Food service workers at Kennesaw State have expressed mixed feelings toward the university’s partnership with the food ordering app, Tapingo.
The Tapingo app is KSU’s newest addition to dining services on campus. Tapingo allows users to order and pay for food and beverages in advance and skip the line to pick up their order.
The purpose of Tapingo is to create shorter wait times for students and make the process of ordering food more efficient.
“We believe in a world where technology removes the hassles and stress of everyday transactions — so humans can focus on more important things,” The Tapingo website states.
When Tapingo orders are received, restaurant staff pause the orders coming from the conventional line to make the Tapingo order.
Several restaurant employees do not like the app because of the increased traffic, but others welcome the change.
Patricia Barnett, an employee at Chick-fil-a said they see about 300 more orders per day as a result of the new app.
A food service worker wishing to remain anonymous expressed discontent, saying Tapingo creates double the amount of orders for the same amount of employees, which causes delays.
“We would rather you just wait in line,” the employee said.
Other restaurants on campus have seen major improvements in their efficiency.
“Last semester was my first semester here at Kennesaw State as the manager of Chick-Fil-A, and we would always have lines out of the door,” Chick-Fil-A manager Carl Jones said. “With the Tapingo app, its actually cut our lines down incredibly.”
“We’re going to have our problems as with any new application,” he continued. “However, it’s increasing business, and, as for the employees, we are always hiring.”
Tapingo has partnered with more than 250 college campuses across the U.S., according to its website.
The app is available for use on both the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses at Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A, Burrito Bowl and Stacks, as well as The Commons and Stingers.
The app accepts credit cards or KSU dining dollars as payment methods. To start using Tapingo, students need to download the app, choose Kennesaw as their location and link a form of payment to place an order.
