Restaurant Gift Card that Saves your Favorites, every Regular's Dream...
For anyone who's a regular at a coffee shop or quick-serve restaurant, this is sure to hit home. These days, most restaurants offer gift cards (or rewards cards), but they should really make that card able to save the customer's favorite orders. This would allow the customer to simply tell the cashier which favorite he'd like that day, without having to recite all the details. Such a system would prevent orders from being made wrong, and speed up the whole ordering process (i.e. shorter lines). Something like this would be perfect at Starbucks, that not only has regulars, but has tired, irritable, rushed regulars who expect their overcomplicated coffee to be perfect each and every time. Read on to see something like this could work.
To set-up a favorite, the customer places an order and the cashier could ask "Do you want to save this as a favorite?" If the customer replies "Yes," his card would be swiped and all the details of the order (extra shot of espresso, non-fat soymilk , hold the cinnamon, etc) are saved to the customer's account. The cashier would then tell the customer which favorite the order is.
When the customer wants to order a favorite, his card would be swiped and the customer would just have to say the number of the favorite he wants. The cashier could quickly recite some of the details before placing the order. Then the order is placed without the cashier having to re-enter the details. Also, the customer should be able to make changes to his favorites with the cashier or the restaurant's website.
I seriously can't understand why some big restaurant chain hasn't done this yet, the benefits are clear: fewer orders made wrong, shorter lines, less work for cashiers, and less hassle for customers. Plus there's now a big incentive for customers to buy that gift card and keep it loaded.