This past Thursday, our team at Tarapaige Group attended a Webinar event about mobile payments hosted by LevelUp and QSR magazine. Lysa Chen, Marketing Director of Chop’t and Michael Hagan, COO of LevelUp, shared their insights into how to avoid mistakes big brands are making, how to drive revenue, and how to achieve a successful customer adoption.

A few mistakes big brands are making in their implementation of mobile payment apps is that they are creating the app off of a loadable gift card model. What this means is that although the app is free in the app store, the customer is then being asked to invest in the brand via the price tag for their gift card. The redemption methods are also confusing as the customer must open the app, log in, load the gift card which has a numerical code and then give this code to the cashier. If after this whole process the cashier is not aware or trained, it will result in a very frustrated customer. It is important that the staff is trained and that the app provide more value than a gift card or than simply swiping a credit or debit card.

Lysa Chen stressed upon the power of promotion for a successful implementation. She suggested creating campaigns for app adaption such as loyalty programs and a way to earn and redeem rewards. She recommended a “spend x get y” loyalty program to drive revenue as opposed to a “10th visit get a free item” approach because this limits the potential of the additional spend.  Chop’t also launched an acquisition contest to celebrate the app whereby every transaction made by the customer  using the mobile app was automatically entered to win $100. Another one of Chop’t’s best practices was to distribute FAQ flyers to the customers and have the staff in the queue engaging with the guests directly to promote the app.

Most importantly, when implementing a mobile payment system the emphasis should be put on the ease of use in the digital experience and improving overall efficiency. The goal is to add as much value to the app as possible and to apply campaigns based on the insights received on customer behavior. Lysa Chen and Michael Hagaan drove these points home in what was a very informative and helpful Webinar event.