Q&A with Nick Hughes, Head of Growth, GoCart
Nick Hughes is GoCart’s head of growth, and has an extensive background in payments, e-commerce,
and SMB software. He is passionate about client and consumer experience.
Q: So Nick, tell us about some of the big changes that restaurants have seen over the past couple
years.
A: As the pandemic came about, it caused a heavy shift to digital channels, whether from an online
perspective, or an increase in phone orders. There’s also been a shifting of expectations for those that
were brave enough to go out and actually sit down and dine – around you know, no menus, QR code-
based components. So both customer expectations and the way these restaurants operate
fundamentally shifted.
Q: How have those shifts changed the customer experience?
A: It has absolutely changed the landscape. Hospitality is all about the entire experience, right? It's not
just the food that you're getting, but it's the experience of being in the establishment. What was the
service level like, what's the cleanliness of the restaurant, so on and so forth – and when it's in person,
it's easily controlled. You can see as a restaurant employee that a customer has been standing in line for
a long time or is, you know, not eating.
What you can't see as a restaurant is the consumer's experience on that digital platform. Are they
having trouble completing their payment, or modifying the food selection that they have? I experience
that all the time going to a third party online ordering app. Maybe there's no modifier to say no beans.
Now I'm stuck putting it in a note and hoping that that restaurant’s going to catch the note. There can
be a loss of consistency as you shift into digital, and especially when you don't own the digital
experience and you're reliant on one of these marketplaces to drive it.
Q: It’s interesting that you mentioned third party apps. Can you talk more about how those have
impacted the customer experience?
A: Well, the consumer has the ability to select from all these different restaurants that are on there,
right? There's no driving brand affinity or loyalty, etcetera. So you're disintermediating the consumer
from the brand, but even when they go into the experience, the merchant is relying on that third party
to showcase the modifiers and selections the way that they want it showcased. Which isn't always done
perfectly due to technology limitations and other components that may be there, and the fact that
those entities are trying to manage that service on behalf of hundreds and thousands of restaurants. So
it's very hard to keep that constantly up to date and keep that functionality at a level that the restaurant
would want to see.
And a heavy, heavy amount of margin is going to these third-party ordering applications – in an industry
where margins are already thin. So bringing that back in house and owning it is key.
Q: You mentioned loyalty. Can you tell us more about how we should be thinking about loyalty in the
restaurant space?
A: So for younger generations, they're less keen on sign-ins and overall goal-based loyalty programs. And
what I mean by that is it could be points, it could be sales promotions, it could be however a merchant
handles loyalty for their establishment. The younger consumers are less focused on that and they're
more focused on the digital experience overall –how quickly can I get it? How easily can I get it?
Also, consumer recognition in payments is going to become a very powerful consumer acquisition and
loyalty tool for restaurants. Historically, it's been a retail play and now I think with the shift to digital in
the hospitality space, we're going to see it become a focal point here too.
So for restaurants, decisions will be influenced by ease of experience. We're going to remember the bad
experiences more so than the good experiences, because the good experiences are going to become the
norm.
Q: Makes sense. Any closing thoughts?
A: Where we focus from a GoCart perspective is on the fact that consumers are going to take the easiest
path to ordering. If we want to get to a place where that brand is front and center and it's happening on
the merchants ecosystem, the focus needs to be around the experience overall, back to how do we
modify, what does the actual payment process look like. Ultimately, we want to end the
disintermediation of the brand and the consumer.
About GoCart
GoCart is a fast, one-click checkout experience that makes payments easy everywhere. Learn more
about GoCart here, https://www.gocartpay.com/