Interview with Matteo Tranchida, TackPay CEO
December 17, 2021
Interview with Matteo Tranchida, TackPay CEO, the platform that saves tips from a cashless world.
With the advent of new digital payment methods there has been a gain from the outset from the point of view of management and efficiency but as in all beautiful things there is a downside. The convenience of using credit cards for payment has affected another important sector: the tips one. It has created the need to be able to receive,give and manage tips with the same transparency and ease with which payments are made.
Tack Pay was born to really solve this problem.
What does TackPay offer?
More and more customers are now paying using credit cards or digital payment tools, so why not offer a similar service for tips? TackPay’s on it. The platform deals with the world of tips 360° worrying about both who receives them and who would like to leave a few coins for the service.
For customers
You won’t even need to download apps or software to leave a tip. You can do it safely and quickly simply by scanning a QR code that you will find in the building or that will be shown to you by the individual worker. Now you just have to select the amount and payment method between credit card, prepaid card or even digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also leave a review about the location and the service and choose whether to direct the tip to an individual or to the whole team.
For workers
You can receive tips from anyone and with any payment method. It is obviously designed especially for workers in the food and beverage sector who have always been in the habit of receiving tips. With this system you will receive direct tips and you will have the possibility to manage them quickly and clearly. Speaking of the feedback we had already mentioned before, they can offer metrics on the service offered in your business and is a way to evaluate what changes to make to your staff. To start you justneed to create a QR Code, registering on TackPay, to be displayed in the local or directly on the menu. No more waste of time, now with a few steps you can provide the customers with an innovative service that will allow you to automatically split tips between employees, encouraging them to always give the best for your company.
Hi Matteo, nice to meet you and thank you for the time you are dedicating to us. Tell us about TackPay like we don’t know anything about it
TackPay is the first platform that allows you to send, receive and manage tips in a completely digital way. We have created a specific experience for individual workers (waiters, bartenders, riders, drivers etc.) who are subject to tip … and for the structures that have to manage them (bars, restaurants, hotels and beauty salons)
The individual worker will have a QR code, and anyone, in just 10 seconds, can leave a tip through dozens of payment methods (visa, amex, mastercard, apple pay, google pay etc): tipping will be direct and the worker may be able to collect feedback from the people who gave a tip to witness competence and skills to your colleagues or manager. In the event that a manager wants to accept and manage with TackPay all the tips made in his working place , he will have a totally different experience: just create a ”team” and invite all staff members to be part of it. In doing so, instead of having 10 waiters, each with a personal qr code to show, it will be enough only one code (that of the restaurant) easily positioned on the menus (digital and not), on the counter or to set on the tip jar.
The customer without any app or registration will be able to leave a tip even in the absence of cash. This will simply have to select the staff member who served him or he may decide to put it in the “tip jar”: it will be divided into equal parts and sent automatically to each staff member. This last function, as well as the choice of having the kitchen staff participate in the tips is totally at the discretion of the manager. We at TackPay have tried to replicate in the app the same identical ponders that happen in each location.
In this way the company:
- does not see these sums transiting on their accounts
- no longer has responsibility for tips
- no longer has related costs
- eliminate a waste of time
while employees are guaranteed to receive 100% of their tips, and immediately… without any intermediary that can:
- steal from them
- divide them unfairly
- hold them for long periods.
How and When was the idea born?
The idea was born working as a waiter. Every day I was faced with more and more people paying with credit cards: this did not allow customers to tip me because they did not have cash. Beyond being able to accept them, which is the first step, there is another well-known problem for those who have worked in the field: tips are often mismanaged if not stolen by colleagues, customers and even the manager. Every tip I made was no guarantee to arrive in my pockets. There is no traceability on the amounts collected, each member of the staff, once he has received his share, he wonders if the accounts were to be righteous or to be divided in a strange way between the different employees… shortly, it was a continuous war where you never truly had the fruits of your labor.
How long did it take to shape the project?
The idea was born in 2019, after the first months of difficulty in finding a technical partner we finally managed to start working on the software and launch the project: we were ready to test a first beta in March 2020, then you all know how it turned out…
Who does TackPay address to? How is the market responding?
TackPay is aimed at all those who work in the horeca sector: individual workers who want to receive tips in a simple, safe and fast way and companies who want to manage in a smart, clear and correct way all the tips made during work.
TackPay is not only accepting tips, it is also managing them fairly and clearly so as to ensure customers that their money really goes to the right person. The market is reacting well: although at first you feel skeptical, just try the product to understand that there is no better way to accept and manage tips.
In foreign countries the habit of tips is common, such as in America. Why not in Italy? Can your service help make this topic more natural?
Abroad the tip is more frequent, true, but let’s not make confusion: it is correct to say that not all Italians tip but it is not to say that in Italy you do not leave the tip. In Italy there are millions of tourists used to leave the tip and every day they see this possibility refused because we do not have a technology that allows it through credit card… rarely the manager accepts it via pos, few follow the correct and expensive procedure, and most prefer not to pay the transaction fees on that amount that goes to increase the final price… it would be enough to divide things, and that’s what we did with TackPay. This is a disadvantage for customers but especially for employees who could have received extra compensation.
I think that in Italy there is no law, for various reasons, but despite this there are many people who, without any obligation, decide to reward the very hard work done by waiters, bartenders and delivery men. The fact of remembering it through our QR code certainly motivates those who are already inclined to leave it but do not have cash.
How did you launch TackPay? Have you used crowdfunding campaigns?
We received an acceleration from a startup incubator and that allowed us to better evaluate the business and also raise the money needed to develop the platform. At the moment we are present in some Italian locations and we are also receiving contacts from abroad.
Do you also use Tack Pay for your tips?
Absolutely! TackPay is the app that I wanted as a waiter, but that I will now use as a customer to be sure to improve the lives of my former colleagues.
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