Students using Chick-fil-A’s mobile ordering service at the fast-food chain’s on-campus outlets at 15 universities in the USA can now check-in to pick up their order by tapping an NFC tag installed on posters inside the restaurant.

The system has been introduced to improve pick-up efficiency and ensure that orders are put through to the kitchen display screen (KDS) at the most appropriate time as part of the company’s adoption of the Grubhub Ultimate mobile food ordering solution.

“We had no idea where students who placed mobile orders were or when they were going to arrive to pick up their food,” Chick-fil-A’s Tucker Perkerson told CR80News. 

“Our waffle fries have a two-minute hold time. Nuggets have a five-minute hold time. So you’re talking about a lot of food losing quality very quickly.”

Chick-fil-A first trialled self-order kiosks at some of its university locations before moving to the NFC tag-based system.

“Grubhub pitched NFC and suggested placing tags in posters that removed the need to input a one-time code,” Perkerson said. “We send an image to the user’s phone of the poster so they know where to tap their device, which then sends the order to the KDS.

“Before the NFC check-in solution was implemented, you’d see four to five bags of food sitting on the counter at a time and people periodically showing up to retrieve their order. 

“We’re big believers in a quality product. Our traditional side doesn’t operate that way, and we’re not going to let our licensed locations do that either.”

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