4 ms·
As a restaurant owner, I know this is something that has been coming, we will eventually all use tablets in someway shape or form. I don't believe that this com
by karoramj23 13y ago
As a restaurant owner, I know this is something that has been coming, we will eventually all use tablets in someway shape or form. I don't believe that this company is the one that has cracked tablet use in restaurants because they are not helping me with my most pressing need - driving more customers into the restaurant.
These are my thoughts:
1) Faster table turn times (and why they don't matter) - Yes, faster table turn times will occur with the tablets on the table because people can pay much more quickly when they are done with their meal. The big problem that people forget about is 90% of the time restaurants are not interested in faster table turn times. They need more people in the establishment. When was the last time you went to Applebees and they were slammed with people and had a huge wait? Odd's are that it doesn't occur that often.
2) People Dine out to be treated (waited on hand and foot) - Usually when you have made a conscious decision to dine out, you are doing so for the experience. When you decide to dine at your favorite restaurant, part of the experience is being waited on hand and foot by someone else. If these tablets start to replace people, it will certainly hurt the experience of being waited on. You are now going out for food, and not the experience. When people are looking strictly for food, we have seen that they tend to go to fast-casual restaurants (Chipotle, Potbellys, Noodles & Co. Etc.).
3) Menu on tablet (Higher App sales + lower costs) - This to me is a large long-term benefit for the restaurant. They can really create some powerful images for their menu items, which is correlated with higher sales. Also, you have eliminated the costs of printing menus every time you have a change.
Overall Impressions: This is a company that has created a product for an interesting niche. I don't ever see fine dining establishments using this because it detracts from the experience (#2). It does effect table turn time, but the large majority of restaurants wish they had table turn time issues, most are looking for customers (see initial success of groupon in restaurants). The Applebee's of the world are fighting hard with the fast-casual establishments and almost seem like they are in a race to the bottom.
I also don't see independent restaurant owners ever using a product like this because it has 1) high implementation costs (time/effort/cash) and 2) has some effect on sales but not because of the ordering platform, only because it has allowed me to create essentially a moving slideshow for a menu that entices customers while they are at the restaurant.
In my opinion, the person/business that successfully implements tablets in a restaurant will do these two things very well.
1) Allows servers to use tablets to take orders (lowers restaurants costs) - This will essentially allow a restaurant owner to decrease the amount of people on staff, yet still maintain high quality experience for guests, because a server that does not have to walk back to the POS system can handle more tables.
2) Creates a tablet menu that entices guests to order more items - The appeal of tablets on the table is the fact that people will be more enticed to order apps/desserts because of the power of high-quality enticing pictures. This has already been done by plenty of companies, but no one company has dominated.
- nickler 13y agoSpot on. I didn't have the patience to write all what you've laid out, but exactly correct.
- joelrunyon 13y agoWouldn't the use case for something like this be sport bars, late-nite bars or clubs? People splitting up tabs after a night of drinking can be a mess for everyone. On top of that - people walk out without closing their tab all the time. I feel like this is where you could make some serious inroads. How is there not an "uber for bar tabs" yet?
- hosh 13y agoI was just a soft-launch for a pop-up restaurant. I had been eating from them at the farmer's market every week for the past four months or so. The farmer's market served as a kind of an MVP, and now they are shutting that down and trying the pop-up. They were trying it out with friends and family to figure out how to operate the kitchen and the restaurant in general. I was also curious about how they were going to handle payment: the wife walked around with the same Square system they had when they were at the farmer's market. And sure enough, she came back to hand me the phone so I can sign and tip. It did get me thinking about the use of tablets in a restaurant. I was thinking of the exact things you brought up here, about the experience of being waited on. (On the other hand, the last Applebee's I was at was packed, we had a large group, waited for maybe 30 minute before we were seated, and some of the orders got mixed up and took a while ... but I hardly go to Applebees so I can't say that was a typical or exceptional experience). I think you are right, that, having the wait staff be able to walk around taking orders with the tablet would be good. I'm ambivalent about having something at the table. For example, I keep thinking about my OCD friend, who'd insist on sanitizing the tablet :-D I don't think we have all the pieces of the technology yet, but something that can project images into space and allow you to interact with it without touching anything physical (like you see in sci-fi animes) would be better. Particularly if the projection is discreet. That is, if can be blended in well with the overall experience.
- wjg 13y agoWould you mind if I emailed you a few questions about some of the things you've outlined? I'm working on something that could help with some of the issues you mention (it's not a competitor w/ this product). Feel free to shoot me a line at wjg9393@gmail.com.