California Pizza Kitchen Steps Up its App With Mobile Payments

February 6, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

While going out to eat is often a pleasant experience for most people, it’s not always as pleasant as it could be.

There are some land mines of inefficiency and annoyance built into the system, and one of the worst is the wait for the check. Some have worked around this by asking for the check at the start of the meal itself, but these workarounds don’t always fly.

California Pizza Kitchen locations have helped on this front by augmenting its mobile app with a new mobile payments option.

With the new augmentation, California Pizza Kitchen locations will allow users to use the CPK Pizza Dough Rewards system to pay for an order directly from a mobile device. A combination of the app and several other systems—including NCR Aloha Cloud Connect and Aloha Table Services—takes the wait out of the last portion of the dining experience and lets users vacate a table faster.

It’s an excellent addition to the overall operation, and it’s actually not the first time-saving measure found on the app. Looking at the app on Google Play notes that there’s rewards program integration included, as well as some new features for online takeout ordering.

That’s a great idea and all, but why not step up that online ordering to include ordering in the restaurant as well? If I’m going to a California Pizza Kitchen, and it might take me 10 minutes to a half-hour to get there, why can’t I place my order when I’m leaving the house and have it ready for me at the table before I get there?

Speeding up the average order, meanwhile, also speeds up flow through the restaurant and allows more seatings to take place, which means more orders, happier customers, and more profit for the restaurant.

Still, this is a minor issue, and California Pizza Kitchen has abundantly demonstrated the value connected with using a mobile payments system in a current app. Taking the wait out of the experience makes for a better experience for all concerned, even the restaurant itself.

That’s value you can take to the bank, and California Pizza Kitchen will likely see lots of new dough—who could resist such a line?—as a result.