Restaurant UX

Photo caption: This bar has ordering through a window on the left and bar-seating on the right.

Many bars think that consuming and appreciating your purchase should happen in the same spot as other people who are ordering. This results in new customers making requests over the heads of previous customers. This is sub-optimal for multiple reasons. First, it shows the bar doesn’t care about the continued satisfaction of their previous customers. Second, it shows they don’t care about allowing their new customers to be polite and civilized. Third, it places the customer and the bartender further apart, where they can’t hear each other well. This often results in both customer and bartender yelling at each other. It also makes it difficult to do a more detailed order or ask about customization options. Noise levels in restaurants escalate as people subconsciously raise their own voices to be heard over the background, so an entire bar can get very loud very quickly. 

Furthermore, since there is no sequential line, bartenders are expected to keep an eye on who is next while they are making drinks, which we all know is impossible. So not having a line means that there will be unfair wait times. From my experience this often means that attractive women get their orders taken before other customers, when being served by male bartenders.

There is also another issue with bars without an ordering line, which should concern management: not as many orders will be processed, resulting in less profit. This is for a number of reasons. Firstly, profit in a busy bar relates to the number of orders per hour. A bartender who has to yell over people will make mistakes and have to re-make drinks occasionally. Additionally, that bartender has to spend time scanning the bar for incoming customers, which is time they could be spending making a drink or doing other necessary bar duties. Also, most bartenders really aren’t that good at scanning the bar for new arrivals or empty glasses. Creating an ordering line ensures a more civil bar environment and separates the conflicting tasks of ordering and eating.

1-star reviews have a purpose. Restaurants in some cities and locations don’t respect customers. They have many reasons for doing this. It is counter-intuitive, but some restaurants simply don’t have to worry about annoyed and unhappy customers. As an example let’s consider taxi drivers before the advent of Uber. Minimal accountability. No repeat customers. No reputation to worry about. No financial reason to legitimately care for the customer. Lots of financial incentive to pick up fast, drive slow, drop off slow, and accept cash only. Then Uber and Lyft happened, and suddenly taxi drivers were no longer effectively anonymous, their routes were being tracked, their “payment optimization schemes” were removed by automatic payment, and they had public ratings.

What does this have to do with restaurants? There are restaurants that don’t care about customers and have little financial incentive to start caring. Many restaurants in San Francisco have a “captive audience” of sorts. Too few restaurants and too many customers that live directly over them. Consequently policies such as high credit-card-minimums, cash only, long waiting lines, no reservations accepted, questionable service, overpriced drinks, small portions, overly-attentive-waiters-trying-to-free-your-table and other customer-antagonistic phenomenon proliferate. Restaurants in NYC actually have a sense of pride in their customer experience, but SF regularly has a standoffish sense of doing whatever the owners and waiters want.

Until recently it was just word of mouth that could hurt a business. If enough people heard that a restaurant sucked, then people would stop going there. Survival of the fittest. But feedback took time to spread, and it only happened between locals that knew each other. Then there was the rise of Google Maps, Yelp, and Open Table. This allowed people to understand in advance which places were reliably good. 

We are now in the era where an early negative review greatly affects the overall sales of Amazon products. Being a well-justified early negative review of a restaurant may soon have a similar effect. Unlike most Amazon sellers, restaurant owners may not actively monitor their Google and Yelp ratings, and may not attempt to respond or make it up to dissatisfied customers. But this is the way of the future - where restaurants actually have to care about customers, just like transportation services have demonstrated. 

1-star reviews have a purpose. Honest “average” 3-star reviews convey that service isn’t great, but they don’t attract attention, and they don’t show emotion. Furthermore they don’t demand that action be taken. 1-star reviews may be a bit overly-critical, but they have a way of lowering average scores and attracting the attention of business owners and customers alike. I for one have decided that businesses that clearly have customer-antagonistic policies that they could easily change, will get 1-star reviews. If they change their behavior or policies, then I’ll revise the review. It’s my way of urging them to become better businesses when I know that a complaint to the waiter will blame the wrong person and never make it to the owner’s ears. I recommend that you do the same. Businesses can’t change without transparency and honest feedback.

Restaurants tend to be expensive, often have parking that is a hassle, and then they expect you to wait in line to get a table. Once you get seated, you could easily have a screaming child at the next table with parents that have tuned out, or a waiter that ignores you for long periods, or food that comes out extremely slowly, or find that it is impossible to get the check. Perhaps these issues don’t bother some customers, but for many people they are an excuse not to go out to eat. When potential customers are trying to spend money at a business, and that business simply isn’t providing a sufficiently good end-to-end user experience, those customers tend to go elsewhere over time.

The alternative to braving the less-than-reliable restaurant scene is of course to eat at home. While it has its downsides of extended preparation time, having a large kitchen and supplies, and having to do the dishes, there are considerable advantages.

Choosing your own ingredients

It is rare to see a bartender creating a bloody mary from scratch these days because it takes more time and it requires some training. A friend and I collaborated on an optimal recipe which involves eleven ingredients. It is one of the best bloody mary’s we have tasted and it’s not difficult to make if you have the ingredients. You simply can’t buy one of these anywhere and you have the advantage of knowing what you are eating. Most restaurants have very little transparency in terms of an ingredient list in their food, so if you are low-carb, or lactose intolerant you often have to interrogate a waiter to understand what is going into your body.

Quantity and types of food

Trying to get a decent portion size at some restaurants can be challenging. When you cook for yourself you decide how much to cook. Some restaurants have a half-portion, or extra-large option, but most don’t allow customization. Also for those on a protein diet it can be hard to modify orders to be only meat, or to replace carbs with other items. Additionally, trying to find certain dishes, such as a dry rub hickory BBQ chicken can be nearly impossible, but very reasonable if you are doing it yourself.

Affordable access to high-end foods

Ingredients like lobster, fresh oysters, or other more labor-intensive items are often hard to find, or sold in very small quantities at high prices. Preparing your own meals means you can purchase these items from the distributor of your choice and reasonable prices, buy larger quantities, and prepare them in the way you personally enjoy. Seafood seems to be unnecessarily high-priced at many restaurants, probably because of it’s brand recognition as a higher-class food item.

Custom orders and being artistic

Making dishes at home means that you can experiment with a range of ingredients and incorporate surprise items brought by guests. Dragonfruit-lychee gimlet anyone?

Socialization without distractions

Many restaurants are balanced in favor of bothering you every five minutes and trying to ensure you leave your table as rapidly as possible so the next customer can spend money there. Trying to find a nice bar with couches and music low enough to have a conversation can be nearly impossible, but it’s easy to craft that kind of space at home.

Relaxed Environment

Outdoor patios and fire-pits can be found at some restaurants, but they often refuse to take reservations for these areas, and there are frequently lines. Eating at home means that you can create spaces in gardens and next to pools that are extremely relaxing to guests.

Philz Coffee in SF is very popular, but probably it’s because of its pour-over-coffee, not the frustrating and chaotic ordering process in its stores. One of the best indicators of a bad design is that there is a “training class” provided on how to use it. Sometimes a bit of communication with new customers via signage is a good thing, but it may also indicate a non-intuitive or overly complex design. This is certainly true in the case of Philz, which manages to make getting a morning coffee into a three step process.

First you wait in line (step 0, not listed), then you navigate the complex menu with your barista getting opinions and ordering, then you head to another line to pay (remembering your complex coffee name because the barista doesn’t tell the register), and then join another crowd of awkardly-hovering people waiting for their coffee type (not their name) to be called. There is no designated space for any of these lines, so it results in people standing in the seating area and blocking access for other types of lines. To add to the confusion, ordering some types of items (coffee) happens in other lines than where you order food.

Not surprisingly, they also offer another option which is to avoid most of these lines if you are a regular customer. This is an increasingly common trend in San Francisco where you can order coffee, sandwiches, tacos and other items via the app, pay for it in advance, and simply skip the line to pick up your order.

There are a number of ways to redesign the Philz ordering system, but here is the one with more automation, and it’s a simple modification of the existing online ordering app. Revised task sequence: 1) Walk into store. 2) Immediately inside the door is five iPads on stands. 3) Select desired coffee from a large graphical iPad menu of coffee styles and select any modifications (e.g. almond milk) 4) Tap Apple-Pay device, or swipe card. Receipt emailed. No cash accepted. 5) It asks to snap a quick picture of you so that the server can deliver your order. Alternative is to enter phone # to get text when drink is ready near the exit door. 6) You are told to go sit or stand wherever you like in the coffeeshop. 7) After settling yourself in a comfortable armchair, a server drops by to deliver your coffee.

I post so frequently about line-management issues in restaurants that I feel like a broken record. Making customers wait is not in the customers’ best interest - it shows improper staffing levels and poor design. There are fringe cases of people that want to be seen standing outside at a “fashionable” restaurant, but you should be so lucky to own one of those restaurants. This is not a common scenario and demand will die off after people realize it’s not offering sufficient value or find a better alternative.

A large part of reducing wait times and line sizes is automation. Three recent examples show how eliminating lines is possible using today’s technology and it is clearly linked to profits and customer satisfaction.

Amazon is opening a pilot grocery store in Seattle which allows existing Amazon members to walk into the store, tag in as they enter the door with their phone, and walk out with whatever they want. Billing happens automatically behind the scenes and the user can ignore it if they wish.

This is the future of in-store experiences. Paying for things is a hassle, and it is a product of a legacy of barter, coins, and cash - it has no place in an ideal experience of picking up items that you need. Does “just walk out” technology sound like something dreamed up by engineers or product managers? “Just walking out of a store” is what Amazon ethnographers (UX researchers) notice is the unspoken desire of Safeway shoppers waiting in line to use poorly designed check-out kiosks. Why should you wait in line to use automation? Isn’t it automated? Why should you need an instructional video to learn how to use to automation? (See a future post on why Safeway’s kiosks are so badly designed.)

In line with the automation trend, when McDonald’s decided that minimum wage hikes were not compatible with profitability in certain states, they didn’t cut back on customer service. Instead they replaced slower humans with automated ordering kiosks (and potentially food-delivery systems). (details)

Apple stores started experimenting with this several years ago. It is now possible to walk into an Apple store, pick up a item, scan it with your phone, pay over the phone app, and walk out of the store without ever talking to a staff member.

In many cases automation issues like credit card processing times, ApplePay support, and pager alert systems have a huge impact on line length and perceived wait times.

Is there any doubt that this is the way of the future? No wait time to get seated. No wait time to order. Little wait time for food delivery. Just walk out when you are done. The only human interruption you should be getting is to fine-tune your order, deal with small problems that arise, or impress your date by how much you’re willing to pay to get a real highly-trained human waiter to stand by your table trying to predict your every desire.

This seafood restaurant in Bali was taking itself too seriously. It was expensive, had very good seafood and a nice location overlooking a rice paddy. Koi pond by the entry. They even put a shirt on my friend who showed up in a tank top. Classy!

But then they wouldn't seat me at a table until my full party arrived. The place was 1/4 full. I just rolled my eyes.  Then they processed the whole restaurant's orders before mine when I sat at the bar for a drink. Then they refused to let us sit on the patio because "only tapas are served there". They were also quite prescriptive about which table we could sit at in the restaurant area (something which deserves another blog post in it's own right). Despite a huge staff and waiters positioned on the periphery, we still had trouble finding a waiter for ordering several times.