Waiting for the Check
We think a lot about taking the customer's point of view, and a few situations beg that issue. What's more maddening than waiting to get the check after a meal in a restaurant? How can the manager not see how waiting 40 years to see the promised land can obliterate the effect of a delicious meal, the delightful ambiance, or the prior great service? The waiter who was so attentive about your drinks and coffee and sauces has suddenly tessered to a foreign land.
As the wait time unfolded recently at a restaurant in New York, those of us stuck interminably at the table contemplated the alternatives to this flaw in the system. What could work instead? Most patrons would suggest that the check be brought with the entrees, but most restaurant managers would point out that patrons may yet want to order dessert and cappuccino. But why not take a credit card swipe, gracefully, right after the entrees? When the guest signs, she can indicate then the percentage she'd like to leave as a tip, and everything afterward can be added to the tab the same way it works in a bar. Then the patron can wait for the final check to be brought out or can leave anytime. People do it all the time at hotels. (I know a lot of frequent travelers who never formally check out.)
How long before we see it happen?
Of course, for this to work, the patron has to trust the restaurant not to pull any funny business with the tab or the credit card. This suggests a relationship, repeat business and recommendation to friends. All from trying to picture what it's like to be a customer.
Related Entries
- Guest Blogger Joseph Jaffe: It's Better to Be S.A.F.E. Than Sorry
- Hoffman's Hot Seat: The Chief Customer Officer: Building a Customer Strategy
- Guest Blogger Ralph Heath: What Has Happened to Customer Service in America?
As a frequent traveler with a split between business meals and single meals, I agree that the delivery of the bill can have an adverse effect on the business discussion. Espically if there is no clear indication of who is going to pick up the tab. When I was in Toronto last month, the restaurant had a wireless credit card reader that the waiter left at the table with the coffee and desert. If there was anything else to add, he simply punched it into the reader. I was able to add tip and get a print out at the table without any more delay. Many establishements seem to take forever to get your credit card back to you, which makes me nervous since I just had fraudulent charges on mine.
The comment Tim Trent makes is a very relevant one that I'd like to add to.
As Tim stated I can go to a restaurant with many different expectations in mind: a quick meal, a leisurly meal with friends, etc.
I would also suggest that restaurants in big cities or busienss areas should be considerate of who their customer base is. I'm an American who has lived in Europe for many years and many of my european friends already consider it rude when a waitress leaves the bill there without being asked in a Denny's. I think asking them to offer payment before, would send them running for the door.
I completely agree with the dilemma, but the solution needs to be tailored to the clientelle.
This is interesting. I travel back and forth from England to the US, a great deal. In the US I find that most of my meal checks are delivered very efficiently. They typically ask if there is anything else I would like after my main meal and then they place a prepared check on the table. Only recently I thought how efficient this was. I had pondered only last week, about why they did this. I assumed it was to maximise the turnover of the covers (tables) and this make more money, which is fine. Maybe you are going to the wrong restaurants! :-) or maybe it is because being English my expectations are lower!
Colin Shaw
Founder, Beyond Philosophy
Guys, might I draw your thoughts to the previous article. There is a missed opportunity here for blog comment conversation - so excellent at brand building.
This one is quite a challenge. The speed with which I wish to pay for the meal is dependent upon the reason I'm dining at a restaurant.
A business meeting over a meal can, for me, last until we are all ready to go. The lack of bill may give me extra closing time.
A date may mean that I and my companion have a sudden and urgent need to be elsewhere, hampered by the tardy arrival of the bill.
A meal taken "just as a meal" on a business trip needs efficient service and bill delivery.
All of these circumstances and more can happen in the same restaurant. So how do we proceed?
For me it is in some measure the customer's responsibility to set the expectation of the front of house staff.
"We need to leave by 2:15" or "We'd like a leisurely meal, please" or "I'd appreciate really fast service today, please" or "can we linger over coffee, please?" are all helpful. After all, we choose the food, the drinks, so why not the timing?
If you get stuck waiting for the waiter's eye, get up and head for the door. That does concentrate their mind somewhat. So does lack of a tip. And that need not harm your experience, just the waiting staff's!
Hi Martha
Great post. Many people involved in experience delivery (and sadly, in experience design too) forget the importance of the trend-peak-end heuristic.
The heuristic originally identified by Arielly and Kahneman suggests that people wil rate an experience better when it gets better as it progresses, when the peak emotion is a positive one and when it occurs at the end of the experience. Making people wait at the end of a meal introduces time as a new negative factor and spoils the ending too.
I am not so sure about your early payment suggestion though. It effectively robs you of the opportunity to make thanking the restaurant (by giving them a generous tip) into the peak ending after a great restaurant experience.
What is clear though, is that both the restaurant and its customers need to work together to make the restaurant experience something that they will remember for all the right reasons.
Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager