Digital dining: How iPads and smartphones are refining customer service
-
The Carlton is now offering its wine list on iPads to keep the list as up to date as possible. Proprietor Kevin Joyce demonstrates how the iPad app works to customers Laura Ellsworth, left, and Laura Meaden. -
The Carlton restaurant, Downtown, now offers its wine list on iPads to keep the list as up to date as possible.
Share with others:
When Burgatory opened at the Waterworks Mall in January, the restaurant's staff used clipboards to track who needed a table. But the new burger place was slammed, with waits at some points stretching past two hours. "We knew immediately that we needed help," said co-owner Mike Hanley.
Within weeks, the restaurant switched to iPads connected to a system developed by a South Side company that could send texts to customers' cell phones when their table was ready, a change that allows would-be diners to shop or get other chores done instead of being trapped in a line at the restaurant door.
The tablets also brought an unexpected benefit, said Mr. Hanley.
"There really is a cool factor that people respond to when they see you playing on an iPad."
Mobile technology, from smartphones to tablets, is bestowing a cool factor on more restaurant and retail establishments, as operators experiment with the same tools that their customers are using and adapt their business models to the wireless world.
The Carlton restaurant, Downtown, moved its wine list onto iPads late last year and is set to add services that help diners choose wines that fit their tastes. The Clinique makeup counter at Macy's in February began using iPads to let customers take a computer-guided skin care analysis program. And clothing chain Urban Outfitters, which has a location at SouthSide Works, plans to roll out a mobile checkout that works with the iPod Touch in the next few months.
"All of these are potential game changers for these retailers," said Lee Holman, an analyst with IHL Group in Franklin, Tenn.
IHL research late last year predicted retailer adoption of Apple's tablet iPad for management reports would grow from 5 percent to 47 percent in a year, while Android-based devices were expected to grow from 14 percent to 33 percent. Some retailers, the IHL release said, were looking at tablets as a way to eliminate point-of-sale systems in their stores.
Department store chain Nordstrom recently began rolling out the iPod Touch to its sales associates, testing the mobile device's power to help staff on the sales floor pull up information on merchandise as well as giving them the ability to complete sales in the middle of the shoe department without walking to a cash register.
First Published July 26, 2011 12:00 am
