BETHLEHEM. (AP) - Several years ago, Val Arzunian created an app for people to know who is in a restaurant or bar before they enter.

A breakup with a girlfriend whom he continued to see at various establishments was the impetus, he said.

“It started as an idea to avoid people to a concept that can bring people closer together,” Arzunian said.

Contactless transactions have become one of those buzzword phrases during the monthslong pandemic. Arzunian thinks there is a better way for restaurants, doctors offices and other businesses to handle those interactions with less inconvenience for them or consumers.

He and David Bougard, who run UBMe Inc. in south Bethlehem, created a product, Curbside Communication, built off their initial app. The duo said the product could help while Pennsylvania and other states limit foot traffic into restaurants, stores and other businesses.

“We see (restaurants) closing left and right,” Arzunian said. “We see them using their own systems. That’s what makes it very chaotic (for curbside pickups). Because when people go out, and everyone is using a different system, it makes them not really want to go out.”

Businesses pay $75 a month (with a 30-day free trial) to offer the app to customers, who get free access so they can pick up their food orders, connect with their veterinarian office for their pets’ visits, and - in at least one local case expected to begin soon - arrange vaccinations for their children while staying safe.

Here is how Curbside Communication works:

With the free UBMe app on your smartphone or other device, you tap where you are heading to conduct a transaction, and check in. You can then privately message the business by clicking on a green contact icon.

“ ‘Hey, I’m outside,’ “ Arzunian said in a demonstration that took about five seconds.

Meanwhile, businesses receive a “geo-fenced” area, or virtual perimeter, that allows customers to communicate via the app’s dashboard that they have arrived and are awaiting a meal, product or service.

In a news release and on its website, the company describes the Curbside Communication app as a “first of its kind.” Arzunian said it’s the opposite of online and mobile delivery platforms such as Grubhub in that they take the orders but do not handle the deliveries.

Ashley Durkin-Rixey, a spokesperson with The App Association, a Washington trade group, was not familiar with UBMe. In broader terms, she noted the $1.7 trillion-a-year app industry provides possibilities for struggling businesses, and opportunities for tech companies such as UBMe.

“What are services that we can offer them to help operate their businesses more safely?” she said. “How can we help them pivot to having an app for their business for the first time? Maybe they were brick and mortar and suddenly found themselves needing to move to a greater online presence and an app of some kind. Or they may have technology in place and are using it in a different way.”

The Bethlehem Health Bureau decided to use the app for upcoming children’s vaccination clinics. Sherri L. Penchishen, the Health Bureau’s chronic disease program director, sees other possibilities.

“We are super excited that we came across (UBMe) and are able to utilize a local company, that the city has given money, for it to expand and divert its technology,” she said.

Penchishen said the bureau hadn’t been aware of UBMe, which has been in the south Bethlehem Pi: Partnership for Innovation, since 2017, and has received about $275,000 in private and public funding, including $45,000 in technology grants through the Southside Bethlehem Keystone Innovation Zone and a $35,000 loan from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

No Lehigh Valley restaurants had signed up for the service as of last week. The UBMe owners are trying to drum up support through self-promotion, including online webinars and Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Downtown Bethlehem Association.

“The COVID-19 changes, stay-at-home orders and phased reopening plans have really presented an opportunity for them to think about what do our customers and clients really need now?” Durkin-Rixey said.

Arzunian, 34, was born in Ukraine and moved with his family to New Jersey. He lived in Long Island, New York, before coming to the Valley about 10 years ago. He began collaborating in 2018 with Bougard, 28, who obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Lehigh University and interned for Arzunian.

Arzunian, who holds a patent for the app, and Bougard, who is vice president of growth and strategy and a co-founder of UBMe, also said the app is a more efficient alternative to driving to a business and simply calling from outside. They described their frustration while visiting veterinarians or buying fast food during the pandemic.

“At the end of that process, I was sitting outside,” Arzunian recalled when he placed a fast-food order. “I was uninformed about when the order would arrive; the food was cold. It’s not something I would want to keep coming back to.”

Curbside Communication has been tested by a few companies in New Jersey, New York, California and Texas. In the Valley and elsewhere, UBMe’s app has been used by event organizers and for such things as bar trivia nights.

The company said its platform is available in more than 50 countries.

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