I don't go to a restaurant just to eat. It's a social event. I go to hang out with friends, people watch, and just be around people. You can order in if you really hate human interaction that much.
Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
31–40 of 53 posts
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#32With all the Android (and the iPad) options out there, why do they have to roll out their own tablet hardware at all? (besides the obvious "because it's rugged" answer, which could obviously be solved with a case on any other tablet)
No reason you couldn't do both, and just have the smartphone app interface with the same system the in-house tablets do. (And not everyone will leave a smartphone.) Menu systems are simple, and don't need much in the way of processing power. They don't need to be full-featured web browsers, or be able to run high-end games. An e-Ink screen would be enough for most places. This approach even makes sense from a recycli…
The value in high-end processing is the multimedia upsell. Replacing a paper menu doesn't require much processing power, but it's worth a lot to increase the check average and/or improve margins by promoting higher margin items.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#33I don't go to a restaurant just to eat. It's a social event. I go to hang out with friends, people watch, and just be around people. You can order in if you really hate human interaction that much.
A social event with the waitstaff? No one is saying that you can't talk to the restaurant staff, even when using a tablet -- you just aren't beholden to them for service.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess ordering dishes out of your own Android/iPhone feels more like ordering a take-out instead of a sit-in? I think e la carte is intended to offer more on enhanced dining experience, rather than just an easy way to pay for your dinner.
I didn't mean the CUSTOMER's tablet/phone, I meant buying tablets (or making the restaurant buy them) instead of manufacturing your own
One possible argument for proprietary tablets is that the value to a potential thief is much less than a commodity tablet which could be repurposed. Perhaps the maker of a "standard" Android tablet could be convinced produce a version slightly modified so that their standard distro would not work without modification? While thieves clearly could hack the standard distro to make it work, would they really achieve high enough theft numbers to justify the effort?
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#35I don't go to a restaurant just to eat. It's a social event. I go to hang out with friends, people watch, and just be around people. You can order in if you really hate human interaction that much.
A social event with the waitstaff? No one is saying that you can't talk to the restaurant staff, even when using a tablet -- you just aren't beholden to them for service.
Actually, yes. Does that sound crazy? I'm not talking about bad servers, I'm talking about good servers. Also, servers let me ask questions and help me discover new food I would probably not try. That's just me though, maybe I'm special.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#36I can't think of a way to complement this with out pointing out the obviousness of it. Good job and good timing! In a way I'm surprised the large chains haven't already started to use customer-facing touch screen ordering, especially with the huge bump paper and printing costs went through several years ago.
McDonald's has been testing self-service kiosks on-and-off since at least 2004. There must be some barrier to adoption that's holding it back. That, plus most quick service restaurants do a majority of their business in the drive-through now. Ever see a line of cars out to the street and then go inside the store? Empty counters.
A McDonald's outside of Orlando was experimenting with self-ordering in 2003. I saw it in action when I was working on a tablets-at-the-table start-up. It worked well. In the Midwest, Sheetz "gas station" (quotes because it's so much more) has done self-ordering for years using a system from Radiant Systems.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#37Most people don't notice good service; they notice bad service. For any restaurant that already has good servers and good training, this type of thing will destroy the flow of service and the interaction between guests and servers.
I spent about a year in 2003 trying to launch a similar start-up. Restaurant owners told me that they would gladly trade a normal distribution of customer satisfaction for consistent-but-average experiences. Why? If you have a great experience, you might tell a few people. However, when you have an awful experience, you'll tell a hundred.
Those owners probably aren't great at training their staff and/or don't understand the intangibles that make for a good service experience. You might be able to sell the owners on your product. That doesn't mean the owners can sell their customers on your product.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#38I can't think of a way to complement this with out pointing out the obviousness of it. Good job and good timing! In a way I'm surprised the large chains haven't already started to use customer-facing touch screen ordering, especially with the huge bump paper and printing costs went through several years ago.
Casual dining chains are very scared of change. Deciding to feature a different sandwich in the most prominent sections of their menus is what they consider a huge decision. All execs believe that their customer service experience is much better than in reality. So, they compare their "ideal selves" to the experience of using a tablet and cringe in horror. Also, most folks managing in the restaurant industry came up through the ranks, so they've all self-selected into an extroverted, interaction-intensive occupation. Their views don't mirror those of Americans as a whole.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#39Didn't Nolan Bushnell try something similar to this in Mountain View not long ago?
He seemed to be focused on the idea that people would want to play games on the tablet -- nevermind that handheld game machines existed before he even opened.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess ordering dishes out of your own Android/iPhone feels more like ordering a take-out instead of a sit-in? I think e la carte is intended to offer more on enhanced dining experience, rather than just an easy way to pay for your dinner.
I didn't mean the CUSTOMER's tablet/phone, I meant buying tablets (or making the restaurant buy them) instead of manufacturing your own
I think buying general purpose tablet would definitely cost much more. Also, pushing restaurants to first buy an ipad/android tab, and then using your app on it is just too many hoops to jump through for any restaurant.