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Restaurants and robots: Don’t be alarmed

So much of the recent news about robots in restaurants have focused on the kitchen, where experts seek to engineer the perfect automated pizza maker or a robotic fry station attendant. While the jury’s still out on whether these devices could ever demonstrate the dexterity humans have for making food taste good, they seem more approachable for many restaurant operators than service robots. Even so, the launch of these tools is often marked with headlines like “Attack of the pizza-making robots” and “The robots are here,” as if we’re facing an alien invasion!

If you’ve ever been served by a robot in front of a restaurant, it can be rather surprising at first. For customers and staff alike, the presence of these automated workers can set off alarm bells. Customers might worry the lack of human interaction will ruin their experience or result in unnecessary mistakes. For employees, robots might incite fears of being replaced.

The ultimate helping hand, robots are uniquely positioned to support restaurants through the current wave of labor shortages and inflated food costs — that is if they’re introduced and used correctly.

To ensure robots become an ally to service staff, it’s important to set expectations about what these automated co-workers can and can’t do. They are best utilized to perform physical, repetitive, and manually straining tasks, thus relieving staff from these duties. For example, they can carry multiple hot pots out of the kitchen and bring them to guests, avoiding painful, costly spills along the way. They can help servers clear the entire dining room in one quick trip. They can even wash the floors before, after and during a shift.

All these routine tasks, when handed off to a robot, free up front-of-house employees to do the more important tasks that require interaction with guests, like recommending the right dish, making memorable conversation, or fulfilling a more specific ask. Servers have more time to engage with guests, check in on their tables, and generally ensure an exceptional dining experience when accompanied by a robot. The keyword is accompanied. Make sure employees know the bot is there to support them, not replace them.  

Not only will the robots work alongside servers, but in time, this collaboration will also result in servers on duty taking home a higher percentage in tips — robots don’t need to be paid. By delivering food, cleaning, and serving, robots ensure workers are less overworked and less physically taxed while being paid the same, or perhaps even more than before.

Enhancing the experience

Robots can be a marketing tactic for many restaurants, as some diners will seek out this novel dining experience. However, for more particular customers expecting a traditional service, robots can seem like the end of the golden age of dining. It will be important for robots to follow the established rules of restaurant service and enhance the experience without taking anything, including familiarity, away.

Robots should avoid hitting guests. This may seem obvious but from a technical standpoint, it is actually one of the harder parts of introducing robotics. Advanced AI is required in order to realize intelligent delivery in restaurant scenarios. The positioning technology must be effective to navigate dining rooms with multiple walkways and several dozen guests. New vision-based robot localization and mapping technology allow some restaurant bots to find their way without markers, making them much easier to deploy, especially in high-ceiling environments. Adaptability in all scenarios, like recognizing and slowing down for elderly guests and children, is also critical to ensure customers feel comfortable around robots.

Not only does advanced positioning technology reduce the risk of collisions, but it also increases the likelihood of robots bringing the right food to the right table. Few things annoy a guest more than waiting for food only to have it be the wrong dish or having it spill on the way out of the kitchen. Robots can build trust with guests by consistently performing as they intended.

Bots come in all shapes and sizes with a unique variety of capabilities. For restaurants, it’s as important for the robots to be aesthetically pleasing as it is for the carefully designed dining room. A terminator-looking bot is probably not going to put guests at ease. But something cute and cleanly designed will make guests feel comfortable and entertained. Taking this a step further, advanced robots can also be engaging, welcoming customers with greetings, telling jokes, and providing voice or emoji feedback. While they’ll never replace a human in terms of engagement, robots can appear more approachable with these small touches.

To ensure an exceptional experience for both staff and diners, robots should always be accompanied by a human from their very first meeting until the end of the meal. Staff will feel empowered to do what they do best, lending a human touch to every customer’s experience while avoiding the more difficult aspects of the job. Meanwhile, customers will enjoy engaging with relaxed servers who have time to discuss the menu and go above and beyond to provide five-star service, no matter where we eat.

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Business Systems

Business Systems: 5 Reasons Every Business Owner Needs to Develop and Follow Them

Systems are the way you do things. They are the procedures that can be replicated.

For example, we recently created a telephone answering system for an office receptionist. We created a script that delineated how she is to answer the phone and what information she needs to collect. She has responses for the types of questions callers may have and to whom she should direct calls.

We were very specific about the circumstances for transferring telephone calls and circumstances for taking messages. In addition, we established the procedure for inputting the information in the business’s customer relationship management (CRM) database program.

Effective business systems can be created for all kinds of work performance that occur in your organization. As you formalize your systems, the time you spend focusing on the details of a job become invaluable; as you critically examine each step of a process, you are also determining whether certain areas need improvement. This is a key component of the process because business systems need to be reviewed and improved as the ways of doing business change.

1. Systems provide consistency

With business systems, you can produce the same products and services with the same level of consistency. Once you have created your systems and written down the sequential steps, your employees can follow the proper procedures consistently. You can monitor these processes and improve when necessary.

Systems can be implemented for sales, marketing operations, employee training, etc. The people who benefit the most from having systems in place are your customers who know what to expect from your business.

2. Change is easier to accomplish

Systems make a business predictable. So when change impacts your business–which may often occur–then knowing what business systems need to be modified becomes easier. You will know the current work process and can predict how change should be handled while still maintaining your systems.

Once your systems become part of a flow chart, or are written as a set of sequential tasks and procedures to follow, they become easier to monitor. You’ll notice that tasks will be completed properly and efficiently; changes can be more quickly addressed.

3. Training new employees becomes easier

New hires can be quickly integrated into your business when there is a written set of procedures for them to follow and they know exactly what is expected from them. It becomes easier to gauge the effectiveness of an employee when you have a measurable set of guidelines to review.

4. Business systems allow staff to focus on what they do best

Any time you are trying to complete a project with a specific deadline, you will want to avoid any problems that may develop. We like to create business systems that also best match the employee talent that is available. Allowing people with specific skills, knowledge, and abilities to be responsible for those parts of the business allows for a better quality of work; everyone then can focus on what they do best.

Once business systems are established and implemented, activities can be performed on “autopilot.” Repetitive activities in your business become routine, and you can focus on activities with higher payoffs.

5. Business systems create value

Effective business systems become a part of your company’s organizational infrastructure. If you are selling your business, formal procedures add value. Buyers can see that operations run smoothly and consistently; new hires can be quickly integrated.

Systems are what make businesses grow, flow, endure, and sell. This makes a business purchase more enticing and more valuable because the systems become tangible assets. Businesses that effectively follow systems find themselves winning against their competition.

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