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Apparently, this is not anything new, but upscale
restaurants are keeping tabs on their patrons. At one time waiters and maitre-d’s
took notes directly onto the reservation books or kept information on file in
their memory, but now there is technology specifically designed and to aid this
recording and tracking of customers. As usual, technology is making things
bigger and better, but also maybe more complicated and intrusive.
Susanne Craig explores the methods of intelligence
collecting, as well as its importance in her article in the Dining section of
the New York Times early September. The article “What Restaurants Know (About
You),” looks at how restaurants keep files on their customers. This creates
“highly personalized hospitality.”[1]
Restaurants are making it their business to get to know its clients, some times
in the most intimate ways, in an effort to make the dining experience extra
personalized and smooth. This includes individual tastes and preferences,
spending habits, even tracking profession.
According to Ann Shepherd (vice president for marketing at
OpenTable), as Craig points out, this is called the “Cheers’ effect.” You know,
where everyone knows your name. Knowing these details about patrons and
potential customers, creates an atmosphere of familiarity, even if it is the
first time visiting. It produces a place where everyone is friendly and knows
you, a place where you can be comfortable, and enjoy things how you like it,
like your local corner spot.[2]
In the ever-growing industry, with restaurants appearing all
over the place at a high rate, this kind of personalization of service and the
dining experience, gives restaurateurs a competitive edge. According to Craig, restaurant
managers and owners believe that this kind of gathering details and information
about customers can make or break their business. This is even highlighted
through a quote of Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant; “’The ability to know
and read your customer is critical for staying on top, particularly in power
restaurants.’”[3]
This also appears in most every area that relies on customer
service. As in retail, from low to high end, building relationships, through
trust and individualization, is key to maintaining business. It is these relationships,
forged through honesty and getting to know the customer as a person, which make
that customer return and continue to patronize the business. Also, there are systems, whether it is
the point of sale system or other methods that track purchases as well as
personal information. In retail settings this can help with determining where
to potentially open another store or even what products are the most popular.
This links to keeping notes on customers in restaurants, as it is all to build
stronger and reliable relationships. It appears to be a good business practice
to uphold quality and standards, as well as creating an environment that
invites people to return.
Technology is making it easier (or more difficult depending
on who you ask) to note and maintain the details—from major, like names and
allergies, to the minor like ice preferences. As well as things like
anniversaries, birthdays, spouses. Websites that we use all the time to make
reservations such as OpenTable, give restaurants insight into who will be
dining with them. In order to use those sites, you must create a profile and
that profile is automatically shared with the restaurants. Although this
profile created with signing up with the site is the bare minimum—email
address, and area—the user can also list likes, as well as make notes of
favorite restaurants.
A New York Post
article, “Is Your Restaurant Spying on You?” from December of 2010, brings up
how OpenTable allows restaurants to find out more information about their
customers, even if they do not make reservations with the website. It becomes a
searching tool, where managers can type in a name and search the client. Carla Spatos and Brian Niemietz reveal in their article,
that managers and owners of restaurants are likely to Google patrons, to find
out even more about them. They call this “online sleuthing.”[4]
Owners go as far as following twitter accounts, searching through blogs and
other profiles, all the get the inside scoop to better serve.
Some headwaiters and restaurant owners believe that there
could be excessive notes, and that that can overwhelm and prove not to be
useful at all. This has become especially true when there is so much access to
identity now through the internet. When the copious notes become too copious, and
too much information proves dangerous; “That woman is not his wife…” or “Didn’t
the market do poorly today, why is she here…?” The talent not only becomes how
to employ information, but also tip toe around it as well.
Customers get profiled. Restaurants are identifying and then
recording your kind of status: newcomer, regular, if you are a friend of the
owner, or even a person who lives in the area. Not only that, but some clients
are given code names or just acronyms for the headwaiter or the wait staff to discern
certain patrons. For example some of these acronyms are LOL (little old lady),
HWC (handle with care), FOM (friend of manager), PX (person extraordinaire) and
NR (never refuse), to name a few. [5]
There are names for people who are poor tippers or people who are extremely
needy and difficult. These little gems are the labels that are most times
unknowingly attached to a customer, and must remain secret in effort to deter
lawsuits.
Larger groups of restaurants or networks sometimes share the
intelligence gathered, letting even more people into the tics and tocks of
customers, which could create infamy or honor. Your reputation can precede you.
The question becomes is this beneficial for the diners? This
could be both yes and no.
Yes, it may create a certain atmosphere, where you are
comfortable and the servers and staff and owner are not really strangers, they
are your friends who know what color napkin you prefer. And yes, it may be nice
to walk into a place and not have to repeat over and over that you like crushed
rather than cubed ice. And yes, this upscale restaurant can feel like home to
you, intimate and loyal. The diner gets the customized service of the staff and
the restaurant, elevating the dining experience from just food to a unique
experience catered to the specific individual. Dining and eating in restaurants
is not only about the food, it is the experience and service that tends to stick
to the ribs. It is also this experience that brings them back.
But on the
other hand the investigations and note keeping can be too much. Is it too much
an invasion into privacy and identity? With just a name these days, histories and profiles can be
searched and found, noted and kept. This is not just a risk that diners
encounter, but it is a risk of this highly open and accessible world though the
internet. But certain facts about the patron are known to restaurants through
the various booking websites, even if she is a first time visitor. The
restaurant has the heads up and advantage, even though these online booking
sites often contain scarce information. Is there something so wrong as walking
in a restaurant as an anonymous, a blank canvas that the staff could get to
know? What if someone wants to remain anonymous, and maintain her own mystery
and privacy, as well as some remnant of unpredictability? This is a notion that
seems to be fading in the minds of the owners of these power restaurants, but
protecting identity and spontaneity is present in diners.
The manipulation of getting to know the customer, as a
current, past or potential, is all in the restaurateur’s effort to maintain a
competitive edge and business in a cutthroat world. This kind of exploitation
of the patron goes both ways, a potential benefit to both the owner and
customer—to get the business ahead as well as to create an environment for the patron.
Knowing the client, her needs, whims and tendencies, are all keys to a great
service, but also stumbles on the line of intrusive. A custom tailored dinner or dining experience can ruin
surprise and take the adventure out of eating, which against the hopes of the
restaurant owner, could result in no result, no return. Technology has only
granted further access into personality and recording, which was once an art
and mildly less invasive. This, though, is a trend that will not vanish, as it
has already been going on in the restaurant business, and the times are
allowing it to grow.
Check out my sources page for full links to the articles in the New York Times and New York Post.
RER
9.17.12
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| RER 8.19.12 |
[1] Susanne Craig, “What
Restaurants Know (About You)”, New York Times
[2] Susanne Craig, “What
Restaurants Know (About You)”, New York Times
[3] Susanne Craig, “What
Restaurants Know (About You)”, New York Times
[4] Carla Spartos and Brian
Niemietz , “Is Your Restaurant Spying on You”, New York Post
[5] Susanne Craig, “What
Restaurants Know (About You)”, New York Times
Amazing post. On the one hand, it is good to have this info for those difficult patrons or patients in my case, so you don't have to tip toe around them or get abused; but on the other hand this is a little dishonest. Does this info make a waiter or staff more talented or is it just phony packaged as hospitality? Will this make it easier for people to check their social skills at the door and just follow the algorithm? Does technology really make us well informed or better equipped, or is it just a crutch for people to avoid navigating tough situations? I agree that this is good for business, makes the patron feel good, like they got their money's worth. However, at what expense? I don't privacy is the issue; profile on internet (on any website) = loss of privacy, however you slice it. I think the real issue is our loss of humanity. Though, as you said, this trend isn't going anywhere.
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