Finally, innovation in ordering down the pub
The appification of pubs has some benefits, but it isn’t enough to slap a logo onto a white-label app and hope for a pint of Best
The “appification” of pubs has some benefits, but it isn’t enough to slap a logo onto a white-label app and hope for a pint of Best.
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked a life-changing technology revolution. It isn’t robots or automation or virtual GP appointments, despite what the many press releases sitting unread in my inbox probably say. Instead, I’m talking about ordering drinks at the pub using my phone.
Before you all shout “but Wetherspoons!” at me, know two things: first, I can’t hear you, and second, I’m perfectly aware that the pub chain has long offered an ordering app. That, alongside the chain’s wide-ranging vegetarian menu and low-priced craft beer selection, had made it a firm favourite in my household. I could tap a few buttons in the app, enter the table number, and get food and beer delivered — it was a marvel of modern life. But after seeing the way the company treated its staff and suppliers during lockdown, I can’t in good conscience spend another tenner on its veggie burger and pint. Also, there’s not a Spoons within close walking distance.
That means returning to a life of queueing at a busy bar, unnoticed. I am notorious among my friends for my ability to be ignored by pub staff. Perhaps it’s my height, leaving me hidden behind the taps, or maybe I simply don’t look annoyed enough; regardless of the cause I’ve been known to stand for 20 minutes unserved before heading back to the table without the required beverages.
But as pubs were set to emerge from lockdown, app developers and their sales teams leapt into action, as their white-label ordering apps finally had a problem to solve. This meant the pub across the road from us reopened not only with directional arrows on the floor and hand sanitiser at the door, but with an ordering app and table service.
The app itself is terrible, to be clear. The pub is mislabelled on the map, so it asks if you’re in the right location every time you try to place an order. It’s slow and clunky, which is exacerbated by the fact the signal in the garden is also slow and clunky. It took several tries to successfully store my card details. But I could address all that sitting down, in the relative safety of a socially distanced picnic table.
Not all drinking establishments are turning to apps. A local brewery taproom found a simpler, more elegant solution. Rather than downloading a bespoke app to place an order, we simply sent a WhatsApp message to the bartender, who brought out the order with a card payment machine.
It’s a genius solution, although not the first order we’ve placed via the popular messaging app. One of our local restaurants eschewed joining a delivery platform such as Just Eat or Deliveroo at the beginning of lockdown, as so many did when forced to pivot to takeaway, and instead took orders over WhatsApp and payments via PayPal, thereby incurring no extra fees. (WhatsApp would be smart to catch up with how it’s being used by small businesses and build in a payment system, as Chinese rival Weibo has.)
There are downsides to the appification of pubs, beyond the need to install an app every time you go out. Pubs and restaurants are being asked, but not required, by the government to collect information from customers in case they need to be contacted by track and trace teams to warn about potential infections.
This may well be necessary to fight the spread of the disease, but pubs have been given little guidance when it comes to data protection. Those names and phone numbers need to be held and eventually disposed of safely, which isn’t easy when they may well be written down on paper, and thanks to GDPR – as well as basic human respect – such data shouldn’t be used for any other purpose.
But they already have. A few stories have popped up on social media of bar staff using that contact-tracing data to get in touch with attractive punters they spotted the night before. Not only is that an infringement of GDPR, it’s creepy and gross. Creative solutions in tough times are something to be celebrated, but we shouldn’t have to trade one form of safety for another.
We’re stuck building a new world. While no silver linings will make up for the astonishing number of people we’ve lost in this pandemic, we should take the opportunity to innovate – whether that’s making it easier for people to place an order, finding ways to avoid the cut taken by Silicon Valley platforms, or keeping data secure from abuse. We’ve been forced to find solutions to these problems, so they may as well be good ones.
Rather than download an app, we simply sent a WhatsApp message to the bartender, who brought out the order with a card machine
Creative solutions in tough times are something to be celebrated, but we shouldn’t have to trade one form of safety for another