|
Why isn't this built as an app on the iphone/droid/ipad? e.g. App with say 4 modes of customer, waiter, kitchen & restaurant. Customer mode:: order =before= you get to the restaurant, book a table, pre-assigned seating, bill split, rate your food, rate your waiter, etc. Waiter mode:: When a customer doesn't have their own smartphone/ipad. Plug in with the 'square' for payments. Kitchen mode:: Customer is 5 minutes away (gps), start cooking! (order added to queue). Just stepped in (bluetooth/wifi?discovery), queue the drinks, ready to plate! Restaurant mode::seating arrangements, waiter assignments, VIP customer tracking (CRM for restaurant customers! we can track them now.), stats, etc. Biggest business plan benefit - Instantly scalable, global immediately (it's an app!), lower hardware costs, tie in to upsell restaurants on services, etc etc etc. ps. I'ld love to have something like that on my phone. And yes, opentable should have really done something like this years ago. |
b) Most people don't want to download another damn app just to be able to eat at your restaurant.
c) Being able to order before you arrive usually isn't really a big advantage -- otherwise places would have done it long ago by phone.
Might be useful for take-out food during the lunchtime rush, though -- order and pay for your lunch from the office, and then stroll down to collect it. But some places already have an web-based system for this, with no need for a separate app. Still, I guess the app-based idea might make life slightly easier -- just show the screen of your phone to pick up your order.