Return to blog listings
The sequence of paying with a credit card always included the universal question “pin or sign?” However as of the 1st of August this question will be no more. With the eradication of customer signed credit card payments – operators and businesses will need to ensure they are keeping up with compliance. In the hospitality industry, where service is an essential ingredient in the equation, this transition will impact the traditional sequence of service. Customers will soon be required to maintain possession of their credit card throughout the entire process of payment contra to previously when credit cards danced between the diner’s table and the payoff terminal. Bars and Clubs will face a similar issue when Bar Tabs are being set up, when credit cards can no longer be kept behind the bar unless there is a hefty safe available for storage.
A customer based membership group – Aston Club is providing a perfect solution to this industry wide conundrum. Aston Club is a free mobile app for iPhone and Android that allows your patron’s to open a bar tab through their phone. Aston Club members, link their credit card – resulting in venues using the application as a hassle-free alternative to the old procedure.
On an average night out – a patron can log into their Aston Club App and select one of the Aston venues. Rather than assigning the bar tab in the traditional method (by exchanging the patrons’ credit card with a physical numbered card), the patron will be assigned their tab number “in App”.
All drinks ordered by the patron get allocated to the Bar Tab, just like normal, and when the patron is ready to leave they can simply pay for their tab from the App without having to hurdle the bar or flair light down a staff member. Even better, if a patron leaves and forgets to close their Aston Club tab, end of shift staff can simply close the account from the POS.
Below is a short video which will explain how the integration works.
<iframe src=”//player.vimeo.com/video/94136742″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>
Ordermate from LOKE Digital on Vimeo.
No longer will end of shift staff be left with enormous bar tabs and a stack of credit cards that are unsettled or unaccounted for.
The Aston Club membership structure allows venues to use this as a clever marketing tool to track customer spend and subsequently publish promotions and specials that will attract customers to return and become loyal to your venue. Each promotion or voucher can then be tracked with detailed reporting and evaluated whether it meets a desired return on investment.
Some OrderMate venues who are early adopters of Aston Club are; The Nixon Hotel, 1806, Touch Wood and Bomba. Management at The Nixon Hotel is keen “to incorporate Aston Club as part of their current offerings. With the shift to PIN and away from signing coming into action on August 1st – Aston Club has entered the market at the perfect time to enable a risk and hassle free alternative to the industry.”
To make this introduction to the industry a little bit sweeter, Aston Club is offering all new venues wanting to sign up with $500 in app vouchers as well as $1000 in marketing materials and services.
For those of you who want to try before you buy they are also offering all new OrderMate members a complimentary $20 Voucher for use at any Aston venue.
Below are the instruction on How to Redeem:
1. Select a venue from within the Aston Club app
2. Press ‘ADD’
3. Enter voucher code ORDERMATE
4. Open your tab
For more information on Aston Club contact Sam Cust on 0418 413 374 or sc@astonclub.com.au. To find out how Aston Club integrates with OrderMate call us on 1300 667 067.