FriendShip Kitchen Rolls Out Curbside Service Using Paytronix Platform

FriendShip Kitchen, an Ohio-based chain of convenience restaurants, has become the first U.S. retailer to be certified as Safe Shop Assured by implementing contactless pickup using Paytronix’s guest engagement platform.

FriendShip Kitchen said that its new FriendShip Curbside service allows customers to order and pickup restaurant food and groceries by placing an order through its new FSCurb.com site.

The food chain said the new system appeals to customers because it makes shopping not only safer during the pandemic, but more convenient.

FriendShip Kitchen said customers generally use the service to order prepared food from its kitchens, adding on convenience store items such as milk, ice cream or beer.

In addition to supporting its new ordering service, the Paytronix guest engagement platform also integrates FriendShip Kitchen’s rewards program.

“Paytronix has been a great partner,” said FriendShip Kitchen Marketing Director Kevin Campbell, in a statement. “We ultimately selected them due to their entrepreneurial flexibility and to ensure a seamless integration of our loyalty, mobile ordering, and curbside programs.

FriendShip Curbside is currently available at a limited number of locations, with the company planning to expand the service to other stores in 2021.

With the pandemic still in full force, restaurants have been embracing new ways to service customers.

Paytronix CEO Andrew Robbins told Karen Webster in an interview this spring, the restaurateurs they are working with are choosing to adapt — and getting creative about going digital.

“For some places, where takeout and delivery a year ago might’ve been 13 percent of their orders, it has today become 100 percent,” he said. “So they’re really fixated on it — this is not a sideshow anymore. And when you fixate on something, you optimize it, make it better and try to perfect it. So we are seeing a lot of innovation around what’s on the menu and how it is packaged — they are providing a lot of nuances in the delivery and takeout experience.”

At this point, Robbins and Webster noted that restaurants are adapting to a new normal where delivery and pickup will be a major part of their revenue stream for far longer than the formal quarantine period. We are already seeing previews of what those adjustments will look like, Robbins said, in the form of menu changes, delivery priority, meal kit development and new ways to share food with consumers via digital channels.