Would You Pay Your Bar Tab With Your iPhone?
It had to happen. It was only a matter of time before there was “an app for that”. Customers can now open, monitor and close their tab from their iphone with a clever new app called TabbedOut.
Invented in Austin, TX and so far only available to use in a handful of cities there, it seems to be (at first glance) a very useful app that meets the needs of a customer base increasingly used to doing business on their smartphone.
I downloaded the app today to check it out and while it doesn’t have much of a “bar” feel to it, it is functional and does what it says on the tin.
You enter your credit card information into the app and it’s encrypted and stored on the iPhone. When you close out the tab the encrypted CC information is sent to the bar’s point-of-sale system and then the bill is processed. The point-of-sale system has several buttons on its screen with “codes” that appear on the app and the bartender can tell who still has a tab open and who doesn’t.
Would you use it?
I'm Barry Chandler and I'm The Bar Blogger. I've been involved in the bar and hospitality industry for 16 years. From Bartender to Bar Manager and from Food & Beverage Controller to Small Business Owner, I have worked with more than 500 bars in the last five years to help them streamline their costs and run a more profitable business and more than 800 bars and clubs use my Management Toolkit which can be accessed at ManageYourBar.com.
TabbedOut sounds good, and I would use it for sure.
I haven’t downloaded the app yet, but wonder if they will be able to market “Specials” the present merchant might have, maybe advertise future events from that site or other TabbedOut locations you might have visited, tagged or who might have paid the app maker to promote to users in a specified area? Heck, in the name of branding they could even offer a smart phone graphic that could only have been earned by physically visiting the merchant on a specific day or event like those “Hard Rock Las Vegas, Singapore, London” t-Shirts. Think Concerts, sporting events and the like!
If only the iPhone had full RFI technology we could use our iPhones (and other smart phones) to do all sorts of things while keeping payment information safely encrypted:
Check in at a hotel – just place your phone on the registration counter (they are already working on this with microsoft’s “Surface” technology.
Pay for any POP service – Dry cleaner, grocery, wifi vending machine etc.
Years from now you know that kids will think we were dinosaurs for having our credit card information on plastic cards in public! When was the last time you same a Passport Savings Book from a bank?
And speaking of vending machines, have you seen those beautiful devices that sell everything from perfume to Apple products to GPS systems? Wow, I was in Las Vegas airport and was blown away by the commercial interaction and even interacted with a digital display at The Venitian hotel (Las Vegas) restaurant area that me check the menu, see interact with the sign by touch to learn more, find other locations etc.
I’m a dreamer with crazy technology ideas, if you’re a technology person who could use idea help thinking of implementation ideas please, feel free to drop me a line or link.
Would love to collaborate.
Chip Stockman
In my humblest of humble opinions I believe that anything that makes it easy for customers to do business with you is a wonderful thing, but that is just my humble opinion.
Forget all of that, this is incredible! An iPhone app that makes a restaurant/bar stickier with it’s loyal customers, cuts down on mistakes, and creates an image by the establishment that they”get it”. Look around at who is carrying that iPhone, they already know how to spend money and are apprently some of the few people who still are in this economic sunami.
My hat is off to Rick Orr and ATX for getting in on the restarant/game, my guess is that the technology is coming to a restaurant/bar near you soon.
very nice app hopefully it will grow nationwide