Eating out at a restaurant, any restaurant, is an escape for most people. It might be a way of avoiding long lines and fluorescent lights at the grocery store. It could be an hour away from the office and the boss and the clients. It is freedom from preparing a meal. It is the luxury of being served by someone else. It is because of this desired escape when eating out that diners desire a seamless experience.
Restaurant guests are paying extra to be treated well. They expect the waiter to be friendly, the food to appear in a timely manner, and the cheque to come at just the right time. All of this can be difficult for any restaurant to get right. There are a lot of pots on the stove, plates in the air, and bums in the chairs. And even if you have the best-trained staff and the highest quality meals, the cheque aspect of the meal can often be gotten wrong—for myriad reasons.
Bringing The Bill Too Early
Sorting out the bill on a meal is possibly the biggest issue-creator during a dining experience. Several problems can be created because of it. One of the bigger issues is bringing the bill at the appropriate time. For any waiter, this is a balancing act. If they bring the bill too early, two issues could arise. First, the table could still want more drinks or desserts. An early arriving bill could either discourage them from making these purchases, leading to lower profits for the restaurant, or it could simply be a waste of time on the waiter’s part, who will now need to retrieve that bill, update it, and bring it back.
The second issue that bringing a bill too early can create is discomfort by the diners. They could take this as a signal from the waiter or the restaurant that they are overstaying their welcome and they need to vacate the table. This type of slight could cause the diners to never return, give it a poor online review, or tell their friends and family to avoid the establishment. Of course, none of this was the intention of the waiter, it was simply poor timing.
Bringing The Bill Too Late
But then, there is the opposite issue. The bill being brought too late creates significant annoyance. Individuals visit restaurants because they want a delicious meal that was cooked specifically for them. They pay extra for the experience because they want to be waited on—not the other way around. It is uncomfortable when they have to pause from conversation to try and make eye contact with the waiter or wave them down or raise their voice so that they waiter can hear them as he or she walks past. And this is bound to happen on occasion.
Waiters, even during moderately busy dining hours, have several tables that they are responsible for. One table needs extra napkins, another has an issue with their order, two tables want seconds on their drinks. It can seem like the wink of an eye between when a certain table is satisfied with everything on their table and happily eating and talking to when they are visibly annoyed that the waiter has not brought their bill. For many diners, this situation will easily move them from happy customer to a detractor of the restaurant.
When The Card Gets Declined
And finally there is potential awkwardness. This has happened to every waiter out there. A card gets declined. It is never an easy subject to bring up. This is especially true when there are multiple people at the table. A whisper is used. A facial expression is made. A suggestion is offered to run the card again. But as long as a card, a diner, and a waiter are involved in the equation of getting a bill paid for, this situation will continue to occur.
Problems With Splitting the Bill
When a party of multiple people comes in, there is one request that every waiter dreads: “Can you split the bill?” Unless a restaurant has the very expensive point-of-sale software, splitting a bill can be difficult. This is especially true if multiple drinks were ordered, special requests were made with various orders, or an appetizer or dessert was split by the table. But beyond just being challenging to remember what each individual ordered, it is also time-consuming. And this time consumption does not simply take up the time of the table that asked for the split bill, it also takes up the time of the waiter who has to split the bill, the other tables that that waiter is serving, the other waiters who are waiting to use the cash register, and all of the other tables that are being served by those waiters. It is a domino effect and it can seriously put a restaurant behind in their evening.
Time Waster
As previously mentioned, a lot of time can be wasted when just trying to split the bill. But that is really only one side of the time-consumption that restaurant bills cause. The entire process of the bill wastes time. The waiter has to regularly check with tables to see how far along their meals are so they can perfectly time when to give them the bill. Then, the waiter needs to go over to the register, potentially having to wait on other waiters if the register is currently in use, find the correct table, print out the bill, stuff in a few candies and a pen, and then deliver it to the table. After the bill delivery takes place, the waiter constantly has to keep their eye on it to see when cards or cash are taken out for payment. He or she must then collect the bill, run the card or get change for cash, and then return it to the table. All of these tasks not only take time, but also energy from the waiter, who must also be entertaining, informing, and assisting all of the other tables.
Outdated
But beyond the awkwardness, beyond the time wasted, there is just the simple fact that delivering a printed out bill to a table is old-fashioned and outdated. Every industry is modernizing. They are identifying ways that make systems and processes more efficient and effective. They are finding methods for impressing customers and creating a better experience. The restaurant business, however, does not seem to be keeping up with the rest of the world. While transportation is being revolutionized by Uber and accommodation is be transformed by AirBnB, the food industry seems to be lagging behind.
It is for this reason that restaurants need to start modernizing their processes. There are ways to make the dining experience more pleasant. There are new methods for creating savings. Updating how bills are paid is the first step towards this. It will remove the discomfort of a declined card. It will allow waiters to invest more of their time ensuring that the entire dining experience is flawless. It will create a much more convenient and comfortable experience for every diner. It is time for the restaurant industry to embrace change.
