Fast-casual restaurant chain Noodles & Co. announced Tuesday that it will let customers in its Boulder venues pay for meals with their cellphones.
Broomfield-based Noodles is using technology developed by Feed Tribes, a Boulder company that has built a proprietary text-messaging-based payment system that works on just about any mobile phone.
“Young people tell us their grandparents used checks, their parents used credit cards and they want to use their phones,” said Feed Tribes’ chief executive Rod Stambaugh. “All we’re doing is linking their debit card to their cellphone in a very secure way.”
In addition to using their phones to pay bills, customers using Feed Tribes’ service can choose to receive messages from their favorite restaurants and retailers in a few formats, such as text messages, e-mail and personalized Web pages.
Customers also can use their phones to track their pre-paid Feed account balance in real time, which could discourage them from spending too much.
For merchants, accepting mobile-phone payments is cheaper than credit-card transactions, which incur processing fees that fluctuate with sales prices, Stambaugh said. Feed Tribes charges a flat rate per transaction, he said.
Another advantage to the new mobile technology: merchants can interact much more extensively with their customers. Customers waiting in line could receive discounts and invitations to special events.
“When people pay with credit cards, there’s no way to establish a dialogue,” Noodles & Co. director of marketing and communications Chad Gretzema said in a statement. “Feed Tribe offers us the opportunity to communicate with our guests based on how they want to engage in our brand.”
Noodles & Co. is considering expanding the new payment system to its restaurants nationwide.
Other companies, including real-estate information service Clarion Ventures and the Denver Newspaper Agency, also are capitalizing on text-messaging technologies that allow consumers to build relationships with specific businesses.
In June, cellphone users sent 12.5 billion text messages, up 71 percent from 7.3 billion in June 2005, according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Staff writer Christine Tatum can be reached at 303-954-1503 or ctatum@ denverpost.com.
Pay by … cellphone?
Customers set up prepaid accounts with Feed Tribes, which has accounts at Wells Fargo Bank.
Customers place restaurant orders and text message an account PIN to Feed Tribes.
In less than five seconds, the company sends customers a code needed to complete the transaction. The code can be used only once and is good for 15 minutes.
Feed Tribes transfers money from the customer’s account to the merchant.
