Mike Egan: Restaurant Association President on the majority of diners preferring face-to-face service over apps

Kiwi diners have mixed feelings on replacing human service with technology, with many preferring face-to-face interaction.

Those 46 and older showed negativity towards QR code and app-based ordering, with half 18-to-35-year-olds neutral on the topic.

Restaurant Association president Mike Egan says many diners prefer the tactile experience of using a menu they don't have to scroll through.

He also explained there were other issues that could impact workers as well - as kitchens could be slammed if diners ordered during peak times.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bryan Bridge. QR code ordering at restaurants? Do you love
it or do you hate it? Over the past few years,
instead of waiting to be served, you can scan a
QR code to read the menu and then order your
food and pay through an app. But it turns out
most of us aren't actually fans of this idea. A
survey by the Restaurant Association found that only eighteen percent

(00:21):
of diners like QR code menus, and only twenty four
percent are keen on ordering through an app. Mike Egan
is president of the Restaurant Association. He's with us tonight
at eighteen after five.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Good evening, Mike, Good evening.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
So we don't like it? How many do it?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Do we know?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
How many businesses actually do it?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Not too many.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
At the stage, it's sort of pretty new, I guess,
and places are finding the way around, whether it's the
bill and end all or whether they have that plus
analogue menus like the good old days.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Do we know why people don't like it? Is it
because they prefer more personal service or is it because
the system actually doesn't work well?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
I actually think it's it's just it's just not that great.
I mean, if you go there with a partner or something,
and you're both looking at a menu and you're pointing
to things and go.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hey, how about we share this this show over here.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Instead there's two of you on your screens trying to
scroll up and down navigating a menu.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
You actually don't get a really.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Good sort of feel for the offer of the place,
and you might miss some things on the menu that
might have made your made your evening or lunch even better,
you know, but you missed it because you scroll too fast.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Then we're all sick of scrolling out me.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yea, I suppose we are one thing. And I know
this from when I was a head major de cob
and Co.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I hate I was at COB and Co alumni as well.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I hate to brag like that on I hate to
rag like that on air. But one of the things
that you're supposed to do as a waiter is make
sure that the orders get to the kitchen in a
staggered fashion so that they're not overwhelmed in there. Right
Whereas if you come, if everyone's ordering off an app
and everyone's you know, comes in at seven pm in
order the same time, the kitchen slammed. So is that

(02:03):
is that an issue.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, that's a really good point because that that can
happen because all the opposite I had where a barhead
of QR code and it was really quiet, and we
ordered and after thirty minutes we went up and they said,
oh it was quite we forgot to look at the
computer screen, so they actually forgot our order. So you
get the opposite sort of things can happen. But yeah,
that's a really good point because you know, when you're
trying to run a restaurant and you're trying to not

(02:26):
slam the kitchen, and you can slow tables down, you
can offer them another drink so that the kitchen's not
getting hat with, you know, sixty orders all at once.
But yeah, QR code would that probably wouldn't happen, and
that they might explode.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Mike, thank you for that, Mike Egan, Restaurant Association President,
with us this study out that they're sorry, survey out
that they've done saying basically only eighteen percent of diners
actually like the QR code menus. For more from Heather
Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be
from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,