A tech startup is making it easier for quick-service operators to allow their customers to use mobile payment solutions.
LevelUp, which created a customer- and business-friendly mobile payment process for restaurants, recently integrated with MICROS, POSitouch, and Dinerware point-of-sale systems. These three constitute 30 percent of all existing POS systems.
This integration allows merchants to choose “LevelUp” on their POS during payment, and then scan a barcode that LevelUp customers have on their phones to complete payment transactions.
“When we integrate with a point-of-sale system, we supply [businesses] with just a 2D barcode reader that plugs directly into the POS via USB or serial, and it operates just like when you have a credit-card reader attached to your POS,” says Christina Dorobek, LevelUp’s vice president of partner development.
In addition to making transactions faster and easier, Dorobek says LevelUp’s integration with POS systems also makes accounting more seamless and analytics more robust.
“LevelUp, at its most basic, is able to track who your customers are, how often they’re coming in, [and] how much they’re spending,” Dorobek says. “And one of the really cool net benefits of the loyalty program—the loyalty campaign that is built in to the system—is we see customers coming back, on average, about 20 percent faster, spending about 7 percent more on an average ticket. So there’re very tangible benefits to a business in terms of being able to grow.”
LevelUp services around 300,000 active consumers and about 3,800–4,000 businesses nationwide. Though Dorobek says a majority of quick serves are using LevelUp predominately at the counter, many are also using LevelUp at the drive thru.
The company has an open API, so any POS system is welcome to integrate, Dorobek says.
She predicts that mobile phone use at quick serves will become a norm as time goes on.
“When I look at the way customers are interacting with businesses, especially quick-service businesses, I think there is definitely a shift to consumers using their mobile phones, not only to pay, but also to check the menu ahead of time … or place an order for pick up,” Dorobek says.
“I think that shift to paying with your phone will be an automatic next step, and obviously is already happening, at least with 300,000 LevelUp users.”
By Laurel Nakkas
