RESTAURANTS REWARDS
The Challenge
While there are many ways to rate and review restaurants, these are not focused on evaluating individuals servers.
Design an experience where diners can submit positive comments and constructive suggestions for the wait staff, and servers can use this feedback to both improve and help to secure new employment. Provide a high-level flow and supporting wire frames.
So, this is how I started...
I started my research by visiting several Restaurants in the Miami area and observe how things are done in action. I talked to managers, hostess, and servers to better understand their process, challenges and systems involved on the experience. The more I learned about their process of capturing feedback, the more I got excited - this service is really needed!
When customers want to provide good feedback they use the paper surveys (if available). When they want to provide bad feedback they use Social Media. So, it's really hard for managers to know who are their top talent and how to fix problems.
EMPHATIZE
As I talked to people combined with online research, I could understand a bit more about the pains of the main personas that are part of a Restaurant experience: Wait Staff, Managers and Customers.
DEFINE
So the bottom line is: Restaurants need to be more efficient and know the Wait Staff that really cares about the customer. The turnover at restaurants is extremely high (from 89% to 151%) - which means that every year managers have to build a new team from scratch, so they need to make sure they keep a pipeline of good candidates and find new ways to maintain and reward their best talent.
So I realized that the more interactions the Wait Staff have with customers, the more valuable these reviews would be. Therefore I decided to focus on the "High Volume - Fine Dining" experience.
Key findings from restaurant VISITS & Customers INTERVIEWS
Restaurants
Restaurants use a system called "POS" (Point of Sale System) which is a mix of software and hardware that enables customer transactions. Through the POS the Wait Staff can be identified as "owners" of a specific table.
The check contains the Wait Staff, but doesn't include the Hostess and Bus boy/Bus girl that are also part of the experience.
The "order number" is a key identifier.
Tips and informal compliments are the only clues the Wait Staff have about the service they provided to customers.
Security is a big deal and need to be thought carefully.
Customers
Paper surveys are good but customers tend to provide only good feedback on those as they are delivered to the server.
Online surveys are usually done AFTER the experience and some are associated with points, so people tend to forget and just do them to get the points.
Customers don’t want to put any extra effort to make staff reviews, unless there is a benefit.
The best moment to provide Wait Staff review is along with the check (and deciding on the tip)
Customers prefer to review while they are still in the restaurant, not after.
Long wait for orders and / or check affect Wait Staff reviews.
Why staff reviews are important to Restaurant Managers and Owners?
It help restaurants fixing issues before they spread on social media channels.
The Wait Staff face many challenges and they want to feel more recognized by their managers.
Many restaurants tips are pooled between bus boys, hostess, wait staff, food runners - so everyone needs to do a great job.
The only way to know if they provided a good service is through the “tips”
SkeTCHing IDEAS
I started sketching many different ideas and was able to get some feedback from Customers and Restaurant Managers. I also added on my research a POS integrator because I wanted to understand if my ideas were feasible.
REFINING IDEAS
I selected 3 ideas to focus and thought of them in terms of phases, from the easiest implementation to the more integrated (and challeging) implementation.
Idea #1: Provide URL and/or QR code on the bill that triggers a online survey.
Pros:
Low investment from restaurants (need to simply include a line with URL and create the survey)
Cons:
More effort from users - needs to type URL on their phone
Most users don’t have a QR Code app
Easy to skip or forget
Doesn't offer any benefit to customers
Not taking advantage of latest technology.
Idea # 2: Use NFC tags on the check - Customers tap the device to the tag to launch the Survey
Pros
NFC works great for "1 to 1” interactions
Scan require users to be close to the “object” (and advantage from bluetooth)
Don’t require installing an app
NFC tags are cheap (~$10 cents on bulk purchases)
Cons
Tags are more popular on Android but started late for Apple
Some phones don’t support it
Experience is still divided in to two: pay and review
There is no benefit to customers
Idea #3: A single experience to "Pay, Review & Go"
Pros
It's scalable
No need to buy extra hardware (POS, NFC, Beacons, etc.)
Remove friction from the payment system (put wallet out, waiting for server to bring the check)
Seamless experience for customers
One single action to pay & review reducing customer effort
Works across any platform
Secure - can’t forget card in the restaurant
Customer can pre-define tip and payment type (Pay Pal, Android Pay or Google Pay
Higher number of reviews since step is forced a
Offers a huge benefit to customers: not waiting for the check
Cons
Need to install an app
Need to integrate with POS system
Gets complicated if customer need to split bills
DECIDING
Even though Idea #3 - "A single experience to Pay, Review & Go" has the most challenging implementation, I decided to focus on it because it has the highest impact for the customers, managers and overall Hospitality Industry.
I decided to call it "Rabbit" - as they have a well-known weapon of agility and speed which is crucial in its survival in nature.
PROTOTYPE
Customer Experience
The customer experience has 3 single steps: Pay, Review, and Go.
To facilitate POS integration, Rabbit would use the existing online payment methods such as Pay Pal, Android Pay, Apple Wallet, etc. Customers are able to provide ratings directly to restaurant managers and constructive feedback that would help all restaurant staff to become professionals.
Restaurant Manager Experience
Rabbit will be extremely valuable to Managers. They will be able to identify their Top Performers as well as work on strategies to retain and praise Wait Staff. Rabbit makes use of Artificial Intelligence and provides "Sentiment Analysis" from customer comments. In simple words: it will tell managers whether comments are positive, negative or neutral so they can better understand the issues and fix them. I truly believe Rabbit will be a breakthrough for the Hospitality Industry!
TEST
I tested the idea with 2 Restaurants and 3 Customers and they all found Rabbit extremely valuable.
One of the Restaurants actually asked me if Rabbit could be implemented there :)
Restaurant Customers were super excited about Rabbit as it provides a clear benefit to them as well:
Less chance that the card will be lost or forgotten during the course of the transaction
Reduces the opportunity for fraudulent actions
It's more convenient and easy to use
Plus, customers (specially mileniums) love technology! - FirstData.com research shows that 85% of contactless payment users said they would recommend the technology to friends and family.
CONCLUSION
The more Restaurants Managers and Owners know about their customers, the more personalized and engaging the service will be. Today customers don't have the right channels to provide feedback to Restaurant Managers about their Staff. Because of that, they go to the social media and place a (publicly) complain. People who have a negative experience are more likely to tell their friends and family about it - they'll hear it both in person and when the review is shared online.
This is a big problem to Restaurant Managers and Owners.
Rabbit will tell managers EXACTLY where the problem is, in the RIGHT MOMENT of the dining experience. This powerful tool will turn every review into an opportunity to learn about their customers and build long-term relationships with them.