Buffalo Wild Wings is all about overwhelming its patrons with options — it has over a dozen wing sauces to choose from, and it is testing a system that adds more variety to how people order and pay.
The Minneapolis-based restaurant chain is one of about five that are piloting a tablet-based payment system from Hubworks Interactive LLC of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The tablets allow patrons to order and pay without the assistance of a waiter.
The devices free patrons of the task of having to wave down a server or ask about specials, since everything would be at their fingertips, Sam Winter, Hubworks' vice president of technology, tells PaymentsSource.
Hubworks' system uses a specially designed case with a built-in card reader for payment acceptance, he says.
While waiting for food or deciding what to order, patrons can use the tablet for entertainment, he says. It packs enough battery power to allow such use all day.
"They can post pictures on Facebook (or) watch ESPN,” Winter says. "They can even play online games."
Restaurant owners can also provide coupons and discounts on the tablet's screen, he says.
By relieving servers from many of their duties, the technology allows each restaurant staffer to serve a larger number of tables, Winter says. Hubworks' technology also speeds the overall dining process, allowing client restaurants to turn tables more quickly and raise profits.
HubWorks faces a major three-month project each time it integrates its software with a new point-of-sale system, Winter says. However, once Hubworks is integrated with a particular system, it can replicate the work with that system in other restaurants relatively easily, he says.
Hubworks and NCR Aloha, Duluth, Ga.-based NCR Corp.'s restaurant technology arm, announced an agreement this month to incorporate Hubworks' technology with NCR Aloha's POS systems.
In general, the integration challenge has limited HubWorks to working with large chains, Winter says. However, the company intends to offer its technology to smaller businesses in the future and will consider using independent sales organizations for distribution.
The restaurant industry is headed toward more reliance on mobile devices, but the end result will likely not look like the tablet system Hubworks designed, Gil B. Luria, senior vice president at Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities LLC, tells PaymentsSource.
"If you're going to pay at the table, you can do it on your own phone," Luria says. "A few seconds to download an app is not difficult."
