BOULDER, Colo. — Noodles & Company has become the first national chain to adopt a new mobile commerce and marketing system that allows customers to pay with their cell phones.
Developed by Boulder-based FEED Tribes, the mobile payment system combines carrier-agnostic text-message transaction capabilities with a multichannel communication and promotional platform for merchants to build relationships with their customers.
"When people pay with credit cards, there's no way to establish a dialogue," said Chad Gretzema, Noodles & Co. director of marketing and communications. "FEED Tribe offers us the opportunity to communicate with our guests based on how they want to engage in our brand."
According to a news release, the FEED Tribes system dramatically reduces payment processing fees, which can mean millions in savings to national chain retailers, and delivers a powerful multichannel marketing platform that engages customers at every level.
Through its carrier-agnostic mobile phone interface, FEED allows customers to opt-in to retailers' location-based, real-time promotions, news and events to become part of a locally focused network — a tribe — pulling the information they want through their choice of text messages, RSS feeds, e-mail or a personalized home page on a regional FEED Tribes Web site (e.g., DenverFeed.com).
"The convergence of the cell phone at the point of sale allows merchants to build interactive loyalty with their customers," said Rod Stambaugh, FEED Tribes chief executive. "Everyone has a mobile phone and it is becoming the dominant communication medium for voice, text and ever-improving video. Our system allows our partners to target their marketing dollars where they are most effective both from a medium and target-audience perspective. You may not read the newspaper or look at a billboard, but you will definitely use your mobile phone each day."
The FEED Tribes system is currently operational in all Boulder Noodles & Company restaurants.
