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Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

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Re: Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

#11

Post by physcab »

tomslater wrote: post #3
patio11 wrote: post #2

I used a spiritually similar system at a sushi shop (try saying that five times fast) last week. It's fifteen flavors of wonderful. About a year ago, I think I said something to the effect of "A/B tested restaurant menus would print cash." (Edit: here we go: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2046426 ) If they're getting +12% sales just on superior interaction design (versus actually talking to a human -- and I have…

I love tech, but if I went to a restaurant and they had that, I honestly wouldn't go back. They gained 10% from those who stuck around and points to them for working the up-sell on side orders, but how many left never to return? To quantify the value of tabletop ordering systems is not as simple as saying "oh look, a 10% gain in average order value" it's much more complex than that. And without the customer numbers a…

I'm not sure how true this would be for the general public. I like human interaction when I'm out, but I typically only avoid restaurants that have bad food.

Re: Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

#13

Post by hennypenny »

I'm not touching that thing. I hope there is a supplemental app that you can download to your phone instead. Yes, I realize menus would have germs on them too, but this seems like the kind of thing 3-year-olds would be given to salivate on to keep them occupied.

Re: Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

#14

Post by ansy »

I think this is pretty gimmicky, although that might be good enough for a certain subset of casual bar food kinds of restaurants.

If you want a more efficient restaurant, this is certainly not the best way to get it. Put the menu up on a big board like McDonalds, Chipotle, Panera, or other already high volume eateries like street vendors. Want to be even faster? Cut down the menu complexity. Fewer menu items means less customer analysis paralysis and a more streamlined kitchen. Anyone in the restaurant business already does at least some data analysis on every sale and have regional and store by store A/B testing. I mean, they have to know what's selling when they do inventory and order more food.

What doesn't make you more efficient (i.e. turn orders and tables faster)? Giving just one menu to a table full of people then include a bunch of games and surveys on it. But if you want to have a table gimmick to keep people around ordering more appetizers and rounds of beer, this might be the ticket.

Re: Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

#16

Post by gdilla »

physcab wrote: post #11
tomslater wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love tech, but if I went to a restaurant and they had that, I honestly wouldn't go back. They gained 10% from those who stuck around and points to them for working the up-sell on side orders, but how many left never to return? To quantify the value of tabletop ordering systems is not as simple as saying "oh look, a 10% gain in average order value" it's much more complex than that. And without the customer numbers a…

I'm not sure how true this would be for the general public. I like human interaction when I'm out, but I typically only avoid restaurants that have bad food.

depends on the atmosphere. Ambiance matters for many places, and that includes attentive staff that make you feel important. But it you're at a busy lunch spot or happy hour spot, this can be great.

Re: Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

#17

Post by patio11 »

tomslater wrote: post #3
patio11 wrote: post #2

I used a spiritually similar system at a sushi shop (try saying that five times fast) last week. It's fifteen flavors of wonderful. About a year ago, I think I said something to the effect of "A/B tested restaurant menus would print cash." (Edit: here we go: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2046426 ) If they're getting +12% sales just on superior interaction design (versus actually talking to a human -- and I have…

I love tech, but if I went to a restaurant and they had that, I honestly wouldn't go back. They gained 10% from those who stuck around and points to them for working the up-sell on side orders, but how many left never to return? To quantify the value of tabletop ordering systems is not as simple as saying "oh look, a 10% gain in average order value" it's much more complex than that. And without the customer numbers a…

I respect that you may not like this technology. I think you are perhaps overestimating how hard it is to quantitatively or qualitatively judge what customers think of it.

Qualitatively: ask your waitstaff if they keep getting called over by customers saying "I pressed the devil box and it didn't work! I hate this!"

Quantitatively: you get credit card numbers and email addresses. See who comes back. (Bonus points: if they don't come back, ask them why not.)

Re: Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

#18

Post by tomslater »

patio11 wrote: post #17
tomslater wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love tech, but if I went to a restaurant and they had that, I honestly wouldn't go back. They gained 10% from those who stuck around and points to them for working the up-sell on side orders, but how many left never to return? To quantify the value of tabletop ordering systems is not as simple as saying "oh look, a 10% gain in average order value" it's much more complex than that. And without the customer numbers a…

I respect that you may not like this technology. I think you are perhaps overestimating how hard it is to quantitatively or qualitatively judge what customers think of it. Qualitatively: ask your waitstaff if they keep getting called over by customers saying "I pressed the devil box and it didn't work! I hate this!" Quantitatively: you get credit card numbers and email addresses. See who comes back. (Bonus points: if…

If they don't come back you can't ask them why not. That's the point. It's a function of the level of competition. If it's a competitive location and you lose that customer, they're practically gone forever.

Re: Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10)

#19

Post by patio11 »

tomslater wrote: post #18
patio11 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I respect that you may not like this technology. I think you are perhaps overestimating how hard it is to quantitatively or qualitatively judge what customers think of it. Qualitatively: ask your waitstaff if they keep getting called over by customers saying "I pressed the devil box and it didn't work! I hate this!" Quantitatively: you get credit card numbers and email addresses. See who comes back. (Bonus points: if…

If they don't come back you can't ask them why not. That's the point. It's a function of the level of competition. If it's a competitive location and you lose that customer, they're practically gone forever.

If they don't come back you can't ask them why not

If you're collecting their email addresses to give them their receipts, this is probably not as problematic as you think.

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