Question for Restaurant Owners

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Permalink Reply by Ken Burgin on June 14, 2008 at 6:38pm

Probably better to browse through the groups here and find your answers - there are plenty of stories...

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Permalink Reply by Chris on June 16, 2008 at 11:10pm

Interesting question and one that requires additional ponder.

My initial inclination is to champion these advancements as beneficial to the industry, for various reasons; Improved productivity, more efficient communication methods, more effective marketing, etc.

However as these technological advancements affect our everyday lives, one has to wonder when they go too far. Interaction with persons, their personalities and a basic personal touch is often lost as these "luxuries" (technological options) are implemented.

In response to the concern of a busy service; I believe the logistics of implementation are manageable. I am more concerned with the effect these changes and advancements will have on guest and professional relationships.

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Permalink Reply by Norbert Marrale on June 16, 2008 at 11:54pm

I don't know if you can lump "online ordering" and "pager systems" together, simply because they're both based on the use of technology.

We have been quite successful in launching a local online restaurant reservations system (http://www.dinesxm.com), on a small island in the Caribbean. From the restaurant owner's perspective, our service adds value to the guest experience and lets them concentrate on their core objectives (i.e. taking away a headache).

Another example of "taking away headaches" is the mobile order taking system used by a high end restaurant that I'm familiar with. It saves waiters from walking to the POS and having to enter data twice... This gives the wait staff more time to spend on the restaurant's guests.

As a guest I've first come across the use of pagers several years ago, when having to wait for a table at the bar or in a restaurant's lounge area. The maitre d' gives you a pager that will go off once your table is ready. Simple and unobtrusive. I think that this makes better use of technology than the experience you describe. To me this would feel cold and impersonal, not the right way to treat guests.

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Permalink Reply by MAWorking on June 24, 2008 at 1:47pm

Sounds like ESP (name of the company) and they have rolled out in Fatz Cafe, and Applebees but they have a ton of clients lined up.

I can tell ya, it is a cool system and it does work. Shoot me a private message via the site and I can tell ya more about it. (they're based in Charlotte, NC)

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Permalink Reply by CMiller on April 1, 2009 at 2:32pm

We tried something like that a big, national chain I worked for many years ago. Biggest problem, kids hitting the pager button when mom and dad werent't looking. Oh the joy.

Bottom line is this, if your wait staff is doing their job, then the customer should not have to page them. We did find one very annoying result of this, other than the kiddos, slacker wait staffs would hang out back smoking or dooing whatever and WAIT for their tables to page them before they would go check on them.

Can you think of a better reason NOT to implement such a system?!

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Permalink Reply by pubmaster on April 1, 2009 at 9:34pm

hi Ali -

subject is rather broad, however with respect to those pagers -

they can be turned off. a good waiter doesn't need to be paged.

cheers

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Szala on April 6, 2009 at 3:21pm

Technology is definitely revolutionizing everything from operations to restaurant advertising. Success stories should be fairly easy to come by. Good luck!

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