Robot Servers Now In This Popular Restaurant
Have you ever visited a restaurant and been served by a robot? If not, you should probably visit Chick-fil-A or California Pizza Kitchen today. They are among the latest restaurants to adopt the use of robot servers to deliver meals to guests in the dining room. The robots are becoming popular in the hospitality industry for their efficiency, speed, and accuracy and it’s scary.
Are they the new normal in the restaurant industry?
Robot servers are really gaining popularity in the food industry. The key reasons restaurants want to get robots are speed, efficiency, and accuracy (until they aren’t) and the robots actually show up to work. But also maybe if the pay was better maybe people would want to work.
The bots can take and deliver orders, serve food and drinks, drop checks, and even take payments. Restaurant owners are embracing the technology in their dining rooms, drive-throughs, and kitchens to reduce labor costs, streamline operations, and enhance customer experiences. A few years ago McDonald’s bought AI technology that is able to take customers’ orders at a kiosk and allow them to pay using only a mobile app. Does this mean Chick-Fil-A will be open on Sundays because robots aren’t religious?
Robot servers can “enhance” customer experiences. Some of them have interactive features like the ability to use chatboxes to provide recommended menu items and build real engagement with you. I’m not sure how I feel about talking to a robot. But of course, people are posting their interactions with the robots on social media and that’s bringing more traffic to the restaurants.
It’s not all roses when it comes to the robots though.
The use of robot servers offers advantages for the food industry, for sure, but it also has its limitations. For instance, robots cannot replace human touch or true conversation. They are not programmed to provide the level of service, care, and empathy that human servers provide. Though they might offer a faster food-delivery experience, they cannot listen to a customer’s complaint… as of now.
If I’m being honest I am actually against it. HUMAN servers rely on tips but if all they are doing is taking the original order and the robots are bringing the food to the table and the check and taking payment the human servers tip is going to go down. Hopefully, the hourly wage for the human server goes up if that is going to be the case.
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