Pizza Express, Paypal and the app that pays for dinner

I hate waiting for the bill in restaurants. If I know I’ve got to be somewhere after my meal I find my blood pressure rising as I watch waiters take their time over other customers. How dare they! Don’t they know I’ve got somewhere to be?!

Thankfully, Pizza Express is leading the revolution in the way bills are paid with the launch of an app that could see all my woes disappear.

Launched yesterday, the app not only allows you to find and book a restaurant but to settle your bill via Paypal without involving the waiters at all.

You can even integrate the numerous vouchers and special offers with your payment (let’s face it, who goes to Pizza Express without a voucher code these days?). Very simply, you enter the 12-digit code on your bill into the app, add any voucher codes or special offers that you have and press pay. The till gets notification that you’ve paid and you get a confirmation email.

I’m genuinely excited about this app and what it could mean for the dining industry. I predict we’ll see many other dining establishments rushing to produce their own versions.  So many brands have released seemingly pointless apps that add nothing of value.

Pizza Express CEO Mark Angela says “We knew there was no point just launching an app for the sake of it, so we waited until we had a system that could genuinely improve our customers’ experience of eating out at PizzaExpress.” Quite.

The only downside I can foresee is the lack of 3G signal in some venues making it difficult to use; my local branch has absolutely no signal whatsoever when inside. How about rolling out wi-fi in the restaurants next? The App is also currently only available to iPhone users, with Android and other platforms hopefully being rolled out soon. Other than that, I’m excited to try it out. Any excuse to eat more pizza.

So tell us, will you be using this app?

Tamsin Worrad

Tamsin is a crafty, geeky blogger, who can be found tweeting, blogging on her blog Miss Believer, and writing about tea over on splashofmilk.wordpress.com

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