Restaurant Payment App - Registration at VAPIANO | MobiLab

TL;DR

This post was originally supposed to be different, but during the time of writing, our beloved customer Vapiano had to file for bankruptcy. As like other companies in the HoReCa (Hotels, Restaurants, Caterer) industry Vapiano was hit hard by Covid-19. We had prepared our post for the new feature which was meant to be launched in March 2020. We redesigned the flows in the Vapiano App to make guests enjoy their experience in the restaurants even more by offering them a hands-free checkout.

As with every crisis it also comes with opportunity. We believe that Vapiano will come out even stronger and shortly we will launch a new feature so that every visitor can enjoy a new efficient and simple checkout.

Simplified Registration

The first flow that a guest experiences while using the Vapiano App is the registration flow. Let’s imagine that a customer comes to a Vapiano restaurant and hears about the App for the first time. If they realize that they need to go through a long registration process to be able to order their food, they will prefer to not use the App and instead follow the non-digital journey. The reason for this is that guests want to get their order as fast as possible. Once they leave the restaurant, the excitement about using a new App will just fade away and they will forget about it.

To avoid this, we wanted to improve this flow by making it easy and fast. We replaced the usual registration form with a flow consisting of only 3 steps where the guest is asked to provide only the minimum amount of information. The time needed to create a new account was reduced to one-third of the initial needed time. With the new flow the guest only needs 18 seconds to start using the App, while they needed over 1 minute with the previous flow.

Deciding which information to keep and which to make optional wasn’t easy and required interaction with many different parties – the teams working on the CRM system, marketing, sales… At the end, we decided to keep it simple and only use:

  • The email address as it is considered as one of the login credentials that the guest needs to use the App.
  • We decided to address guests with their name in the App. This is a way to establish a first connection with them. The first name is sufficient at the start. The guest can add their last name to their account later.
  • For security reasons, the password is required to enable the guest to login in the App.

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There was an additional step in the previous registration flow that required the guest to first confirm their email address in order to be able to login to the App. An email was sent to the guest’s inbox with a link that the guest had to use to confirm their email address. This step was removed for the same purpose as the one mentioned above, helping guests to get their food as fast as possible. Guests are now able to start using the App as soon as they create their account. No need for any email confirmation or form filling, they are automatically logged in after creating a new account. Other information needs to be collected proactively at a later stage, through engagement with the guest.

Simplified Check-Out

Another flow that was improved in this new release, and that the guest will encounter often while using the App, is the check-out flow. The previous check-out flow required the guest to scan a QR code at the reception desk to pay their order before leaving the restaurant. At rush hours, the queue at the reception desk gets long which forces guests to wait for a while to pay their bill. Always with the idea in mind to offer guests a good experience in the restaurant, we redesigned the check-out process and made it simpler.

Guests are as eager to leave the restaurant as they were to get their order when they entered it. The first important step was to remove the QR code scan. This would prevent guests from waiting in line before to leave the restaurant.

While removing the QR code scan, we also reviewed the check-out flow. Many third parties were involved in the previous check-out process. This resulted in high latencies when guests check out. The reason is that once the QR code is scanned, API calls were made between the different 3rd parties to check the guest’s data, their order details, his payment methods and then execute the transaction. The process was error-prone as there was many cases where errors could occur. It caused also some confusions for the guest (e.g. wrong QR code scanned). In the new flow, guests are free to go once they click on the button Pay and their transaction has been processed. The API calls between the 3rd parties are done afterwards.

Apart from the time that the guest needs to wait in line, the check-out flow was reduced to one-third of the time of the previous check-out flow. The new check-out flow requires only 5 seconds while the previous flow required 15 seconds.

We also had some challenges design-wise. As we were removing the QR code, we used this opportunity to update the check-out screen designs. The guest previously had to go through 4 screens before being able to check out:

  1. First, they had to review their order details.
  2. After this, in a new screen, the different tip options were presented to them.
  3. Then, in a different screen again, they could select their payment method.
  4. Finally, the guest had to scan the QR code to pay.

In this new release, all the features to payment are merged in one screen. The guest is able to do everything directly from the new payment screen:

  • have an overview of their order;
  • add a voucher;
  • select which payment method they want to use;
  • trigger the payment transaction.

In case the guest is asked by a Vapianisti for a proof of payment, they can access the payment confirmation screen from 2 different screens:

Home screen: by clicking on the green banner. It is displayed for 15 minutes after the transaction has been processed.

Order history screen: by clicking on the button that was newly added in the bottom of the screen.

Want to know more? Drop us a note to get in touch! We will be happy to share our thoughts with you.