This Is How Overloaded Restaurants Affect Your Dining Experience
If you’ve been to a restaurant in recent times and thought “How long will they take to bring me a bowl of fried rice?”, you’re not alone.
The rise of food delivery startups is overloading restaurants.
A restaurant that once served a limited number of customers is now accepting hundreds of orders from food delivery apps. They serve two times their regular customer base with the same service crew that was originally hired to only serve a certain number of customers.
But, It’s not a bad thing. One cannot blame the restaurant for taking more orders, right? Every business needs to achieve growth, and in this case, more orders mean more growth. But, there is also a steep downside to it.
With a limited service crew, several restaurants struggle to fulfill the orders they receive.
If you walk into a restaurant, you can visibly see the chaos. Delivery boys waiting outside the restaurant; Hungry dine-in customers waiting for their order; And, waiters constantly running between customers and delivery boys. In the middle of all this, they are occasional hiccups like misplaced orders, damaged packaging, delay in service, etc.
The Chefs and the managers are always under pressure as they work in a hurry. This creates a dip in the quality of the food, which was the primary reason for the success of a restaurant.
It is difficult to see my favorite restaurants in such a position. But, as customers, we should also understand that it will take a while for restaurants to play the catchup game. The penetration of technology and a sudden spike in business put them in a dilemma on whom to put first? The dine-in customer? or an online customer?
The answer is both.
Restaurants should learn to prioritize both types of customers. Customers order from home or walk into the restaurant with just one thing on their mind. To enjoy a good meal from their favorite restaurant.
Food delivery startups can be part of this cause by conducting programs on how to prioritize customers, manage incoming orders efficiently, handle reviews on social media, etc. This will help the restaurant management learn how to prioritize orders without putting too much pressure on their chefs and the service crew.
The next time you’re having a bad experience with a restaurant, don’t pick up your smartphone to write a bad review or give a bad rating. Instead, call up the restaurant and tell them about the issue. And, most times, the restaurant management will try to fix the issue. Give them a chance to make things right. A negative rating or a tweet might provide us with momentary relief. But, the impact it will have on a restaurant might be big.
Always remember, your rating can shut down someone’s favorite restaurant.