E la Carte Signs Deal With Applebee’s to bring 100k Tableside Tablets to the US

It was a bit awkward, because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to use the tablet or not. The waitress still came and took our order, then put it in on the tablet. At the end, we saw we could pay (and we did) but the waitress still brought us a check.

I guess the weirdness could be solved by better communication from the wait staff.

The best thing was that it easily allowed you to split your bill among multiple credit cards. This is easily the biggest pain about eating out with a group of people.

You still want to talk the waiter for your mains (esp. for recommendations, special instructions, etc.), and summon them for complaints, but for stuff like ordering drink refills and paying your bill (the things where they never seem to be around), this is perfect.

Plus, hopefully it has a button where you can immediately summon the waiter, instead of spending five minutes trying to flag them down.

I agree that it doesn't have a place in fine dining, but for casual dining this is a complete no-brainer. (And I don't see it obviously taking away jobs either, since faster turnover will just result in more customers to handle, and more food to bring out.)

After you pick it up you press a red button on the tray in which your plates arrived and it goes back home.

The nice thing about this is that it allows kaitenzushi restaurants to have table seating with the same wait as counter seating.

The remainder of my visit, including how long I stay, is up to me and less in the hands of under-performing staff.

There exists a lot of resistance from the waitstaff who see tabletop devices as job killers, and customers are pretty much divided down the middle (they either love em or hate em). It seems like dining was always going to trend towards something like this, it was just a matter of when. Restaurants are pretty old in their way of thinking, and it's quite the accomplishment to get 100k devices on tables.

Why is there not a GPS enabled menu app which will load the restaurant's menu when you launch it and it detect which place you are dining at and allow you to make your order. To confirm you are in the establishment and making a valid order - have a QR code on the table that must be scanned to supply the destination table for the order.

;-)

I've been cheering this innovation, but have yet to see it done well, even by e la carte and its other top competitors. People will always be the most powerful differentiator in foodservice, and tablets aren't there yet.

This speaks volumes to me of how Applebee's thinks of it's guests.

They were excited about the prospects, big Sysco microwave warmer chains across the country were clamoring for a solution like this.

I nodded, smiled politely and asked how long was the sales cycle.

They said 5 years.

Congrats.

These are my thoughts:

1) Faster table turn times (and why they don't matter) - Yes, faster table turn times will occur with the tablets on the table because people can pay much more quickly when they are done with their meal. The big problem that people forget about is 90% of the time restaurants are not interested in faster table turn times. They need more people in the establishment. When was the last time you went to Applebees and they were slammed with people and had a huge wait? Odd's are that it doesn't occur that often.

2) People Dine out to be treated (waited on hand and foot) - Usually when you have made a conscious decision to dine out, you are doing so for the experience. When you decide to dine at your favorite restaurant, part of the experience is being waited on hand and foot by someone else. If these tablets start to replace people, it will certainly hurt the experience of being waited on. You are now going out for food, and not the experience. When people are looking strictly for food, we have seen that they tend to go to fast-casual restaurants (Chipotle, Potbellys, Noodles & Co. Etc.).

3) Menu on tablet (Higher App sales + lower costs) - This to me is a large long-term benefit for the restaurant. They can really create some powerful images for their menu items, which is correlated with higher sales. Also, you have eliminated the costs of printing menus every time you have a change.

Overall Impressions: This is a company that has created a product for an interesting niche. I don't ever see fine dining establishments using this because it detracts from the experience (#2). It does effect table turn time, but the large majority of restaurants wish they had table turn time issues, most are looking for customers (see initial success of groupon in restaurants). The Applebee's of the world are fighting hard with the fast-casual establishments and almost seem like they are in a race to the bottom.

I also don't see independent restaurant owners ever using a product like this because it has 1) high implementation costs (time/effort/cash) and 2) has some effect on sales but not because of the ordering platform, only because it has allowed me to create essentially a moving slideshow for a menu that entices customers while they are at the restaurant.

In my opinion, the person/business that successfully implements tablets in a restaurant will do these two things very well. 1) Allows servers to use tablets to take orders (lowers restaurants costs) - This will essentially allow a restaurant owner to decrease the amount of people on staff, yet still maintain high quality experience for guests, because a server that does not have to walk back to the POS system can handle more tables.

2) Creates a tablet menu that entices guests to order more items - The appeal of tablets on the table is the fact that people will be more enticed to order apps/desserts because of the power of high-quality enticing pictures. This has already been done by plenty of companies, but no one company has dominated.