Restaurant service slowdown

Waiting time in restaurants has doubled. Chadi Chidiac, managing partner of PROTOCOL hospitality management consultancy tells us why

According to an operational assessment recently undertaken by PROTOCOL for a high profile operator, given a 10-year timespan for the purposes of diagnosing service slowdown, the results indicated that service is significantly slower now in 2015 than it was in 2005. In addition to the shortage of qualified service staff, the lack of proper on-job and off-job training programs and, to a lesser extent, the missing hands-on structuring and disorganization of kitchen brigades in some operations, PROTOCOL shares another major factor on the slowdown; the cell phone.

Customers are too pre-occupied with their cell phones - taking photos, telling waiters they are having problems connecting to Wi-fi, taking photos of their food once it’s served and bumping into other customers and waiters as they enter and exit the restaurant as a result of texting while walking. Customers relentlessly using their cell phones are to blame for the dramatic increase in the amount of time it takes to be served in restaurants nowadays. After a review of the operator’s surveillance video archives for a given period of time in 2005 (special high capacity recording tapes) and 2015 (digital system) to compare the footage in a bid to discover why service is significantly slower, findings showed that average time from start to finish in 2005 was one hour and five minutes, while in 2015, it was one hour and 55 minutes, leaving firstly a calamitous impact on the reputation of the operator and its level of service, and secondly on the seat turnover and hence operational bottom line. Although the number of customers served on a daily basis is almost the same today as it was 10 years ago, the service today seems super slow despite the operator increasing staff and cutbacks on the menu items.

Video comparison

A side-by-side comparison of the exact same month (July) day (Thursday) date and time (9:30 pm) was suggested, in order to avoid seasonality as well as weekday fluctuations in volume and peak service time discrepancies. The number of customers was only slightly more in 2015 as opposed to 10 years prior.

Pattern 2005

Customers walk in.

They are seated and given menus; out of 45 customers three requested to be seated elsewhere.

Customers on average spend eight minutes before closing the menu to show they are ready to order.

Waiters show up almost instantly and takes the order.

Food is served within six minutes; obviously the more complex items (steaks with heavy sauces and cooked to order desserts like chocolate lava cake and pain perdu) take much longer.

Out of 45 customers two sent items back that were too cold (we assume given the items were not steak, they wanted the item heated up).

Waiters keep an eye out for their tables so they can respond quickly if the customer needs something.

Customers are finished, check delivered, and within five minutes they leave. Average time from start to finish: 1:05

Pattern 2015

Customers walk in.

They are seated and are given menus; out of 45 customers 18 requested to be seated elsewhere.

Before even opening the menu they take their phones out, some are checking in, taking photos and selfies while others are simply doing something else on their phone (we do not monitor customer WI-FI activity).

Seven out of the 45 customers had waiters come over right away; they showed them something on their phone and spent an average of five minutes of the waiter’s time. Given this is recent footage, we asked the waiters about this and they explained the customers had a problem connecting to the WI-FI and demanded that the waiters try to help them.

Finally the waiter walks over to the table to see what the customers would like to order. The majority of customers have not even opened the menu and ask the waiter to wait a while longer.

Customers open the menu, place their hands holding their phones on top of it and continue doing whatever on their phone.

Waiter returns to see if they are ready to order or have any questions. The customer asks for more time.

Finally they are ready to order. Total average time from when the customer was seated until they placed their order is 21 minutes.

Food is served within six minutes; obviously the more complex items take a while longer.

26 out of 45 customers spend an average of three minutes taking photos of the food. 14 out of 45 customers take pictures of each other with the food in front of them or as they are eating the food. This takes on average another four minutes as they must review and sometimes retake the photo.

Nine out of 45 customers sent their food back to reheat. Obviously if they hadn’t paused to do whatever on their phone the food wouldn’t have been cold.

27 out of 45 customers asked their waiter to take a group photo. 14 of those requested the waiter to retake the photo as they were not pleased with the first photo. On average this entire process between the arguing and reviewing the photo added another five minutes and caused the waiter a problem in being able to take care of other tables that he or she was serving.

Given in most cases the customers are constantly busy on their phones, it took an average of 20 minutes more from when they were done eating until they requested a check. Furthermore once the check was delivered it took 15 minutes longer than 10 years ago for them to pay and leave; this is without considering another three to four minutes for credit card payments.

Eight out of 45 customers bumped into other customers or in one case a waiter (texting while walking) as they were either walking in or out of the restaurant.

Average time from start to finish: 1:55

Consensus

Findings are obvious and speak for themselves. Technological disparity into business segments has numerous advantages, in the hospitality sector in particular, in terms of productivity empowerment and standardization yielding cost efficiency and bottom line optimization. On the other hand it is a minor inconvenience as the cell phone issue is a small price to pay while the service slowdown is part of the simultaneity of the production and service process as well as the human touch; a captivating thing that still differentiates the hospitality sector and which gives it its charm as it is far from otherwise boring and monotonous automation.