Who among us hasn’t been in this scenario: It’s almost closing time and you’re ready to settle your tab and leave, but the line of people at the bar trying to make last call is five people deep — and you’ll need to wait at least 20 minutes just to pay your bill. Or maybe you’re a bartender who loves interacting with your customers and hates seeing when someone is antsy to close out while you’re in the middle of preparing other customers’ orders. That usually means they have to wait.
Enter TabX, a new app designed to help customers quickly and easily close out bar tabs from their own phone. TabX is a boon for bartenders, too — they get more quality time with guests, taking and preparing orders — instead of wasting time running credit cards to open and close tabs.
The concept for the app began with the idea that virtually everything else can be done from one’s phone, so why not the ability to pay a tab? What makes TabX different from other platforms (the ones that eliminate the need for servers) is that TabX seeks to improve the human interaction at a bar rather than take hospitality out of the equation, enhancing the bar experience for both the customer and the bartender.
User-Friendly TabX Makes Paying Up Easy, and It Comes With Perks
The TabX app is free for users to download. Users can easily find bars close to them, and open their tab before they arrive or when they get there. Once at the bar, they’ll place their order (which can include both food and drinks) directly with the bartender or server like normal and enjoy their night. When they’re ready to leave and settle up, they can use TabX to review their bill, pay and tip directly from their device without waiting in long lines, handing over a credit card, or worrying about forgetting to pay.
TabX has partnered with numerous liquor brands to create specialty drinks with individual bars and bartenders. These drinks are offered as a promotion to TabX users to give them special discounts. For example: users might get $5 off their first beer or half off their first specialty cocktail. And each time a user settles their bill with TabX, they’re only charged 97 cents, a portion of which is given to the venue to offset credit card fees.
The app’s aim is to simplify the paying process and make it seamless for both clients and bars. It’s designed to be so easy that someone can open a tab remotely for a family member or friend, and when they order, pay the tab and tip from their phone without even being there. Or to help a friend in need or for a special occasion, buy them a round at a bar. Representatives of liquor brands can also collaborate with multiple bars simultaneously to treat patrons to cocktails while keeping an eye on their tabs and closing them out remotely.
Another advantage TabX offers users is the opportunity to review their bills before they pay — preventing errors like being charged for a drink you didn’t order or ending up with the tab of someone else.
“No one wants to wait in a line just to close their tab,” says Josh Taylor, TabX creator. “TabX’s goal is to make the whole experience more human, not less.”
Bars Benefit From TabX
Bars may at first be dubious of how TabX can be more of a help than a hindrance, but in fact, it enhances the bar experience for customers while improving a venue’s bottom line. Bartenders have the benefit of not having to handle credit cards or stop what they’re doing to process a payment, so they’re more efficient. It also frees up bartenders to spend more time interacting with their customers and providing other essential services.
“I use TabX across the country at so many bars now,” says Taylor. “I still say goodbye to the bartender on the way out; I just don’t have to ask to pay my tab [with them]. They still have that last touch with me — it’s just more conversational and less transactional.”
TabX’s research has proven that bars that adopt use of the app show increased sales, check totals, and tip averages both because they’re offering TabX’s drink deals, which increase drink sales, and because bars gain some efficiency and can provide more service. TabX is free for bars to use, and even shares back a portion of the app’s own revenue with partner locations, offsetting about 30 percent of the bar’s credit card processing fees.
Using drink deals is optional for bars, but most find the deals incentivize patrons to spend more. The drink deals are specific to each bar and are either chosen from the existing menu or created in collaboration with bars, bartenders, and liquor companies to remain consistent with the bar’s brand.
Another incentive for bars to adopt TabX is that the app covers all insufficient funds. TabX uses its own “last call” process that closes all TabX tabs left open at the end of the night. If someone’s card is declined, TabX covers the tab for them so the bar still gets paid. TabX is able to do this because it has the patron’s card on file and can charge it until it is paid.
TabX is currently in a dozen cities across the U.S., including Brooklyn, Nashville, Denver, Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans with plans to expand to cities across the country. By simplifying and streamlining the process of closing out, TabX helps save them time, freeing bartenders from wasting time closing out tabs so they can focus on what they do best.
This article is sponsored by TabX.
