Downtown uses Bluetooth beacons to deliver orders to customers’ tables

Coupa Cafe customers can order and pay via BLE and an app

A café in Palo Alto, California is using a new service developed by startup Downtown that lets customers order and pay for their meals with their mobile phone. Bluetooth beacons placed at each table link each order with the table the customer is seated at, enabling waiting staff to bring ordered items directly to the correct table.

The service is available today for customers at the Coupa Café with an iOS device and “transforms the user experience to a walk in, order, consume and leave procedure without spending any time waiting in line,” Downtown says.

“At Coupa Café we are constantly looking to enhance our customer experience and bottom line through technology,” says Jean-Paul Coupal, the chain’s CEO. “Downtown’s technology will provide those Coupa Café customers with an enhanced means of doing business with us.

“Our customers who do not use the Downtown application should benefit as the line is thinned. We also anticipate that reorders will be improved since our customers no longer have to re-enter the line to place reorders.”

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