Looking at the Food [data]
Who has time for talking when we can chat?
I’ve been developing a short research review of how people make decisions about where to eat, as groups. You can view the rest of the series here.
At the end of my last post, I decided to send out an initial survey to establish the process we use when deciding where to go out and eat as groups. These are the results from a survey which has gained 150 responses, with half of them coming from the US.
I had to ensure that the people surveyed actually go out to eat with friends on a regular or semi-regular basis.
Over half of the people surveyed go out with friends once-a-week or more.
Most people handle these decisions over text or email.
But, why?
Asking people ‘why’ they were using these channels provided far more insight. When people met in person, it was often because they lived nearby or worked together in the same office. But for all of the rest of us, with group events that spread us out far and wide — I found this:
“Texting is quick and convenient”
“It’s easier to talk all at once over text, than back and forth on calls”
or, my personal favorite…
“Things may change en route to the restaurant, traffic, or a preferred choice closed, and we make different plans.”
We are busy people these days. So chatting leads the way.
But, regardless of the channel they are using to discuss where to go — many of them access apps to help make their decisions.
Google places won by a long shot as the favorite!
Having discussions about where to go seems to center on mid-size groups.
In fact, the largest segment (66%) was groups of 3–4.
At the end of the day, when these groups (let’s say of 3–4 people) are making decisions with the help of apps, like Google Places, then these are the things they worry about most — are price and cuisine.
However, when reviewing the results in-depth, people also selected all four, with explanations like this:
“It’s a little bit of everything, depending on whats going on in our lives. Sometimes bills come up unexpectedly, so we need to save money. Location matters if we can’t be late somewhere. Cuisine is all about what we’re in the mood for.. and ambiance if my friends are bringing their kids.”
So, obviously, although Price and Cuisine may lead — that is no clear indicator that we don’t have other considerations depending on the situation. All of the above remain important.
At the end of the day, there’s a clear trend here. People are making decisions, and they’re using apps to help them do it. But those apps are slowing them down. As mentioned by one participant towards the end of the survey:
“Often, my friends will have different ideas about where to go and using apps can make it more frustrating. Because each of us uses different apps and each app makes a different suggestion. So we’re constantly going back and forth between links to different apps.”
How can we shorten the time spent going ‘back and forth’, so that we can make these decisions easier?
