You know that feeling when you finally get to meet that special right-swipe in person, only to find while chivalrously queuing up to buy drinks that someone else is hitting on your Tinder date?
Luckily that will never happen again, thanks to AirService, the shiny new mobile commerce platform from Dominic Bressan, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
Basically, AirService is designed to provide a more convenient way to order and pay for food and beverages instead of enduring long queues – whether in a restaurant, bar, resort or sports stadium.
Enterprise-level hospitality companies are AirService’s target audience, providing them with a bespoke branded app solution which allows them to differentiate themselves from competitors using marketplace apps.
Having been established three years ago, the Aussie start-up is experiencing international growth. It has global offices in Sydney, London, New York and Singapore, with capacity to operate immediately in more than 60 other countries around the world, according to Bressan.
With a background in hospitality, he knew queues represented an interruption to any leisurely experience. A bespoke mobile phone app that allowed customers the convenience to view menu selections, order, pay and alerted them when to pick up their order would augment the hospitality experience, rather than detract from it.
“While we all do mobile ordering, AirService is very different from Deliveroo, Menulog, UberEATS, and other marketplace ordering apps,” Bressan told B&T.
“Their focus is on growing their own brand, so more people download their apps. AirService, on the other hand, provides clients with their own branded apps.”
AirService is the ‘intel inside’ of the mobile ordering space. Users do not download the AirService app – they download the branded apps the company creates for its clients, such as Village Roadshow.
“The app we created for Village Roadshow allows users to order food and drinks at Movie World, Sea World and Wet’n’Wild without ever having to wait in a queue,” Bressan said.
“When you think about the convenience that offers a family with young kids on a day out at a theme park, it may sound like a small difference, but it is a difference that can significantly augment the way that family enjoys their day out.”
For the companies that adopt AirService, the platform provides them with tailored solutions, hyper-local marketing, deep integration with other services, and a clear understanding of their customers through effective data analytics, according to Bressan.
“The SCG had a mobile ordering solution that wasn’t working as well as they had hoped, and approached us to try and improve that,” he said.
“AirService integrated its mobile ordering technology into an existing app provided by US-based fan engagement specialist company Fan360. The new integrated solution we created was launched at the Rugby Sevens in February this year.
“The goal for the day was 100 orders, and the SCG had 100 pairs of novelty sunglasses to give away to incentivise people to order. With the AirService technology, 500 people ordered in the first 90 minutes.”
The platform has since been adopted by companies such as GPT, Etihad Stadium, Lend Lease, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, and Chur Burger.
Like most start-ups, AirService does not spend big money on advertising and marketing, and for this reason, Bressan stressed the importance of word-of-mouth customer advocacy.
“From the very beginning, our growth has been driven by the client referrals and our relationships with those customers,” he said.
