Not every human interaction requires digital feedback
Not every human interaction requires digital feedback
5 restaurants, 5 feedback prompts, and 5 apologetic servers over 48 hours in New York City
After deplaning in Newark on Saturday evening, I raced to my old Brooklyn neighborhood to meet my best friends for dinner. I felt the familiar adrenaline rush walking up Flatbush Ave., past new restaurants and lines of couriers waiting at pick-up windows that replaced my old life in the city. We were headed to a neighborhood spot with good vibes and great reviews, then seated in the back corner with a great view of the tiny but loud dining room. We spent two hours, three rounds of drinks, and a couple burgers laughing and catching up. It was perfect.
We asked to split the bill three ways. “No problem,” said our server, pulling out a Toast handheld, running the first card, and handing it to my friend for tip and signature.
“Ugh, I hate these!” my friend announced, glaring at the screen.
I looked over her shoulder to see a prompt: “How did we do?” it asked, with a retro Facebook-esque thumbs up or thumbs down.
“Oh please don’t worry about that,” the server said apologetically, reaching for the device. “Just tap ‘skip.’” By the time it was my turn to pay, we’d already spent more time discussing the intrusive prompts than tapping to dismiss them. It was my first run-in with the satisfaction survey, but it wouldn’t be the last.
“Everyone hates it,” the server said, dropping it back into the pocket of their apron.
We stepped outside and my phone pinged with a notification from Resy: Thanks for dining! The restaurant wants your feedback.
Toast’s own research shows that just under a quarter of restaurants report reaching out directly to guests who give feedback.
It’s a surprising stat, especially given how many times I’ve heard (and probably repeated) the importance of responding to reviews — positive and negative — as a way to boost guest engagement.
Toast’s sales website promotes its feedback feature as a way to gain insight into what guests love and how you can improve. Its help pages for restaurants sell it as a way to address negative experiences before disgruntled guests air their frustrations on Yelp.
Both are correct, of course. Per the help pages, the tech itself is customizable for restaurant managers. Prompts can be disabled or tweaked; they can receive real-time notifications for reviews — or just the negative ones. Guests can share contact info if they choose; restaurants can engage post-meal. It’s a “talk to the manager” experience without having to talk to the manager; a powerful tool and prime example of using tech to deepen the guest relationship. But it felt different in practice.
I didn’t plan to write a whole newsletter about this on Saturday night, even though my friend suggested I should.
At a solo dinner on Sunday evening, an apologetic server once again offered to take the handheld out of my hand when the thumbs-up screen showed up. I obliged, though was happy to tell her, with words, in person, that I had a lovely time.
By Monday, I felt ready to declare the prompts ubiquitous and intrusive. I sat with a friend for an hour, enjoying swanky cocktails1 in a gorgeous space decked out with impeccable lighting and furniture clearly designed to look beautiful, perfect even, in Instagram photos. The service was hushed, kind, and attentive. It was a delight… capped with a clunky tech intrusion.
I once again tapped through the now familiar payment flow, my eyes adjusting to a harsh screen from the soft and warm glow.
“Just push ‘skip,’” our server said, reaching again for the device. “And sorry about the bright light. We can’t turn it down.”
What else?
Now’s your chance to become the coffee influencer of your dreams. Or the anything influencer of your dreams… at least on Yelp. The review company today introduced “recognitions,” which designates reviewers as category experts if they review three or more businesses within the same category in a one-year period. According to Yelp, different recognitions are popular in different regions: cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, speakeasies in New York City, and Indian food in San Francisco. It’s a whole new way to status.
DoorDash’s Super Bowl stunt: From my inbox this morning, ahead of a Chiefs-Niners matchup dividing my house: “DoorDash will DoorDash every vehicle, every concealer, every snack and honestly who knows what else from every commercial that airs during the broadcast to one lucky winner.” More details, including how to enter, at doordash-all-the-ads.com.
Reservations and customer relationship management platform SevenRooms acquires an AI company. HeyPluto is “an AI SMS marketing platform used by hospitality and consumer brands to build and sustain authentic and mutually profitable relationships with their customers,” per a spokesperson. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
A startup lawsuit to watch: Two companies in the creator space are at odds over a common startup practice: using venture capital cash to subsidize service in order to attract users. In transportation, this looked like Uber charging the same price as a ride on public transit a decade ago to convert users. In food delivery, it’s the low-cost, free promotions, lowering the barrier for a first-time diner ready to be converted into a loyal user. The investor cash made up the difference. Now, the practice is being litigated, kind of. The lawsuit isn’t about the subsidies per se, the lawsuit is about a conspiracy to steal trade secrets. But the practice is still invoked as unfair. Per Kalley Huang in The Information ($), “Whether that’s against the law will be hashed out in court, where the next hearing is scheduled for next month. As we have seen again and again in the last year, those venture-subsidized situations have a way of working themselves out.”
Food delivery in Europe: Delivery Hero sold its stake in fellow provider Deliveroo this week, a 4.5 percent stake worth close to $1 billion. One industry analyst quoted in the Financial Times ($) wondered if DoorDash might use the shake-up as an “opportunity to move in.”
ed. note: Good news for my fellow elder millennials, cosmopolitans are back on cocktail menus!