University of Hull Students’ Union invests in digital ordering

University of Hull Students’ Union has become the first higher education facility to invest in digital ordering from Preoday

University of Hull students will benefit from a new digital ordering and table delivery service when they return to their studies on the 15th September. Students and staff can now use the Union’s Preoday-powered mobile app to order their favourite food and drink from Sanc directly from their phone.

Customers download the Sanc app, find a table in the Sanctuary bar or on the outside decking, place and pay for their orders before having them delivered direct to their seat. The menu includes classic meals, a wide variety of vegan and gluten free options as well soft drinks, beer, wine and cocktails.

Alongside an improved customer experience, the Students’ Union catering team will benefit from reduced queues, leading to greater productivity for the operations team. They can also utilise customer data, gathered via the app, to forecast sales trends and develop personalised marketing campaigns.

Andy King, Director of Commercial Services at Hull University Union, comments: “With a tech-minded student body, it’s important that we keep pace with wider industry trends. In part, that means offering digital services, equivalent to those expected from retailers and food operators on the high street. The Sanc bar is the largest of our food and drink outlets and is therefore extremely popular; we expect Preoday’s platform to help in providing students with that anticipated level of service, while enabling us to maintain a rapid, streamlined operation throughout the day.”

Nick Hucker, CEO of Preoday, adds: “At Preoday we’re thrilled to take our first steps into an exciting new vertical, university campus catering, and look forward to announcing further education alliances in the coming months. With more than 16,500 students in attendance at the University of Hull, digital ordering gives the Sanc team the opportunity to cater for more customers, faster than ever. Given the enhanced, convenient service, and the quality of food on offer, they are ideally placed to compete with other less convenient, external food operators.”

In addition to the new app for pre-ordering, staff can take at-counter orders using the university’s Way2Pay EPOS solution, provided by Counter Solutions. The flexible, scalable technology will further the productivity of the on-site team with its operations, staff and table management features. The app can be downloaded from Google Play or the App Store now