If you think about it, the addition of booths was perhaps the first major innovation that changed restaurants in the 20th century. Prior innovations such as the French offering individual tables were minor adjustments, relatively speaking. It was only when booths came into the scene that people started to get up and take notice of all that restaurant dining had to offer.
We are living in a world of rapid technological advancement, and it was only a matter of time before this started to make its way into how restaurants tend to do business. There are countless ways to incorporate technology into your eatery, and the benefits of doing so can be extolled for days on end.
To put it plainly, the inclusion of abundant tech options can make your restaurant seem cutting edge and modern, and that is definitely a perception that you would want to inculcate in every single customer that walks through your door. With that said, how exactly are you supposed to add tech features to restaurant booths of all things?
It might sound like a fantasy, but in reality there are already many booths that come fitted with the latest gadgets. Touch screens come to mind, with at least three usage cases being noted as far as their viability with booths in your restaurant is concerned.
You can add touch screens to your booth to allow your customers to place orders without having to talk to anyone. What’s more, they can just pull up a menu on the screens instead of being forced to wait around for someone to bring them along.
This would obviously improve the customer experience by leaps and bounds, but there’s more to it than that. You can save a lot of money on wait staff if you add some touch screens to your booths. Just a few diligent workers who can check orders and make sure they get to the tables on time will be all you need.
By contrast, avoiding touch screens here would make it necessary for workers to do three times as much to keep things running smoothly. Not only would they need to make a trip to each individual table to deliver a menu, they would also have to answer customer questions to boot!
Furthermore, service staff can often struggle to keep orders straight in their heads. They can do a lot with a handy notepad and pen, but its limitations will eventually make it likely that something would slip the server’s mind. It’s not entirely their fault either. The human brain does not possess infinite processing power, unlike a computing system that has a touch screen interface on offer!
So, you can clearly see how touchscreens can streamline things to create endless benefits. From offering easily accessible menus, automating order requests and fulfilment and freeing up time for your wait staff, these three usage cases alone should justify the investment.
The only problem is that adding a screen with a touch interface to every single booth would be cost prohibitive, and that’s if we’re putting it mildly. Chances are that you won’t have the liquid capital needed to go for anything this fancy.
Does that mean that tech enabled booths are firmly out of your reach? Far from it! There are a few other options that are far cheaper, and they offer benefits that are comparable for the most part.
For example, you can add a simple switch or buton to the booths that will alert wait staff that a table is requesting service. The button can be added directly to the booth, and it won’t require any complicated jerry rigging or wiring to be effective either.
If you want to make it easier for customers to access menus, why not add some QR codes to your booths? You don’t even necessarily need separate add-ons for something like this. Simply print the QR code onto the table between each booth and you will be good to go.
Customers will recognize the QR codes as soon as they see them, and they will immediately scan them to see what you have on offer. This can reduce printing expenses since you won’t have to get physical menus made. Not to mention, you can skip all of the fuss and hassle of having to design aesthetically pleasing menus on top of everything else!
There is an even simpler technological addition that you can incorporate into your booths, one that will seem quite obvious once we mention it. We are talking about some good old fashioned charging ports! They can be added to the bottom panels of the booths where customers can access them as and when they require.
When a customer notices that a power outlet is on offer, it would be quite intuitive for them to plug their devices in to charge. This can allow you to cater to the business crowd. Many business professionals look for eateries that can act as ad hoc work spaces.
They will certainly need charging ports to make that feasible, and we imagine they’d appreciate the private of booths as well. Just a few electrical sockets added to the booths furnishing your eatery can transform it into a hub of innovation. You may even be able to attract some start up founders who would become your long term patrons!
Regardless of which option you end up going for, the fact remains that technology and booths should go hand in hand. Even if you think that this seems like a gimmick, we’d advise you to try it out before coming to any conclusions because you’d be surprised at what you might discover!
