One day my need for a Sonoma coffee snowballed into a ten coffee order before I’d left the meeting room.  As I picked up the order it hit me. What better way for us to add value to our venues than to turn a $3.50 order into $35.00. The concept of group ordering was born in that moment and I’m excited for our team to be launching it this week.

You might well be able to relate to this situation…. as the resident coffee addict, walking around the office several times a day asking the team who wants a coffee. Typically the first response of “no thanks”, almost always turns into a “oh ok, why not”. It was clear there was an opportunity to socialise the ordering experience.

We knew this idea had the potential to increase the sales of our own venue, and make it a better experience for the consumer, as well. When we started speaking to our users they all loved the idea. It was clear that the payment and loyalty that goes with an office group order was a real pain point. Whether having to collect cash, missing out on your loyalty coffee or remembering who’s round it is, this feature keeps the office water cooler banter a lot less awkward.

For the geeks amongst us, it is all about the viral co-efficient.  How can we get people not only talking and referring our app to their friends, but also reminding and creating a habit amongst others.


The process is much easier with Hey You’s Group Ordering feature.  You select the venue, the time, and the friends you want to invite.  You can choose to pay for them (with a spending limit) or let them pay individually.   Your friends get a notification, and with one swipe they can join the group order.  Everyones orders are displayed, and at your elected order time, the orders are sent down to the venue.  The venue processes the orders like they do normally, but groups them for pickup by one person.  Easy.

Our testing has been great.  We started doing it in the office for the morning coffee run.  What we have found is that it is also super useful for the office lunch order, or for getting the coffee for everyone in a meeting. I often send a group order to people before a planned meeting.  People are even setting up the order for the next day’s meeting which is great.

We are really excited about this feature.  I think the team has done a great job of version 1, and we would love your feedback on how we can make this feature work better for you in your usage of Hey You.

Special thanks to Fred who has leaded out on the backend work for this feature, as well as Nicola, Marinella and Alex who have played a great role in simplifying the original MVP that we tested with our customers.

Below is a quick video to show you how group ordering works in our office.


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