If you belong to the restaurants and hospitality industry you could not have avoided the discussions around the new restaurant ordering systems: tablet-ordering systems or e-Menus are indeed now completely part of the restaurant vocabulary.
What do we call e-Menu or Restaurant Tablets Ordering System?
First, what is an electronic or digitizing tablet? A tablet is a data-entry device consisting of a writing surface that is running a standard (or lightly adapted) operating system like Windows or OS. In brief, it is a kind of small computer with a screen on which you can write or click directly with a stylus or your finger.
Recently, several companies in the world have invested many efforts in developing and designing new tablets that enable customers to take orders by themselves (browse menus and pictures), entertain themselves while waiting for their meal and make their payments.
Most of those new ways of food ordering which have appeared in the middle of 2010 have now been tested/implemented in hundreds of restaurants all around the globe. It’s time to draw some first conclusions based on professionals and customers’ reactions.
A revolution is happening in the restaurant industry but “Pros” and “Cons” are keeping the debate alive
This revolution has many consequences on the way the restaurant owner manage his business and on the job of the waiter. It also affects the customer’s experience. In short, no one escapes it and the pros and cons inside the industry and among the customers keep the debate alive.
The Pros:
- Tablets enable more detailed descriptions of the meals.
- Tablets are said to eliminate order-taking errors from the waiters.
- In the kitchen, there is less confusion as everything is now written clearly.
- Developers of those applications maintain that customers who seat at tables outfitted with tablets spend about 10% more than those at other tables (“people buy more when they can do so instantly, without waiting for service”)
- With the visuals, you know exactly what you’re going to get in your plate
- The service goes quicker
- Tablets are said to allow cutting the labor expenses
- It’s tech, It’s all very futuristic, so it’s fun!
- Customers feel more involved in the process,
- Restaurants can build their e-reputation and customer community in live.
And the “Cons”
- These kinds of solutions are not ideal in a food & beverage environment because of the heat and the presence of bacteria,
- High investment is required to implement the tablets,
- People are fed up using their computer and restaurants are indeed one of the last places enabling to them to forget for one hour the new technologies,
- Tablets can be damaged and will cost more to replace than paper menus,
- In a fast food outlet with fixed and limited menu, it is OK to send across the orders directly to the kitchen from the tablet menus however if the guest/dining experience is very important there is no place for tablets because customer expect custom service
So, does the future of food ordering in restaurant belong to the waiters or to the machines?
That’s actually the main question and it is easy to understand that this subject concerns most of the actors of the industry, including waiters, professional associations, business owners, technology producers and even politicians.
Service must remain quality service!
For the guests, the service provided by waiters is a very important part of the dinner experience and restaurants owners must keep this in mind at any time, even if the waiters cost a lot in their budget and require continuous management efforts.
Eliminating the human contact and making the experience less personal may result in a big loss even from a pure profitability point of view. If we don’t like to come to fast food restaurant every day it is because we like to be served and that someone cares about us and what is going to be in our plate.
A restaurant is a business and must be as much profitable as possible
On the other hand a restaurant must comply with one basic rule to survive: it has to be profitable at the end of the day. In a very competitive industry, any possible cut in the expenses deserves to be explored seriously.
Thus, business owners are often interested in tablets concept for a simple reason: they are willing to reduce their labor costs: less waiters, less costs. But according to a majority of restaurant managers, if tablets may appear to be a solution to cut the labor expenses, this decision carries anyway some risks. The migration from a human ordering system to an automated ordering system requires deep analysis of the clientele habits, its expectations and of the cost of implementation and maintenance of the said automated system.
Moreover, this point of view may be contested even from a profitability point of view. Indeed, there is no need to remind that until now, the waiters - when they are good and love their job – are likely to significantly improve the profitability of their restaurant. Otherwise, why do restaurant managers invest thousands of dollars every year to train their waiters in order to improve the quality of service? They know that a good and well trained waiter who knows perfectly the menu and the customer psychology will be able to kindly increase the customer bill by at least 20%.
Therefore, replacing waiters to reduce labor costs may actually cut the restaurant income too!
Tablets ok, but not in all cases today
Accordingly, and even if tablets open a new world full of opportunities, most of the actors in the hospitality industry agree that they cannot be implemented in all kind of restaurants and that most of the time simply replacing waiters by tablets is not a serious option.
The key to success: how to match tablets technology with human service?
This is actually the challenge for the restaurant owners: to keep what is working well and to improve it with new technologies, meaning trying to make the waiter’s life easier and at the same time generate a better experience for the customer. Instead of eliminating the human, let’s put it back in, in an enhanced way.
Instead of giving the tablets directly to the customers, give them to your waiters! Tablets can indeed save waiters the time it takes to walk to a terminal and enter in the information, giving them more face time with customers.
Using the tablets, a waiter could be more persuasive, and available to his guests. He will act more as a ‘’gastronomic consultant’’ than as someone whose mission is only to take orders. As a result of that new way of processing, the waiter may be able to increase his knowledge aboutgastronomy, customers’ psychology, marketing and room service in general. And everyone wins something!
New format of waiters races to come?
And to finish let’s get back to our subject: indeed, what about the waiters races in this story? Is there a ‘’futurist’’ waiters race?
Hmm…it depends about how much time it will take until we see the first waiters race where the competitors will have to run with an e- menu on their tray but WaitersRace is already working on new challenges formats with this kind of technology for upcoming races!
Join the discussion
We would d like to open here the debate. Whether you are a hardware/software company, a restaurant owner, a waiter or a customer or that you are interested anyway in this topic, feel free to share your opinion and experience (you can use for that the comments board at the back of the page).
To learn more about e-Menu and Tablets technology
Tradeshows
i.Menu Expo, the next innovation in dining.
The only Dining Tablet Menu Technology Expo. The i.Menu Expo is designed for restaurant owners looking for new solutions using the Tablet technology as their new menu system and business back-end office solution.
International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show (IHMRS) on November 13-15 at the Javits Center in New York City. The i.Menu Expo will have a special section area within the IHMRS ShowFloor. Over 30,000 people are expected at the IHMRS this year.
Companies
POSLavu
TouchBistro
iPOS
OwnPoint of Sale
Imenu
Aptito
Deploid
Credits photos:
”Menu of your life”: http://hikingartist.com/
”Les Carottes sont cuites”: Olibac, http://www.flickr.com/photos/olibac/637455932/sizes/z/in/photostream/
”Waiter in Service”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/russelljsmith/7003489/sizes/m/in/photostream/
