Pizza Hut Locations in UK Now Take Qkr

How would you like to save 12 minutes when you’re eating out? That’s not an unwelcome prospect for many; 12 minutes saved might mean getting to a movie that much faster and finding a better seat, or checking out an antique shop, or any of a dozen other things that might follow a meal out. Pizza Hut locations in the UK are about to save diners that 12 minutes, on average, thanks to a new move that lets those locations accept Mastercard’s Qkr mobile app for payment.

We haven’t heard a lot out of Qkr lately, but by way of refresher, it’s a digital wallet system that allows for one-click payments for merchants throughout the UK. Several restaurants are already involved in the program—Byron, Wagamama and Zizzi just to name some—and now, Pizza Hut is in play.

Adding Qkr to the slate of options, noted Pizza Hut’s IT director Keith Frimley, is part of a larger effort to improve the customer experience at Pizza Hut locations through several means, including digital transformation. It’s not just the kind of thing that can be used to improve the in-store experience, either, as Qkr allows for both delivery and takeout functions to be included in the app, along with loyalty program offers and even specific promotional offers.

While I’m generally in favor of time savings, especially at restaurants—going out to eat is usually just part of a wider night for me—I’m not sure if Pizza Hut is that big a time sink to begin with. Is anyone spending hours at Pizza Hut? Admittedly, I’ve never eaten at a Pizza Hut in the UK before, so it could be a totally different matter. This may not be a big problem, but saving 12 minutes on average is almost always a good thing. This is likely to improve Pizza Hut’s fortunes; maybe not drastically, but incrementally, and for a business that’s been around as long as Pizza Hut has, most of the possibility for drastic improvement has already been tried anyway.

In the end, 12 minutes is 12 minutes, and Pizza Hut patrons are about to get a little extra time back in their day thanks to mobile payments and Mastercard.