Bringing Order-Ahead Drinks To Theater Patrons, Drama-Free

Pairing comedy with drinks is a tradition for many who visit improv and stand-up venues, but it’s usually not worth missing some of the show. Those who eagerly purchased tickets to an event are not interested in returning from the bar just in time to hear the rest of the audience laughing, leaving them wondering what great bit they just missed.

Comedy lovers at larger venues often must decide whether it’s worth waiting in line at the bar during intermission or before the show and risk the performance starting without them.

This is also a problem for the theaters and clubs that host these acts. Ticket sales are only one piece of their revenue, as concessions are an important profit boost. Selling can be a challenge, though, when there is a short amount of time before customers have to get to their seats.

Mobile order-ahead services tailored to live venues can enable patrons to pre-order and pre-pay for their items, so their orders are ready for pickup when they arrive. This removes the hassle of having to wait in long lines while anxiously checking the clock.

Order-ahead solution Noble is one service enabling in-app and browser-based ordering at theaters in six U.S. states. Consumers use the app to order bar and concession items, such as cocktails or hot dogs. They can then choose their desired pickup locations, and pay and tip via Venmo or credit card.

Any service that purports to ease age-restricted substance sales has its work cut out for it, of course. In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Noble CEO Varun Pathak and COO Matt Draper explained how the company avoids liabilities while keeping its ordering platform secure.

Avoiding Underage Drinking

Alcoholic drinks are a staple at comedy clubs, but remotely facilitating these sales through an order-ahead app can be tricky. Providers must make ordering and purchasing a quick and easy experience without letting alcohol fall into underage hands.

Noble addresses this by working with state regulators and abiding by rules like limiting the number of drinks one person can collect, Draper said. Patrons trying to order more than the limit will be notified in-app that another ID-wielding customer must go with them to pick up the drinks, Pathak added.

Customers are required to confirm in-app that they are at least 21, but that isn’t exactly a foolproof age verification measure. The app only facilitates payment and item selection, leaving bartenders to check IDs at pickup points, Pathak explained. Should there be an issue with the ID presented or the purchaser’s intoxication level, the customer can be denied and the order voided.

Chargebacks and Data Security

Like restaurants, theaters selling drinks or snacks also run the risk of chargebacks, in which customers demand reversals for purchases they do not recognize on their credit card statements. In some cases, these demands are levied against legitimate purchases, which means merchants not only lose money on the goods sold, but are also hit with acquiring bank fees.

That’s a risk Noble also has to deal with, especially when customers see the ordering service listed on their credit card statement instead of the club. The company has been working with its payment processor to combat this by including venue names on payment line items. It also keeps customer information safe by relying on a third party for handling card data and personally identifying information (PII).

“None of that touches the [Noble] system itself,” Draper said.

The company is considering several additional ways to boost its defenses against fraud and other risks, including using in-app facial recognition for authentication or enabling customers to log in using accounts that have been authenticated by other providers, like Facebook or Google.

Vendors could get other capabilities, too, including ways to leverage customer behavior data to anticipate whether accepting an order from a customer may be risky, Draper noted.

“Whether a person is a more at-risk patron or less, that’s information that we do have and are able to share,” he said. “[We can] at least find a way to make sure we’re always managing risks ahead of time, maybe even before the order is placed.”

The ordering service has insights that can indicate if customers were previously rejected or voided that night, for example, or show that they have a bad track record with the service — similar to Uber‘s rating system for users. Sharing those details could be valuable in helping businesses decide if they want to block particular users from ordering via the app and instead require them to order in person.

Providing these capabilities can further assist theaters and event venues with not only enabling quick and seamless ordering, but also bypassing fraud- or underage-related drama.