Speed of Service QuickGuide

Are You Turning Away New and Existing Customers Because of Slow Service?

Slow service can be a result of breakdowns in efficiency both at the front of the house, as well as in the back of the house. Both have an equally damaging result: as many as 64% of potential new customers will choose to dine at a different restaurant if they perceive the service at a restaurant they visit to be too slow.

Bump Bars and Transaction Timing Devices

While bump bars and transaction timers offer some insight into employee efficiency in serving customers rapidly, these need to be carefully selected and audited regularly to ensure that they cannot be controlled (or “gamed”) by employees. For instance, many bump bars can be manipulated by employees simply checking an order as complete well before a customer actually receives it. In these situations, it’s essential for managers to keep an eye on sequencing of order placement, bump bar activity and order delivery.

Mystery Shopping and Customer Satisfaction Data

Oftentimes, mystery shopping and customer satisfaction measurement services will include transaction times as part of the set of data provided to the owner/operator and manager. However, the relatively low number of observations provided may not give the owner/operator enough information to accurately know how efficient employees truly are at serving customers. Furthermore, customer satisfaction measurement services often capture “long tail” data, meaning that only the most or least satisfied customers will take the time to participate in these surveys. Therefore, data provided may not be fully representative of the typical customer transaction.

RETEL TECHNOLOGIES