Contactless ordering has been virtually a must-have for restaurants since the pandemic began, and some well-known tech suppliers only confirmed its importance this week with new products and offerings. As coronavirus cases spike and dining room shutdowns spread once again, these solutions will likely continue to be key for restaurants.
Here’s a look at the latest developments from Toast, Olo and GoTab.
Toast’s contactless suite
The POS provider unveiled two new products to support contactless ordering.
Toast Go 2 is the next generation of the company’s handheld POS system. The key upgrade is its ability to accept contactless payment via Apple, Google and Samsung as well as tap-to-pay. And because it’s handheld, staff can use the device to facilitate curbside pickup or queue-busting in the drive-thru.
The device joins Toast’s new Order & Pay platform, which allows guests to order from their table via mobile device by scanning a QR code. Both products are intended to reduce human contact in restaurants amid the pandemic.
Olo’s upgrades
Olo added some bells and whistles to enhance its curbside and dine-in ordering platforms.
First, restaurants that use Olo’s front-of-house Expo tablet for curbside ordering can now be notified when a customer arrives, allowing them to complete those transactions more efficiently. The guest presses an “I'm here” button on the ordering page to ping the restaurant that they’ve arrived, as opposed to a phone call or other form of communication.
And guests can now select “dine-in” when ordering ahead online via Olo. This can allow restaurants to reduce packaging costs and other waste for on-premise orders and to streamline the on-premise experience.
Image courtesy of Olo
GoTab’s activation deal
Contactless ordering provider GoTab is looking to attract new partners by offering free activation and 24-hour setup of its contactless curbside pickup, delivery and dine-in platforms. Because GoTab’s product is mostly software-based, it allows restaurants to implement it more quickly.
GoTab has offered contactless ordering and payment since 2016 and recently raised $6 million from investors.
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