lines of something that is faster, and will be including more guest-enabling technology than you would from a normal IHOP restaurant. We are excited, and we’re excited to try something new. We now can enter certain areas where normal IHOP’s would be blocked out because the size of the area was too small.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
Tarka just opened its 9th location and has been growing fast down there in Texas. Early on, Tarka had a vision to focus on their app, mobile ordering and off-premise solutions long-before Covid. Why is this so important, not only for large chains like Qdoba and IHOP, but also for smaller operators that are growing fast like Tarka?

Tarka Saini, Tarka Indian Kitchen
It is important for everyone, because it is the same consumer that is going to IHOP, Qdoba, Tarka, and that consumer is getting younger. That consumer is getting more tech savvy, and we need to meet them where they want to engage with us. For us, our technology upgrade started in 2019, which if we had not done that, and we were scrambling to find these partners and platforms in the middle of a pandemic, and still trying to focus on employee performance and safety, the toll that took on some of our friends and partners who were not there yet was evident. I think all Covid did was hasten a lot of the trends that were already going on. People were already doing off-prem, people were already doing an awards program, all of these things were important. Making sure that your online ordering system and touch points were consistent with your own branding. We feel like it does not matter the size you are, because in the end you need the tools to meet your guests wherever they are. The curbside is one of the programs we put in in march/april of 2020. One thing I will say is that while it is great that you have the Flybuy app and the location technology, it works for some people, but initially, some people wanted other options. But that is one thing I love about Flybuy, the text space flow works really well, and it provides omnichannel options to consumers, which is vital for us. As a consumer, I do not want to necessarily download an app for every restaurant I enjoy. Because of this, I wanted to make sure that the online ordering system, and rewards system, were not solely dependent on the app being downloaded. And our curbside program gives us this ability.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
In a recent study, more than 60% of respondents identified drive-thru, curbside pickup, online ordering, as some of the most important factors when selecting a restaurant. How do you know what technology is right for your customers / restaurants and what do you have slated to keep up with the new digital trends?

Matt Davis, IHOP:
So I will say…. We don’t know. Kidding, but I guess in a sense that is true. We don’t really know consumers fully, and we test a lot of stuff because consumers and ideas can pretty much come from anywhere. We hear from new potential vendors, around 3-4 times a day. We have learned a lot about where we need to be for our guests, and how we can be there for them from the pandemic, which has now been translated post-pandemic. An example would be, investing in server tablets. At the end of the day, you can’t do it all, but you can try a lot. Make sure to create a solid set of success criteria to stay consistent with your partners to make sure everyone feels good about it. It’s a journey. The reality is that we are looking for things that could potentially enhance pickup windows, and drive-thrus, and pick up lanes specifically just to pivot to what our guests are expecting now. This is not really new news for us, this is becoming industry standard. It is all about meeting the guests where the guests want to be.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
A recent DoorDash study showed pickup has seen 471% growth year over year while delivery has seen 140% growth from Q1 of last year through Q1 of this year. Do you think that consumer purchasing habits have permanently changed moving forward?

Tinku Saini, Tarka Indian Kitchen:
The power of habit. We are 18 months into it so there have been a lot of habits that have been formed with pickup. Do I know that it is permanent? I don’t. We have already started to see some shifts in sales trends, currently only about 25% of our business is dine-in. Before that it used to be about 50%. Texas has been open for a long time. So I think the shift to off-premise was already happening, and will continue to happen. There will start to be smaller dining rooms. We will need to continue to have curbside parking spots, and pick up lanes is also something to always consider. Doordash is always trying to sell us about the pickup. Forget the delivery part, I don’t want to do delivery by myself. But why would I give up the pickup customer to them? It does not make any sense to me. Yeah the sell is the commission rates are lower, but I don’t want to give you that customer, that’s my customer. Delivery is a service, and customers are starting to see how expensive delivery is, so pickup is becoming more appealing. Personally, I don’t want to give that order to these cats (Ubereats, Doordash).”

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
For large restaurant chains like IHOP and Qdoba, it is important to have franchisees buy-in for new technology. How has that process gone for you? What are some processes you have implemented to ensure you get buy-in and prove these new technologies will create efficiencies and ROI for the entire chain?

Vik Rao, Qdoba:
Being in about a 50/50 franchise corporate split, the situations and solutions we are testing need to be profitable, and also have to make life easier for our team members. What we think is important, is a solution that will make a corporate difference, will just as much make a difference for a franchisee. What we try to do at Qdoba is involve the franchisees more. So when testing new things we do not just test them at corporate locations, but at franchisee locations as well to see the effect. Flybuy for example, we did not know if guests would be willing to share their location, and we did not know if our franchisees would be onboard with a solution that is going to cost them extra. But that is why we got the franchisee involved in our testing process to find out what is going to make them money, what is going to enhance customer experience and make it more seamless. To make dreams into reality, it is really important to involve them and get their feedback about what they want, and don’t want.

Matt Davis, IHOP:
For us, the buy in is mostly taking the journey together to begin with. The reason for adopting technologies can be different than the technologies themselves. We are wholly franchised at IHOP so some of the technologies like how to properly use QR codes inside of the restaurant for menu purposes. Really for us it is about working with our cross functional teams, our centralized supply chain, respected vendors, our leadership committees. There is a lot involved to make sure we arrive at the best outcomes for our franchisees. Some other items are polarizing, and those technologies need to be tested with our franchisees. A clear ROI really needs to be evident. Flybuy can really fall into its own 3rd category in our case. The operational enhancements that we experienced during the test were significant enough to move forward and partner with our sister brand, Applebees. We wanted to make sure we were ensuring the best outcome for our franchisees. With Flybuy Pickup there is a little more to it. Applebees has a more mature pickup process. They have been doing it for years, and it is a hallmark of their business. Our off-prem team worked day and night to introduce curbside 14 months ago for IHOP. One of the reasons it makes sense for us, and makes sense for us right now is the data and the guest feedback. Those things are things that are telling us that could make us better, faster in our off-prem business. We take our franchisees on a journey, we don’t typically make our decisions in a vacuum, it does not work out well for anyone. Our franchisees usually end up in the same place that we do, we used it for something beyond ROI even though that was there.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
At Flybuy, and as Rebecca mentioned in our opening, we have really adapted our solution to adopt what we call a FAFO approach, meaning First Arrived First Out, instead of having all orders treated the same in a FIFO manner. This allows restaurants to at least make all orders or portions of orders based on the customers actual arrival time as opposed to when the order was placed. Do you see this as the future and will this help you create fresher orders, reduce spoilage as well as optimize the make line?

Vik Rao, Qdoba:
Absolutely. I think this was a simple but great innovation on the whole FAFO concept by Flybuy. Really from a guest experience standpoint. The perception of speed is really up there with the actual speed of service. Flybuy’s FAFO approach comes to play as that perception of speed in my mind. Once you get into the restaurant’s parking lot, and they are starting to wait, that is when the clock is starting for them. FAFO works better with people, not only to assure the food is freshest, but at the same time helps manage perception and expectation, and also reduce instances of having to re-make the food because it was cold by the time the guest arrived.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
I’ve never thought about our solution this way, but I was in a meeting with a large sit down restaurant chain, and they explained that having an extremely fast pickup option allowed them to compete more with QSRs. Does having a fast curbside and pickup experience enable you to compete with general fast food in a way you haven’t been able to do before?

Tinku Saini, Tarka Indian Kitchen:
That is not something I’ve considered. I’m sure it helped us when the pandemic hit. Frankly, a lot of drive-thrus were slammed for 15-20 cars deep. That is very inefficient. Regarding curbside pickup spots, landlords are very hesitant to provide designated pickup spots in the parking areas. If you only have one drive-thru lane, vs where a customer can come and drive and park anywhere they want, and we can quickly locate where they are via location technology, I think it is actually advantageous to drive-thrus. I know Starbucks dealt with this too for a long time, because I would go and the line would be 20 cars deep. Why would I get in line when I could go up to the door and pick it up quicker. More so than competing with QSR’s, I think this allows you to syphon off the 3rd party deliveries. So it is a little more convenient than having to come into your store, it is faster, and cheaper than delivery. We look at that as one of the primary advantages.

Jeff Baskin, Flybuy:
OK it’s time for us to take a few questions from the audience. Rebecca?

Rebecca McFarland, Flybuy:
QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE:
Are you seeing contactless payments as a necessity? How important is it to offer alternate payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo for your guests?
Matt Davis, IHOP: “Never make it hard for people to give you their money. I think it is critically important. People want to pay the way they want. I want my points so I am going to use my credit card. I want convenience so I want to be able to tap.”
Tinku Saini, Tarka Indian Kitchen: “I would agree with that. I think there are a couple things there. There are varieties in payments in contactless, and they are not necessarily exactly the same. For us, when the pandemic hit, so much of our sales channel went to online ordering, and we went to pre-pay only. So that was an easy way to shift it to a contactless payment. Within stores, having things like tap to pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, so where you don’t have to exchange credit cards, you don’t have to manually swipe. I think contactless is important, but there are a lot of different ways to offer that.”
Vik Rao, Qdoba: “It can go as far as accepting Bitcoins for contactless payment, right. I don’t see that as a near future thing happening, Bitcoin. Definitely contactless has grown, continues to grow, and I definitely encourage that as a potential solution ongoing.”
Jeff Baskin, Flybuy: “And I’ll add to that, it’s just pure speed. How do we get people to be more convenient, how to get them in and out fast. One of the things we developed for FlyBuy Pay, and specifically for phone orders, is the idea that people are placing phone orders, and an employee needs to write it down or key it in manually and things get messed up. From an efficiency perspective, but also a customer perspective, if I can send a link to a customer and have them pay on their phone while they are on their way, then that mark is paid and that cuts down time from the staff and the customer. That seems like a really good idea and is having a good impact. As well as for sit down restaurants and pay at table, and remove that friction from the waiters and get people out quicker. That is certainly going to be a big item in the second half of the year.”

Rebecca McFarland, Flybuy:
Ok I think we are out of time. Thank you for coming today, and thank you so much to our panelists for taking the time out of their very busy schedules to share their insight and experiences with us.

Everyone will receive a link to the recording so you can share it with others at your company, and it will also be posted on our blog at flybuy.com.

If you would like to contact Jeff or any of the panelists, their email addresses and LinkedIn contact information are listed on this slide…and if you’d like to learn more about Flybuy, feel free to reach out to Jeff directly at jeff@flybuy.com.

Thanks for attending today!