Part 2: The Past, Present, and Future of Eating Out
In part 1 of this series, we explored the need to eat out and how the process of deciding where to eat has changed with technical advancement. However, that’s not the end to how dining has adapted over time. After we decide where to go, we still need to make the plans, order, eat, and pay.
Let’s dig in.
Do the planning
The Past
Once someone decides where to eat, it’s time to make the plan. Before online booking was available, folks would call the restaurants to make the reservation or just drop in and wait for a table. This can be especially difficult for big groups.
The Present
When you can only make reservations by contacting the restaurants, it could be inconvenient for several reasons:
- you operate on the restaurant’s time and can only make the reservation during their operating hours
- you have to contact the restaurant again to make changes
- how about the reminders
Today, there are several reservation systems competing to help you resolve these inconveniences. Some top of mind examples are OpenTable, Yelp, and Reserve. They make it easy to keep up-to-date inventory of availability so consumers can book their time slot whenever-wherever. In addition, the restaurants no longer need a dedicated person answering the phone and keeping the reservation records up to date.
Beyond reservations, OpenTable is tapping into the blogger/influencer community by offering an affiliate program. This encourages the production of high quality content to drive restaurant reservations through an easy “Reserve” button widget that can be added to any website.
The Future
Real world visibility
With the introduction of online reservation systems, some restaurants loose the publicity benefit of people passing by and seeing a long line out the door to drive additional interest.
Yelp displays the number of reviews and rates to address this half way. But you don’t know if the volume of reviews is from 5 years ago or last week. OpenTable hints at this by indicating how many people have booked a restaurant recently. But is it because that restaurant has a lot of tables or because its popular. Other tactics being used are badges on restaurant windows to indicate popularity.
Technology can take this a lot further. Think about a world where location enabled beacons can tell consumers about the places that they passed during the day. This information can include popular restaurants that are booked 10 minutes after the table opens on the reservation system 6 months in advance.
Or how about a category on the reservation website for restaurants near you with only 1 table left for the tonight. Taking it even further, how about surfacing information on how far in advance do you need to book a specific restaurant for the popular time slots. In this way, consumers can find out the high demand restaurants that folks would line up out the door for.
Coordination
Often times, people don’t dine out to only fill their stomachs. They go to restaurants as a social endeavor to meet friends. There is opportunity for social networks to tap into the restaurant space by making it easier for friends to know when each other is available and connect.
In addition, reservation systems can make it easier to book the restaurants suiting everyone’s taste. For example, what if I want to dine with a group of friends but one of them is a vegetarian but the rest of the part want to order non-vegetarian food? It lessen the search, how about a group chat interface that has a bot making reservations as different members express interests and vote on restaurants that are available.
Arrive and order
Past
Often times, the dining experience after you arrive at a restaurant would be determined by the experience of the waitstaff and how well you know the hostess.
When you arrive, you would squeeze in at the bar to wait for a table. After you are seated, your server would visit 2–3 times to ask if you are ready to order (sometimes impatiently). As your meal arrives, the wait staff might visit your table a few times to fill the water or see if you need anything else. Hopefully at the end of the day, you will feel taken care of and leave a big tip.
Present
Today, we have technology that has been introduced in an attempt to solve some of the previous pain points of the dining experience.
Pain point 1: Wait time
First, there was the buzzer that would vibrate when your table is ready. This enabled you to step outside of the restaurant to explore the neighborhood for entertainment and return when your table is ready. In addition, it would help the restaurant drive up efficiency of finding the next party in line and avoid customers getting pissed off when they loose their spot in line because they went out for a stroll.
As mobile became more accessible, services like NoWait was introduced to give real time information about your place in line. In this way, you can better estimate your wait time and communicate with the restaurant in case you decided to not wait anymore. Additionally, you can add yourself to the line when you are about to leave the house to cut the wait time at the restaurant and have a better experience.
Pain point 2: service at the right time
Have you ever taken too long to decide on what to order? The first time the server comes, he or she can give suggestions and maybe even the daily special. But what about the 2nd or 3rd time they drop by the table? They can make you feel pestered and rushed.
As the cost of mobile devices decrease, avoiding these types of awkward situations became more reasonable. Big chain restaurants, such as Buffalo Wild Wings, are using tablets at the tables for consumers to self serve, request songs and tv stations, as well as play games and pay the bill. I’ve seen other restaurants with bluetooth devices at the table with buttons for ordering, service, and pay the bill. All of these devices get to the same end of getting you the service whenever you are ready and driving efficiency.
Future
Although technology has already address some pain points, there are more opportunities to provide better service by introducing the concept of know your customer.
Imagine a world where the system can display my picture as well as stats on my preferences so the restaurant already knows who I am before I arrive.
When I get there, the hostess has no reason to ask if I have a reservation. Instead, they would recognize me from my picture and welcome me by name to show me my table as if I arrived at a friend’s place. In addition, they would already know if I dislike certain food or have allergies. Therefore, when the server comes to recommend me menu items, they can tailor their recommendations to my liking.
At the end of the day, restaurants can leverage data to provide a first class experience and treat me like a regular during my first visit at the restaurant.
Eat and pay
Past
Historically, restaurants are a cash driven business. Even today, many smaller mom and pop shops still only take payment in cash.
Present
In recent years, companies such as Square, Revel, and ShopKeep have made point of sale systems accessible to independent businesses. As a result, it is almost expected that all restaurants (no matter the size) should be able to take credit card as payment.
OpenTable & Tabbedout have taken it one step further in experimenting with paying at the table. At the end of your meal, you don’t need to flag down the server and wait for your check at select restaurants. Instead, you can pay via the app and leave whenever you are ready.
Future
Beyond extending the infrastructure of point of sale systems to accept more types of payment, this space as been very saturated by competition. Nevertheless, there is still room for innovation.
Restaurants can focus on better serving the needs of different customer segments. For example, in the segment of large dining groups, POS systems can leverage mobile or text functionality to better handle split bills and take payment via mobile wallets.
Or consider expanding the experience beyond dining at the table with addressing post dinner needs. For instance, bundle in a Uber ride when you pay for a meal.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed the journey of exploring four aspects of dining out to get the creative juice flowing. The potentials are endless and I hope in a few years I can revisit the framework to report out on more advancements that have enhanced the dining experience.
