It’s the meal that counts, not the order

More and more restaurants are using mobile phones or tablets to order food, and some even complete the process from ordering to payment in one go. Some people like it, and some people complain. But in fact, the ordering method has little effect. Meal quality is the key to your return visit to a restaurant. If you can’t pass the quality of the meal, no matter how good the other experience is, it won’t help.

meal quality

If a restaurant’s meals are special, and you think it’s delicious and worth the money, you’ll accept it no matter what the ordering method is. Conversely, if you eat at a Lei’s restaurant, even if someone comes to the table to help you order, you will run away.

People’s learning ability is very strong, as long as the motivation is aroused. For example, you can see that LINE is invincible and difficult to use, but many elders are so proficient in using it. So is the restaurant. If you really want to eat, you can break the barrier of ordering food.

It is a double-edged sword for the industry. On the one hand, technology streamlines manpower and reduces costs. On the other hand, the core value, that is, the quality of meals, is therefore more prominent. In the past, poor food or service could also be said to be due to high personnel costs, but now the focus is on the quality of food.

dining experience

After passing the quality of the meal, let’s talk about the experience.

Ordering is only a small part of the overall service experience. Whether it is suitable or not depends on whether it can add points to the overall dining experience. In other words, it depends on the complete service design. The higher the price of the restaurant, the greater the challenge.

Snack bars don’t need much service in the first place. Enter the store, take a seat, order food by mobile phone (maybe check out and pay together), pick up the food by yourself, finish eating without spending too much time, put the tableware in the recycling area by yourself, and leave. Don’t pay attention to the status of the guests if the store has limited staff, just concentrate on preparing meals.

Going up one level, I think Otoya is also a successful case of switching to a mobile phone (initially a tablet) to order food. It not only replaces manual ordering, but also “enhances” the dining experience. For example, refilling rice, soup, and shredded cabbage through the mobile phone will be faster. The design of the service bell is also the same, which solves the problem of not always being able to find someone after looking up and waving for a long time.

Din Tai Fung is an interesting case. With its price point and customer base heterogeneity, customers will expect a more traditional process. But it still fully adopts mobile phone online ordering after all. After a few years, I personally think it is acceptable.

Din Tai Fung is supposed to have a queue. Usually, a paper menu will be issued for you to order in advance, and after you are seated, the service staff will manually record and confirm. Now that the mobile phone is pre-ordered, the process of confirming the meal will be smoother.

What’s more important is that the overall service experience still maintains the high quality in the past. For example, if you accidentally dropped your chopsticks or something (even if it’s only the size of a fingernail) on the ground, before you have time to look down, the service staff has already sent you a new pair of chopsticks to find what you dropped.

Another time I accidentally knocked over a cup of tea on the table. Before I could lift my head, the service staff had arrived with napkins, dry cloths and mops. Less than ten seconds had passed since the teacup was overturned.

The most recent time was when the service specialist came to greet me shortly after I was seated, saying, “You haven’t been here for a long time.” In fact, the number of times the epidemic has come in three years is really not much. Before the epidemic, I came more often, but at most it was once a month. On weekends, enter the store as soon as it opens early in the morning to avoid the crowds in line afterwards. After so long, and there are so many customers dining every day, she still remembers. What a surprise.

irreversible past

Will you miss those traditional dining experiences? Of course it will.

The best experience at the snack bar is ordering in the traditional way. It doesn’t have to be at the table, you can also draw the order and send it to the counter. It is very important to check out after the meal, which represents basic trust. More importantly, of course, is the relationship between the store and the customer.

There is a neighborhood noodle shop that I frequent very much that does. Stores will remember regular customers. Once during a meal, several middle school students just entered the restaurant, and the proprietress said to one of them, “You dropped 30 yuan on the table last time, and my aunt will bring it to you later.” Not only is the memory super strong, but more importantly, it is hard work.

For a more formal restaurant, of course I still prefer a more traditional one. I once ate in a restaurant in a five-star hotel, and I really enjoyed the experience of interacting with the service staff through natural spoken language, facial expressions and body language without using the service bell, mobile phone or tablet. The price of a family meal is not even as high as Din Tai Fung.

But I also know that in a few years, the human interaction at the service touchpoint will probably become an intangible cultural heritage. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek of course, but really, good, traditional experiences are cherished these days.

But it will not exclude new technologies and service designs. As I said at the beginning, what matters is the quality of the meal, not the way it is ordered.

further reading

• Decathlon’s service and experience design: what can we learn?
• Value, always beyond products and services
• Attitude is not everything
• Service Design: Creating Value with Customers
• The value of design and service