Buzztime Tablets Continue to Lead Guest Experience Revolution, Enhancing Entertainment and Dining Options with Features that Support Group Ordering, Easy Beverage Reorders, Promotions/Specials and More
Carlsbad, CA – August 11, 2015 – Restaurant and bar entertainment leader NTN Buzztime, Inc. (NYSE MKT:NTN) today unveiled integrated menu, self-service ordering and payment capabilities as options for its Buzztime tabletop tablets. Providing value to patrons and venues alike, the new features let customers control the dining experience with full and dynamic menus including photos, descriptions and prices, while still enjoying the entertainment that made Buzztime tablets a center for fun, interactive guest engagement.
Buzztime’s menu, ordering and payment options seamlessly integrate with the existing entertainment offerings on the company’s tablet-based platform that include trivia, cards, arcade and sports games. This combination of fun and functionality has kept Buzztime at the forefront of hospitality innovation, most recently through its win of the 2015 ICX Association Excellence Award in the Best Restaurant/Food Service Deployment: Kiosk/Self-Service category. The award recognizes achievement in the deployment of technology to create transcendent customer experiences.
With over eight million player registrations in its network, Buzztime is the best-known name in digital entertainment for bars and restaurants. Over 80 million Buzztime games were played last year nationwide and the company has deployed over 45,000 tablets to restaurant and bar locations.
“Adding full menus and ordering, as well as payment, to the Buzztime platform is a huge innovation for restaurant chains and their guests. Through tabletop tablets, patrons are now able to create the kind of experience they desire, ordering and refilling when and how they wish,” said Ram Krishnan, Buzztime CEO. “By truly integrating entertainment and self-service dining in a single platform, we believe Buzztime will re-define customer satisfaction and significantly increase brand loyalty for our partners.”
The free-floating design of Buzztime tablets makes them perfectly designed for sharing or individual use. Importantly, placing tablets into the hands of each patron also allows restaurants to integrate service staff into the guest experience with technology, rather than remove them from it. Just as a party of six shouldn’t be expected to share one menu, the Buzztime self-service dining experience doesn’t force guests to share a single tablet or appoint one person to order for the table. The unique group cart functionality allows an entire table to initiate and edit orders through multiple tablets before sending a single order to the kitchen.
From the minute guests enter an establishment, Buzztime tablets provide value. While waiting for their table, guests have a chance to preview the menu and prepare their order, reducing frustration and filling idle time. Once they’re seated and their food is being prepared, patrons can play games against others at their table, against other tables, or even against players nationwide to keep them engaged and entertained.
Buzztime’s flexible self-service dining and entertainment options address business needs that can vary by venue. Some establishments emphasize table turns while others place a high value on engagement and positive patron experiences. With Buzztime’s tabletop tablets these varying needs can be delivered in any combination, to accommodate any day part or management priority, via the same versatile device.
With Buzztime’s technology, establishments can easily enable their menus to change over the course of the day. Guests review full menus including images, selecting and combining items as they wish using simple swipe and tap gestures. Further promoting the “dine your way” sensibility, diners can customize their orders by requesting side substitutions or special dietary adjustments. For added convenience and up-selling opportunities, Buzztime tablets offer the option of ordering more drinks or dessert as well as making final payment.
Implementing this type of modern, technology-driven solution empowers restaurants to elevate their customer service and experience so as to better serve their diners. A study conducted by Software Advice, a recommendation site for iPad POS, found that 41% of consumers want to self-order at casual restaurants, 50% want to self-pay at casual restaurants, and 88% are willing or prefer to use self-service systems at the table. At the same time, venues want speed and security. They need ways to improve customer satisfaction and inspire spending that also allow for volume. In addition, venues can benefit from gaining better knowledge of their customers and delivering more targeted promotions. By connecting through locations’ point-of-sales systems, Buzztime tablets can begin to turn these wishes into realities with technology designed to deliver shorter guest wait time, higher check averages, increased revenue, faster check processing and improved payment security.
About Buzztime:
NTN Buzztime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NTN) is a leading bar and restaurant social entertainment and integrated marketing platform. Trusted by bars and restaurants in North America since 1985, Buzztime integrates trivia, card and sports games with in- and out-of-venue messaging and communication tools. With over 8 million player registrations on the Buzztime platform and over 80 million games played last year, Buzztime players spread the word and invite friends and family to their favorite Buzztime locations to enjoy evenings of fun and competition. With Buzztime entertainment and marketing solutions, bars and restaurants can turn casual visitors into regulars, and give patrons a reason to stay longer. For the most up-to-date information on NTN Buzztime, please visit buzztime.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @buzztime.
Forward-looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect management’s current views of future events and operations, including but not limited to statements about our growth plans, product and platform development and new revenue. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the risks of unsuccessful execution or launch of products, platforms or brands, the impact of alternative menu and payment options and technologies and competitive products, brands, technologies and pricing, adverse economic conditions, and the regulatory environment, and the failure of customer and/or restaurant adoption or demand for new or products. Please see NTN Buzztime, Inc.’s recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for information about these and other risks that may affect the Company. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. These statements speak only as of the date hereof and NTN Buzztime, Inc. does not undertake to publicly update or revise any of its forward-looking statements, even if experience or future changes show that the indicated results or events will not be realized.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Tony Keller
SS|PR for Buzztime
312-750-0858
tkeller@sspr.com
INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACTS:
Kirsten Chapman / Becky Herrick
LHA for Buzztime
415-433-3777
buzztime@lhai.com