I guess my mother was right when she told me that only constructive criticism makes for happy people in the long run. A while back I lashed out at the current restaurant “technology” front which seems to concentrate on areas that are either utterly useless or push restaurants into niches by not providing enough outward connectivity to a food service operation’s (FSO) other technologies.
Last night we discussed NFC and the changes it can bring to restaurants. There’s, of course, the primary target – payments. Everyone knows about this part, so we won’t cover it. Just a side-note, if your future apps and solutions don’t account for NFC coming around the corner you’re careless. It is coming and it will be adopted. Quote me on that one in three years.
When I wrote my missive against loyalty, discount, and reservation-for-points systems I tried to make the argument that those are the FSO’s “fad diets”. Sure, there are some results but as soon as one stops doing expensive and disruptive things to one’s body or restaurant everything yoyos back to the old state. That’s OK if you have to make a fat payment on your mortgage or primp up for a calendar shoot, it’s not OK for sustained living or restaurant operations.
In fact, the damages done by those fad diets for restaurants are often big enough that all those successes mean nothing a year later. If not having enough butts in seats is the issue, the root causes are so much deeper than just lack of advertising.
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Wait? Is he making FUN of QR codes? :)
Ideally, new technologies make the lives of chefs and owners easier. Less work means more time to do the right things and that means more money. Bringing in twenty more diners to an upscale casual joint means something in the realm of $150 in additional net revenue. That’s nice. But no technology today brings in that much, consistently over months, every day. Building technology that allows chefs to source their food from local suppliers without taking a day of calling around and finding out which of the ten farmers has pork in sufficient quantities and can deliver by tomorrow could mean that much or more in savings every day.
Which brings me to the biggest of hogs in the industry – reservations and seating. And here’s what I want you guys to build. In fact, if you do build it I’ll be your unemployed employee for quite some time, selling it to anyone and everyone I know.
Consider this scenario (I have always been a fan of use case scenarios and narratives, so much more fun than dry specs): Jack, Jill, and James are out and about the town. They pass a restaurant that seems fun and Jack pushes his phone against the NFC transmitter outside (or takes a picture of the QR code next to it with the app you’ll be writing).
Immediately a page appears showing a short welcome from the chef, a menu, and – prominently on top – a “Welcome to Maison. We have a table ready for you and would love to have you as our guest tonight”.
An hour later, it being 8pm now, John and Jessica arrive. Jessica snaps a picture of the QR code, gets her menu and message from the chef. Above it there’s a note:
“Welcome to Maison. As you can see, we’re currently full but we would love to welcome you as our guests in about twenty minutes. Press the “accept” button below and we will page you on your phone as soon as seating is available. In the meantime, why not stop by our bar and enjoy a drink and appetizer on the house. Press the “Bar” button and we’ll let our bartender know to inform you as soon as your table is ready”.
Jessica presses the “Bar” button, Hans the bartender gets a heads up, and Holger the chef hears the scratching of his chit printer spitting out an order of the garlic bread for the bar. Jessica and John are barely seated at the bar when their appetizer arrives and a cold one for John.
Integrate with other pager and reservation systems and my chit printer and you’ll have yourself a product that makes my life easier, much easier, and brings in real customers not just bargain hunters that won’t be back once that coupon is no longer in their hands.
Who’ll build it? I know if you do, they’ll come.
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We are there. DinerConnection.com notifies patrons when there table is ready via text message, accepts reservations and orders via text messaging, and QR code integration is coming very soon. Imagine being able to scan a QR code and join the wait list, or make a reservation.All of this can be tried for free without credit card or commitment at the website, http://www.DinerConnection.com
I don’t recall the QR part from last time I checked it out. Did you just sneak that in and yelled at your devs to make it happen, and stat?
There are some that do SMS based diner interaction and I think that’s a good step, but I am really hooked on the idea to actually manage more than that such as, for example, the diner’s first name so the host can greet them when they walk in, the bar/chit part, etc.
We are releasing our QR code integration soon. It is another way that the customer can build a relationship with the restaurant, and specifically, join wait lists, make reservations, make orders and see specials.
I disagree that taking the host/hostess out of the equation will be beneficial to the restaurant long term. The host/hostess is the first point of contact to a real person for a restaurant and that is the first step in building a relationship, and building relationships is key for restaurants building a loyal customer base. On the other hand, if a restaurant desires to be technology driven and not have a host/hostess interact with the customer, we can do that today; text or QR code to get on wait list and get a text message when your table is ready – and what table it is.
Diner Connection increases the relationship with the customers by providing a communication pathway that does not exist today with one-way systems like PA systems or coaster pagers.
Why would you want NFC or QR codes? They’re both barriers to wide-scale adoption.
I don’t think NFC is a barrier. NFC is coming. GPS is too fuzzy, I’d hate to lose a diner who presses the button outside my restaurant to get a table at the place next door. I’d want to reduce or completely remove hostess interaction before seating as well, so manual addition (while it must be an option) should not be mandatory. QR is more or less supported rather widely, too.
If there’s a better idea how to take the hostess out of the equation without the dangers of my diners venturing off, that doesn’t have the barriers you see, that’d be huge, too. Still I think NFC and QR should be available as options.
NFC is coming, yes, but not for a few years. QR codes will never have the widespread adoption that you want them to have.
All the solutions you present are smartphone-only. Maybe you’re comfortable alienating ~50% of your crowd – and creating a barrier to entry for a bunch of the others by making them download an app – but I wouldn’t be. Sticking with text and mobile web (still smartphones) is a much easier way to handle it that requires no new software on the phone.
http://www.businessinsider.com/death-to-the-qr-code-2011-7
Read it.
[...] Code Diggin’ A while back I wrote a piece about reservation systems and NFC/QR code. One comment linked me to a post which both pronounced and demanded the death of QR code for [...]