Table Tracker Case Study - High Street Retailer

UK Table Location Case Study

What was the problem?

A well known major high street retailer asked us to improve the efficiency of their table service in their cafe. Despite having years of experience in the service industry, they found that their current system wasn’t delivering an effective enough service or success that they knew they could achieve.

The retailer found that their customers were moving tables, and that their runners, or waitresses and waiters, were struggling to locate them using the old style table numbers handed out to customers. This meant that their food would become cold, which caused stress for employees. This had a knock-on effect on their normally high levels of customer service and care, as the runner was having to spend too much time locating the customer.

There is also zero trackability for this type of system; it is hard to find the person responsible for the delayed food and hard to know how long the customer has been waiting. It was also difficult tracking any bottlenecking in the kitchen (the backing-up of orders) or tracking the effectiveness of food preparation in the kitchen. This approach to service in a fast-paced environment creates a bad methodology and makes the work harder than it needs to be. This ineffective approach also meant higher return rates on cold food, and thus refunds, which will ultimately result in customers not returning.

How LRS UK solved the problem

After analysing the needs of not just the retailer, but also its customers, we decided that the best system to use would be our Table Tracker Table Locator system.

Table Tracker enables runners to effectively deliver food to customers, ensuring it’s delivered to the correct table as soon as the food is ready. When a customer places an order at the till, they are given a Table Tracker device (shown above) which syncs with metal strips under their table, feeding the information back to a monitor in the kitchen (example shown below). The runners can then easily keep track of where the customer is sitting so the food can be delivered efficiently.

Even if a customer moves tables, runners can still keep track of where they’re sitting, ensuring food is not delivered to the wrong table or left to go cold. As well as direct benefit to the customer, Table Tracker also provides a wide range of other information for the restaurant staff and managers. Table Tracker can report the following information:

• Where the customer is sitting
• If the customer moves tables
• When the order was placed
• How long it takes to prepare an order
• When a colleague collects the food
• How long it takes the colleague to return
• The overall comparison of cafe or restaurant’s achieved target times for food delivery against other cafes or restaurants in the group

Any issues can then be escalated to the manager for investigation. This reporting can help ensure the restaurant is running as efficiently as possible. We recommended Table Tracker above any of our other systems as it offers a complete solution for businesses known as ‘fast-casual’ restaurants. Due to the nature of their location and customer demographic, cafes and restaurants within high street retailers usually have a high turnaround of covers, which can become confusing for staff to keep track of orders and where people are sitting. As such, customer service can quickly deteriorate, but Table Tracker can help eliminate such issues, and that’s what it’s done for this high street retailer.

The Results

Thanks to implementing Long Range Systems’ Table Tracker system our client noted a huge improvement in customer service. Being able to track the execution and delivery of their food service allowed them to collate the relevant data to improve their service. Their delivery times improved and the customers left happy. Fewer walkaways occurred and the runners felt more confident in delivering their orders.

Control over delivery enables your business to have a deeper understanding of its mechanisms. It allows you to see the complete story with key metrics to keep your business incredibly efficient. The Table Tracker system implemented in this case allowed every part of the delivery team to feel in control and provide the best possible customer experience.

For further information call 01782 537000 or contact us.