Whilst waiting in a restaurant for some wireless handheld device to make a pronouncement about my validity as a trustworthy economic agent, I noticed there was an awkward silence. Eventually, my pin code was accepted but in the interim it occurred to me that this is hardly the way for a service based business to round off an otherwise pleasant customer interaction.
Today’s invention is a small extra facility on board such mobile card readers. Having entered your pin, the machine would present you, the customer, with options to eg hear a section of music or read out a joke, a ‘fortune’ or some trivia to your fellow guests.
No more embarrassed silence…at least until your card is rejected.
