Turning Pain Points into Strengths: How to Create a 360-Degree Dining Experience
The pandemic has devastated the restaurant industry, with profitability and staffing levels down for the vast majority of restaurant operators. As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and the hospitality industry begins to reemerge, now is the time for restaurants to look at how to turn their pain points into strengths through technology.
Restaurants should ask themselves the following question: as customers return to dining out, how can we keep not only our guests—but staff—happy?
Table Turns: Guests Have the Remote Control
Table turns are one of the most important performance metrics for a restaurant. It is a constant balancing act to maintain an optimal turnover rate—one that is long enough to allow guests to enjoy their dining experience and not feel rushed, yet short enough to maximize revenue and ensure new parties don’t have to wait a long time to be seated. With the rise of guest-facing app-less technologies, patrons are now driving a new level of time management—all by themselves. It’s dining, on demand.
As soon as they sit down, guests can pull up the menu on their phone and review it at their leisure—they can even place an order without flagging down their server. When they’re finished enjoying their meal, they are able to split and pay the check at their convenience, removing the cumbersome process of waiting to pay altogether. All of that shaves off a significant number of minutes, especially in the crucial peak hours.
Not only are guests increasing the rate of table turns, but they are leaving more satisfied. With the rise of online shopping, customers are now more than used to controlling their experience and their time more than ever. With these technologies, customers can dictate when they leave after a meal, instead of waiting for the server. We’ve all found ourselves in a situation where we are ready to pay for our check and the server is nowhere to be found—this can put a damper on an otherwise excellent dining experience. The payment experience once had the power to leave guests with a sour taste in their mouths, but now, having remote control—guests leave feeling delighted.
Read about the other 2 factors in creating a 360-degree dinging experience in Modern Restaurant Management