Robot Waiters: The Future Of Foodservice Hospitality

Robot Waiters: The Future Of Foodservice Hospitality


Introduction
The concept of a 'Robot Waiter' has emerged as a revolutionary development in the restaurant industry, addressing various challenges and opportunities. This article delves into the multifaceted aspects of robot waiters, examining the many benefits that automation brings to the workplace; less dependence on human labour, elevated customer experiences, optimised daily operations, and more.

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The Rise of Robot Waiters
The application of robot waiters in restaurants is gradually catching the attention of business owners and customers across the hospitality industry, and thanks to their versatility, they can be deployed in any foodservice environment, from quick-service restaurants (QSRs) to formal dining establishments. For instance, the LollyNova, Lolly’s fully automated robot waiter, is capable of swiftly delivering meals to customers and collecting their food waste, improving processes and increasing speed of operations.

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Benefits of Robot Waiters in Restaurants
Although robots are progressively becoming more normalised throughout the hospitality sector, one of the biggest concerns around robots working in restaurants stems from misconceptions on the technology itself, leaving people asking “will robots take human jobs?” While this is a common assumption, in actuality, robots that operate in these settings are intended by design to work harmoniously with human waiters, which is advantageous in maintaining prompt, efficient levels of table service. Robot waiters also allow other members of staff more time to focus on personal interactions with their customers.

Robot waiters excel in quick and efficient food and drink delivery, as well as post-service clean-up, surpassing human capabilities. Along with providing convenient food and drink transportation, robot waiters also help speed up the entire ordering process that occurs when a customer places an order to the kitchen. When an order has been processed and prepared back of house, the robot executes the final delivery step of the customer ordering journey, allowing other members of staff to remain focused on preparing the next line of orders. Additionally, when an order is ready for service, a member of staff simply programs the robot to deliver the order directly to the assigned table. Additional visits to the same table are just as easily configurable for post-service clean-up.

Robot waiters are also programmed with responsive manoeuvring technology, which is achieved through built-in omnidirectional obstacle sensing and high positioning accuracy. This means robot waiters are completely aware of their surroundings, ensuring their functionality is not restricted within catering spaces that are prone to drawing in high footfall.

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Why Invest in Robot Waiters
To help businesses in hospitality thrive, deploying robot waiters will offer greater focus towards redeploying human staff across other areas of the business, allowing team members to naturally flourish when dealing with meaningful day-to-day customer interactions, honing in on providing next-level customer service that is above and beyond expectation. Utilising robot waiters and human staff with the right strategy can help increase customer retention and therefore revenue as the business’ loyalty base grows.

Investing in robot waiters can significantly reduce staff overheads and enable extended business hours without affecting employee welfare. Robot waiters also offer strategic workforce expansion by minimising reliance on staff commutes, insurance, and other factors that do not apply to robotic staff.
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Robot Waiters Driving New Customer Interactions
With the rise of new technologies throughout the hospitality industry, there are now an abundance of methods that customers can choose to place their orders across a range of devices, such as EPoS digital tills, mobile apps and self-serve kiosks and with an increase in demand for robot waiters, a new method of foodservice ordering is quickly developing. Depending on the robot waiter’s capabilities which vary from model to model, customers can either send their orders straight to the kitchen via the robot’s built-in ordering system, or by simply scanning a QR code and/or following on-screen instructions to place their order and pay directly from their table.

As robot waiters are becoming more widely recognised and associated with the future of hospitality, this new technology is creating more options for customers to communicate their orders, and with the additional convenience this method of ordering offers, more memorable experiences and positive feedback will be made from both customers and staff within foodservice establishments.


Pros and Cons
Due to the versatile functionality of robot waiters, they can be uniquely tailored to help meet growing business demands and goals. By incorporating robot food services in restaurants, this helps increase efficiency for staff, automate operations, provide consistent levels of customer satisfaction, and maximise productivity, even in labour-constrained environments.

Other advantages of deploying robots in restaurants is their ability to navigate the space with speed and precision (made possible by their built-in omnidirectional obstacle sensors), smooth manoeuvring mechanics, high positioning accuracy, automatic speed adjustment, simultaneous localisation and mapping technology, smart region speed limit functions, and more.

While robot waiter technology is beginning to make its mark on the hospitality industry in other countries, in the UK however, the use of robots in restaurants is highly constitutional to that of a USP for customers, which helps to drive higher footfall and exposure for businesses via their ‘novelty’ factor alone.

Robot waiters are a valuable investment considering the benefits they bring to the hospitality industry. These cost-efficient capabilities include reducing long-term costs and overheads, as hiring a robot waiter is less expensive over time compared to a human staff member. Additionally, robot waiters can extend service hours without incurring extra costs.

While there may be concerns about robots potentially replacing human staff, it's important to note that robot waiters are becoming increasingly normalised within the industry. To stay competitive, businesses must adopt new technologies. Although robot waiters may raise concerns and scepticism, their primary function is to assist human staff, allowing them to focus on providing exceptional customer service and interaction.


‍Conclusion
In summary, robot waiters offer numerous benefits and applications for businesses. By leveraging their remarkable abilities, they can transform day-to-day operations, increasing efficiency, accuracy, and reliability. This seamless integration with human staff enhances optimisation and delivers exceptional customer experiences and service within foodservice establishments.

Introduce automation across your business with Lolly’s Robot Waiters and unleash your full potential.