If you’ve ever enjoyed a great meal at a restaurant, only to have your experience ruined by waiting to pay your server on the one credit card machine available, then you understand the problem that Vancouver-based Glance Technologies Inc. is trying to solve.
With its new app, Glance allows you to pay by simply taking a picture of your bill. According to Desmond Griffin, the co-founder and CEO of Glance Technologies Inc., the process can be completed in seconds.
“Everyone has been frustrated with the payment process at restaurants at one time or another, especially at peak times when restaurants are full and servers are busy. Glance Pay helps eliminate long wait times and negative payment experiences. The app allows you to simply select your portion of the bill, your tip, confirm the amount and earn exclusive restaurant rewards, and go. You can even email yourself the bill and enjoy digital tracking of your receipts and rewards all in one place,” Griffin said at the press conference announcing the app’s public launch Wednesday morning.
Four quiet launches around Vancouver throughout the past month have been a success, says Mimo Bucko, general manager of Nuba, a Lebanese restaurant. Throughout the two to three weeks that Nuba has been using Glance Pay, Bucko says that “there has only been positive feedback.”
The app is easy to use for consumers and staff, he says, and Nuba can eliminate some paper waste by not issuing physical receipts.
Perhaps the most important aspect of Glance Pay is the increase in the level of service provided. When a server isn’t bogged down by 15 customers all paying with a credit card and only one machine, they have more room to provide a better customer experience.
Glance Pay also offers a built in, easy to set up, and customizable rewards system. At Sai Woo, another one of Glance Pay’s early adopter restaurants, users of the app get a 10 per cent discount off of their next meal based off of the one they are currently paying for.
“So if you paid $300 for your meal using the app, you would earn 10 per cent of that towards your next meal at Sai Woo. In this case, it would be $30 saved on your next visit,” said Penny Green, co-founder and chief operating officer of Glance Pay.
But businesses do not need to use the reward system if they don’t want too. Griffin expressed how some restaurants may just use the app to provide another mobile payments option to customers. The rewards system is purely optional.
Glance Pay looks to be rolling out to roughly 40 new restaurants in Vancouver over the course of the next month or so, with the ultimate goal being to enter markets all across the world.
Businesses and consumers alike can download Glance Pay and get started now on iOS. The company has also promised to release an Android version as soon as possible.