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The MyCheck mobile app is gaining some ground in a crowded field of applications that enable consumers to order and pay restaurant tabs. New York City-based MyCheck LLC announced Thursday that the 68-location Twin Peaks restaurant chain will offer its iOS and Android white-label app to customers for payments and rewards redemptions beginning in late August.
The app enables diners to pay at the table or counter, order ahead and ask for delivery, split tabs, redeem promotional offers from the restaurant and buy digital gift cards, and receive push notifications. MyCheck says its app requires no special hardware and is integrated with 27 point-of-sale technology systems from major vendors such as Micros NCR Corp.’s Aloha and others, and with payment systems such as PayPal Inc., Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay, Google Inc.’s Google Wallet (soon to be Android Pay), and others.
A diner signs up for the service after downloading the restaurant’s branded app, then links to it a payment method that can be anything from a credit or debit card to one of the payment services already noted, according to a MyCheck spokesperson. “Every time the user checks in to any venue, the system validates the payment method and generates a four-digit code, which is time-based, location-based, and user-based,” the spokesperson says.
The user then shows the code on his smart phone, or states it, to the server. When the code is entered into the point-of-sale system, the user can view his running bill, get rewards, split the check and pay with his or her desired payment method, the spokesperson says.
“Our app will allow Twin Peaks to automate how we reward our loyal customers, surprising and delighting them in real-time on their phones, with our promotional programs seamlessly integrated into our point-of-sale system,” Pete Bell, chief marketing officer of Dallas-based Twin Peaks, said in a news release.
Founded four years ago in Israel, MyCheck claims to be the largest mobile-payment company in that country and is now expanding in the United States from its New York office. MyCheck says its app has 20 corporate users, including Cheesecake Factory, Blockheads, and Aroma Expresso Bar.
Twin Peaks appeals to a mostly male customer base through a menu of comfort food, draft beers, high-definition TVs showing sports events, and scantily-dressed “Twin Peaks Girls” waitresses. A franchised location in Waco, Texas, gained notoriety last month as the site of a shootout among motorcycle gangs that resulted in nine dead. That location has since closed.
