November 28, 2014 Opinion piece
A survey of 5,000 consumers recently conducted by Peach Factory on behalf of global retail technology provider Ominco has revealed that diners are only willing to wait an average of 16 minutes before leaving a restaurant if they have not been served yet.
It also found Brits more willing to wait for a coffee (an average of six minutes and two seconds) than for a sandwich (five minutes and 34 seconds).
This survey formed part of a recent investigation into the effect of waiting times on UK hospitality businesses, and the results show that Brits like their food fast. When waiting at a fast food supplier such as McDonald’s, customers are willing to remain unserved for just over six minutes before deciding to leave. In restaurants, they are more perseverant, sticking around for up to 16 minutes. Statistics also revealed variations by region, with Welsh diners ranking as most impatient, willing to stay 14 minutes 16 seconds before leaving. Those in the East Midlands were most tolerant, waiting up to 16 minutes 39 seconds on average.
Technology vs. tolerance
There are a number of possible reasons why consumers are displaying impatience in food and drink establishments, but it is the likely impact of technology that has to be considered as a primary one. In many other sectors, the ‘I want it now’ culture is not only well adopted among customers, but is well catered for by the industry as part of business strategies. The retail industry, for example, makes widespread use of self-checkouts (or ‘fast-lanes’) to reduce queue time and provide the customer with a sense of control. This has a knock-on effect for consumer expectation regarding speed of process in other sectors such as foodservice.
Everything under control
Modern consumers have also come to expect that information regarding wait times will be available, which emphasises their desire for a feeling of control. Again if we look at other sectors, we can find precedents that support this. In the travel industry for example, technology is often used to relay information such as estimated arrival and waiting times, not just in relation to flights but also trains and buses. In the entertainment sector, customers are often informed where they are in telephone or online queues when they are purchasing tickets. When it comes to foodservice, although this kind of technology is available, the need for focus on the personal service element perhaps makes it difficult to achieve widespread implementation quickly.
Enabling high quality experiences
Of course, the best method for preventing impatient diners from leaving is to provide them with high quality experiences, a large part of which relates to the personal service aspect of dining out. While there are many factors that may influence the standard of personal service on offer, the use of technology in association with backroom processes can greatly aid the efficiency with which the establishment is able to operate, with obvious potential benefits for the front-of-house staff.
It may be that for foodservice, the technology solutions that enable high quality experiences are more hidden than in other sectors, so that good old human service can be pushed to the fore and keep up with consumer expectation, however impatient we may become.