Meet the next generation of the Mobile wallet that lets you skip the queue

A new app makes stressful situations in restaurants more pleasant by allowing you to skip the queue and order peacefully at the table or outside the restaurant. The technology is based on a context driven proximity solution and holds features from the Mobile wallet where additional customer value is added on top of the payment […]

A new app makes stressful situations in restaurants more pleasant by allowing you to skip the queue and order peacefully at the table or outside the restaurant. The technology is based on a context driven proximity solution and holds features from the Mobile wallet where additional customer value is added on top of the payment function. Victor Sandberg, CEO of Luckan, the company behind pej, and Paul Cronholm, CTO and founder of Crunchfish, supplier of the proximity solution, describe how it works.

Paul Cronholm, CTO at Crunchfish and Victor Sandberg, CEO at Luckan outside Surf Shack in Malmö.

What is so interesting about the pej-app?
Victor: Pej is the future of payment where we’re not focusing on just the transaction of money, but add functionality such as shorten queues, splitting bills and discover what’s on the menu. Pej offers the customers a situation where they can peacefully sit at the table and make all the choices while having a conversation with their friends.

Paul: I like to think of pej as an exciting step in transforming the Mobile wallet into a relevant tool, tailoring the experience both for the customer and the restaurant. With Crunchfish’s technology it is possible for businesses to offer services that truly resonate with their customers through contextual awareness, using location data in combination with consumer interaction data.

In what situation is the app at its best?
Victor: I think this popular hamburger restaurant demonstrates it perfectly. Surf Shack always has a lot of customers, sometimes the queue reaches all the way out on the street, and the list of choices is long. The app provides you with the possibility to design your own perfect burger under no stress. You don’t need to stand in line and place your order to a busy waiter who might not get all your details right. You could say the app creates a bubble of peacefulness in a stressful situation. You sit at the table, place your order and enjoy the company of your friends while waiting for the food to arrive.

Paul: Our technology offers additional possibilities to the mobile wallet through contextual awareness, i.e. it makes users aware of what or who is present here and now. This enables customers for example to connect with other app-users nearby to get recommendations or easily split the bill within a group.

Ordering outside the restaurant and skipping the queue.

What other types of establishments is the app well suited for?
Victor: All types of popular restaurants, cafés and bars where it is not super easy to get access to a waiter and the choices are many.

What are the feedback from the restaurant managers?
Victor: The adoption of the app has been fast. The customers really like it. Less than two weeks after the launch 10-25% percent of the orders are already coming through pej. And most interesting – pej customers order more than traditional guests. An average pej order is about 10 percent larger, mainly because the order is done without stress and is easier to make.

What is the contribution from Crunchfish in the app?
Victor: Crunchfish has been the perfect partner in the development process. Their proximity solution makes both the restaurant and the customer aware of each other’s presence. They can also identify each other in the created mobile network-bubble, where the interaction takes place.

Paul: We provide the application with an intelligent proximity layer using low power Bluetooth that let the customer connect with the restaurant and get menu and offers in real time when they are nearby. It can also enable seamless money transfers between Point of Sales (PoS) and customers – even when the smartphone is in the pocket.

What differentiates this app from similar apps on the market?
Victor: First, it is here, you can use it today. Second, many of the restaurant-apps solve the problem of booking a table and the payment. We not only do that but also offer the possibility to place an order while you are at the establishment. You could say we enable a direct line into the kitchen or to the head waiter.

A meal ordered and paid for with the pej app.

Do you have any new features on the road map?
Victor: The solution holds several interesting possibilities, for example share your experience of the visit, give recommendations to your friends, get recommendations from the restaurant based on what you have had before and a super easy way to split a bill.

Paul: Our mobile proximity technology, that creates the mobile network bubble around the phone, opens several interesting use cases, where paying without taking the phone out of your pocket is only one of them. It also makes it possible for the restaurant to recognise who is present, identifying loyal customers to tailor services and improving the customer experience.

About pej
The pej app delivers a ground-breaking service in mobile payment and mobile ordering, with the use of the latest proximity technology. By digitizing numerous steps in the purchase process, pej gather valuable and important customer data, as well as handle transactions.

The goal is to position pej as the leader within mobile payments, with highly innovative features such as pocket-payment (pay with your smartphone while keeping it in your pocket), split-payments (easily split the bill among several users) and in-store-order (order from within a 100m radius (e.g. your table), and avoid queueing). pej is developed by the Malmö-based company Luckan AB.

About Connected AR and the proximity solution
The pej app’s proximity solution is part of the Connected AR technology from First North listed Crunchfish. The Connected AR software solution provides applications with an intelligent proximity layer that adds awareness for a user of what is present here and now. This technology is useful in e.g. augmented and virtual reality apps to offer the user possibilities to discover, connect and share content with everyone and everything nearby in real time.

The Connected AR technology used within the area of the Mobile wallet, opens up a world of seamless payment possibilities. You can create services allowing your users to transfer payments to someone nearby in a simple and direct manner. It also makes seamless money transfers real between Point of Sales (PoS) and customers – even when the smartphone is in the pocket.

The Connected AR technology uses low power Bluetooth as carrier to enable people using an app to dynamically connect and interact with other people and devices in the vicinity. For more information visit www.crunchfish.com