Speed of customer service kills the competition

A decade ago it was always wise to pick up a newspaper or magazine when you visited the local superstore. It helped pass the time while you waited patiently in the endless check-out queues.

The supermarkets have wised up. Speed at the end of the weekly shop is now everything. Staff and technology have been deployed to improve the customers' retail experience.

Queue monitoring, portable scanners, automated check-outs and having enough people in the right place when customers need them are all features of the modern supermarket visit - and most of the time it works.

That approach to avoiding unnecessary waiting is now increasingly a part of the eating out experience too. Fast food chains are developing the same queue monitoring sensors that spot build-ups, prompting extra tills to be opened. Touch screen ordering is also appearing as a queue beating exercise, something Welcome Break is already pioneering on the UK's motorways.

In the United States, Fort Lauderdale airport has been trialling the uWink screen-based system that allows customers to play video games as well as order from their table. Not only has it speeded throughput, but, it is claimed, has also raised average "check-value" by a double digit figure. Giving customers control over ordering, rather than them having to wait for a server, has actually increased sales, it seems.

Here in the UK, efficient operational systems allows JD Wetherspoon to deliver food in under 10 minutes from the order being taken in its pubs and bars. Likewise, Whitbread is turning tables of family diners on average between 45 minutes and an hour in its new Taybarns all-you-can-eat, help-yourself, pay on entry concept.

For some people this may sound like some sort of eating-out nightmare where customers are simple processed. "Slow food" has its place on a leisurely evening out, but for most of the time people do want it "quick".

It may be a by-product of growing up in the fast food generation, but we all know, as our own Peach Factory research shows, "slow service" is the most common customer complaint, and by some way. Over 70% of adults say they have suffered from it at some time, with 20% finding it a frequent annoyance.

People are used to - and now demand - efficient and immediate attention from the time they enter, when they want to order, when they want another drink and perhaps most importantly when they want the bill and to leave. Getting that last part wrong can ruin what was up to then a perfect experience - and who of us hasn't suffered from that?

Legendary US restaurant guru Jim Sullivan highlighted the issue at his annual UK Workshop held in London last month. He cited new research he had carried out that showed that recent graduates, typically the under 30s, would no longer put up with the service standards their parents found acceptable.

In particular, they didn't want to be confined by when the waiter wanted to take an order or get their bill. They expected to be in control.

In the UK, young adults are a key market too. They eat out more and tend to use fast food chains and sandwich stores more than most. That is what they are used to. They are also the future drivers of this market.

It is perhaps not surprising that on both sides of the Atlantic fast food and fast casual brands are emerging as the biggest winners from the downturn. Over here, some managed pub chains are also making headway. This is not just about price and value, but convenience and control too.

All this perhaps throws down a challenge to our casual dining brands? They have enjoyed growing popularity and rapid expansion on the back of the eating-out boom. But they are suffering from the downturn, and are now almost universally adopting discount promotions of some kind to maintain footfall.

Providing great value is part of the equation, but is the market taking the opportunity of addressing the service issue too? Are we giving consumers the best experience?

Casual dining has historically outscored pubs and fast food when it comes to consumer "experience" ratings, with Café Rouge winning Peach Factory's own Customer Experience Award last year. But with expectations changing will what worked in the past still be good enough?

Technology will play a role in providing efficiencies, but people will still be the key element.

The good news is that there is a definite mood swing across eating and drinking-out sector with operational issues now at the forefront of practically everyone's thinking. That was demonstrated by the record attendance at Jim Sullivan's London workshop.

Over 270 paying delegates, almost all pub and restaurant operators, heard Sullivan present his four-hour session on how to run profitable businesses by being brilliant at the basics of operations and leadership, with "embracing change" the key to achieving that.

Sullivan's main thrust is that everything revolves around your people. As he says: "If quality is a given, compete on people."

Both sides of Atlantic suffers from indifferent service, and even during his short stay in London he picked up on the standard British staff greeting of "Kelp" and the obligatory head-down "thank-you" to the cash register at the end of any transaction. We know what he's talking about.

His presentation was packed full of sound advice and practical tips on how to bring improvements - a highlight being his demonstration of how to run an effective pre-shift meeting.

"Hire slow, fire fast" is one of his favourite lines. "Make hiring your most important decision". Taking care to get the best people from the outset will pay off.

"Start clearing out the 'deadwood', those under-performers that don't meet your standards. Keeping poor staff just brings the rest of the team down to their level. It's not the people you fire that cause you problems, it's the ones you don't.

"Poor performance is the responsibility of management; people provide bad service because they are allowed to", he says. Building a talent scaffold in your business and then getting the best from the team is essential.

As more than one executive remarked on the day: "It's not that we don't know a lot of this, it's just that we need reminding to do it."

The biggest obstacle to getting ideas like Sullivan's into businesses and fixing the service and experience issues will, of course, not be the people that went to the workshop, but convincing the ones still back at the office they are the right things to do.

The pressure for cost cuts in business is increasing, and it is hard to imagine that headcount reductions will not be among the economies being considered out in the restaurants and pubs.

Cutting the pay bill always looks good on paper, but the danger is that reducing staff and their incentives can also mean reducing service, customer experience and eventually customer numbers. In a climate where speed and convenience are gaining ground this is a real danger.

One of the greatest tests for the UK eating and drinking out market during the recession will be how seriously it takes its people, and delivering a brilliant customer experience - and whether you like it or not, speed and efficiency will be part of that.