uWink Bistro Blog

PROBLEM: Your company is launching its new product or service and needs a great place to introduce it to potential customers. The environment needs to highlight the new product or service in an innovative way to really showcase how “cutting edge” it is, and to leave the potential customers with a positive impression of not only the product or service but of the company as a whole.

uWink Solution: We have just the place! uWink features large wall projections which exhibit revolving dynamic imagery allowing the restaurant to change its vibe at a moment’s notice. This dynamic imagery can be customized for your product or service. Just picture your company’s newest product coupled with company logo splashed over all the walls in crisp, high resolution. Your custom power point presentation or even product and company videos can be displayed! And that’s not where it ends. Every table (and at the bar) at uWink has a touch screen terminal where guests can order food, drinks, and play games. These terminals can be customized to have your own graphic starter page and our question engine that allows guests compete against each other, can be customized with questions about your new product and company!

Whether it’s a team building, product launch, corporate rebranding, or company-wide party, if it’s at uWink, they will be bathed in an interactive dynamic environment that will leave them with a positive and excited attitude towards your stated objectives.

Come on in and customize your experience! That’s the ‘u’ in uWink!

PROBLEM: You’re at some swanky lounge or bar. The place is packed. Your friends are there and you’re having a good time. But there are no waiters/waitresses in sight. You and your friends just want to get some drinks, but by the time the waiters/waitresses make their way around to you, take your order, stop by a few more tables, give the order to the bar, and then bring the drinks to you and take your money/open a tab, it already feels like FOREVER.

uWink Solution: Touch the drink you want on your table’s self-service terminal. Choose your name from the list. DONE.

The drink order is automatically routed straight to the bartender. Then your drink order makes it to you as fast as the uWink runners can pick it up and walk it over to you. Just think of how much more efficient it is when the waitresses don’t have to concentrate on taking the orders and the customer knows their order is always placed correctly. The waiters/waitresses only need to concentrate on delivering the drinks to the customers as fast as possible! (The touch screen is even dual-sided so no need for you and your friends to wait to order one by one.)

So at uWink, the place could be packed and you and your friends could be way in the corner. But it’s like you’re transported to the bar, front and center, anytime you want to place an order.

Now that’s service! That’s a uWink Solution.

Watch the below video to see exactly what we mean:

uWink Promo Video

Another sign (no pun intended) that uWink Hollywood is getting closer to opening.

PROBLEM: Credit card fraud is on the rise and the process known as “Skimming” has been an issue for many restaurants. At restaurants, your credit card physically leaves your hands, and that is the gateway leading to the fraud. Remember when you use to give your credit card to the cashier at the grocery/department store? Not any more you don’t. Because companies more and more are concerned with the privacy of their customer’s payment information and for good reason. So now companies make sure the credit card never leaves their customer’s hand and the cashier doesn’t have a chance to even see the card. See this article: Credit Card Fraud at Restaurants

uWink Solution: At uWink, your credit card NEVER leaves your hand. Swipe it right there at the touch screen terminal at your table. It confirms the amount on the screen and shows you exactly how much you will be charged. No one else touches your card.

(This by the way is the same touch screen terminal that lets you order your food and drinks right from the table!)

Now that’s service! That’s a uWink Solution.

From the moment you walk into a typical restaurant, it is you, the customer, conforming to the way the restaurant wait staff operates, not the other way around.

You are led through your meal from stage to stage with as much care as possible until you are out the door with a hearty tip left on the table.

What would it mean for you to be in control of this process?

What would it mean for the restaurant to conform to you?

That is the world we are moving towards faster and faster each day and one in which uWink is leading the charge. It is one driven by technology’s powerful ability to tailor the customer experience down to the individual who is right there, right now.

That is the “u” in uWink. It is the power of you in the ordering process. You are in control of what you order and when you order it. You are in control of your restaurant experience.

PROBLEM: A group of deaf/hard-of-hearing customers walk into a restaurant. They cannot hear the waiters/waitresses nor do the waiters/waitresses know sign language. Even if they are reading lips, the waiter/waitress might be speaking too fast or unknowingly speak while they are not looking. All in all, my point is it’s an uncomfortable situation for them and may cause many in the deaf/hard-of-hearing community to refrain from eating out at restaurants.

uWink Solution: Put the power of ordering in the customer’s hands. The problem of not understanding the waiter/waitress disappears since all orders for food and drinks can be placed with the touch of a finger using the touch screen terminal at each table. Even food and drink modifications can be made with a few simple touches. Need more napkins, drop your fork on the floor and need another one, need some condiments? All those options and more are right there at your fingertips. All this provides an empowering experience for a deaf/hard-of-hearing customer. And to top if off, they can even enjoy the social game experience since all room games are played using the touch screen terminals at the table in combination with the wall projections throughout the restaurant displaying each game’s winners. Even more satisfying to us is when we see the big, bright smile of a young kid who is deaf/hard-of-hearing who has just placed his/her own order or played a room game. The look of empowerment on the kid’s face is priceless.

That’s Service. That’s a uWink Solution.

We can’t end this post without mentioning a great organization we have been getting feedback from lately on this topic. The organization is GLAD (The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc.) We will be attending their 6th annual GLAD brunch at the World Famous House of Blues in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 18th from 9 a.m - Noon. Looking forward to seeing you there if you are attending. Their special guests include actress Jamie Lee Curtis and comedian Marlee Matlin!

Next week uWink founder & CEO, Nolan Bushnell will be on the video game panel at the Wedbush MAC conference moderated by Michael Pachter. There are around 80 companies presenting at this conference and meeting with investors with usually around 300 institutional investors (mutual fund managers and hedge fund managers) attending.

The panel discussion will be webcast so if you want to tune in and hear the latest going on in the video game world here are the details:

When: Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm ET

Panelists:

Kathy Vrabeck, President of Casual Entertainment for Electronic Arts

John Koller, Sr. Marketing Manager, PSP division of Sony Computer Entertainment America

Doug Clemmer, President, Valusoft & THQ Wireless

Nolan Bushnell, CEO uWink, Chairman NeoEdge, Founder Atari

Alex St. John, CEO, Founder and Chairman of WildTangent

The registration link to the webcast is http://www.wsw.com/webcast/wedbush6/lunch/.  You will need to complete 4 simple fields of information to register.