Ben Salama
Tapingo is an online ordering and delivery service for restaurants in and around college campuses that is fully staffed by college students. Students are able to use dining dollars as a method of payment straight through the application. Tapingo lets students order from popular restaurants in the area that don't deliver: Tuffy's Diner, Cook Out and Starbucks are just a few of the restaurants that students can choose to order from on the app. The service launched Nov. 9 at NC State.
With over 30,000 students at NC State, lines for food can get a little crowded. University Dining has several workarounds for this, such as the buffet style dining halls and the grab-and-go system featured at the Atrium, but it doesn’t always keep the lines down. However, last semester University Dining introduced a new possible solution, Tapingo, the mobile food ordering app.
A free app available on both the Apple and Android market, Tapingo allows students at NC State to order food from non-self-serving restaurants on Central and Centennial Campus, as well as from most coffee shops. This allows users to select and pay for their meals while avoiding wait time in lines. When their food is ready, users receive a text message notification. They simply have to walk up to the counter, show proof of the order from the app and walk away with their meal.
“Our goal is to help universities enhance campus dining services by eliminating long, unnecessary lines and providing the convenience of delivery,” said Leanne Reis, a public relations manager for Tapingo. “Users can browse menus, order and pay, then schedule pickup or have their order delivered.”
At the moment, Tapingo only operates in or around college campuses and is used by over 125 colleges across the country.
“Having grown up with mobile technology, students are familiar and comfortable with mobile and have come to expect the same level of convenience and customization that technology affords them in most other aspects of their daily lives,” Reis said. “Not only do today’s students live busy lives, they have also been the driving force behind the shift toward mobile technology.”
Reis said that once a school is selected to be a Tapingo school, the company begins working with the college’s information technology department to install the hardware necessary for the app to work. Following that, student ID cards must be programmed into the system, and then finally, staff and managers are trained to use the system by Tapingo employees. Currently, students can pay for their meals using dining dollars, meal credits, debit or credit cards, or a combination of these.
“It took approximately six months,” said Randy Lait, the senior director for hospitality services at NC State. “We worked with Tapingo to be the first university in the country to connect their system to a campus meal plan system that allows meal equivalency at campus retail operations. This was the most complicated part of the implementation.”
Lait said Tapingo at NC State has had some minor problems since it started, such as daily special menu items showing up for purchase on the app at all times, but these and other problems have been mostly resolved.
“Like any new system, getting both customers and staff to learn how to use the system properly takes some time, and there have been minor system tweaks and operational adjustments required,” Lait said. “There have been a few bumps in the road making sure that all staff know how to deal with various issues that come up with Tapingo orders, but with every instance we learn and correct and adjust our operations accordingly.”
NC State first started considering Tapingo three years ago but did not implement the service at the time due to being too busy with renovations. The university didn’t have any concrete plans for Tapingo until a team from NC State visited Georgia Southern University and got to test out the app for itself.
NC State had more app downloads in a single day than any other college and has exceeded expectations in terms of utilization. In addition to allowing users to order food, Tapingo also offers food delivery services from nearby restaurants like Chipotle, Noodles & Company and Cook Out.
“Students looking to have food delivered place the order through the Tapingo app, which then processes the order and payment. The order then flows through to the Tapingo Courier app — a dedicated app that we built to facilitate dispatch and communication,” Reis said. “The Tapingo Courier app connects with a network of Tapingo Couriers who are then able to efficiently see what orders are outstanding, pick up the order, and deliver it straight to the user.”
Tapingo is currently working with NC State Dining to make Tapingo Delivery compatible with on-campus venues, beginning with The Oval and Talley Student Union restaurants.
“Imagine ordering a meal from your phone using your meal plan, and having it delivered to where you are studying,” Lait said.