Mastercard has partnered with Japanese restaurant Wagamama to launch its new Qkr! app, which allows customers to pay for their food with their phone rather than waving frantically to attract the attention of a waiter.
The Qkr! app is powered by the MasterPass, Mastercard’s digital payments platform and it will allow customers to pay their bill whenever they want, be that before their lunch or at the end of a leisurely meal. And for those who are keen to go Dutch, you can easily divvy things up and pay for your fair share. Great news if you’re a regular combatant in the ‘I only had a salad’ duel.
Mastercard is hoping to roll out the service to loads more UK restaurants and services in the near future, hopefully saving everyone a serious chunk of time during busy periods and freeing up staff to get us our chilli chicken ramen in double-quick time.
If you want to give the service a go, all you need to do is download the app, which is now available for iOS and Android. Register any card to get started (it doesn’t even have to be a Mastercard) and you’re good to go, with the service currently working in any of Wagamama’s 112 restaurants across the UK.
Mastercard are keen for people to know just how secure their app is too. Extensive testing has been carried out to ensure folk are getting a top-notch, safe and convenient payment system.
Richard Tallboy, Director of Business Development for Wagamama said “We know that the biggest area of feedback from restaurant customers is related to the speed and convenience of payment. The Qkr! with MasterPass payment app provides us with a great solution, allowing customers to control when they want to pay through a simple and secure download app. Whether they are having a quick bite at lunchtime and need to get back to work or are having dinner before a show, putting them in control of paying when they are ready makes for a more relaxing dining experience.”
How it fares against exisitng offerings like FlyPay and Zapper remains to be seen, but such a notably player ensures there’s one more reliable method of making mobile payments for good and services in the run up to the arrival of Apple Pay in the UK.
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