Customers Expectations & Managing Impatience

The Ola App says your driver will arrive in 3 mins. It’s already 4.26 mins and you are irked.

The Swiggy App says your food is on the way and shall reach at say, 8.05 pm. It’s already 8.08pm and you are calling the driver frantically to figure out where your food is.

You spent one hour taking trials of 17 dresses and finally picked up 3 at the Department store in the fanciest Mall in town and have been impatiently waiting at the billing queue for over 10 mins. During a “sale” season, the wait time trebles and a few customers are already dropping their shopping bags.

Are you still staring at the guy getting his hair-cut for the past 20 mins and wondering why would the stylist take so much time to complete the "job"?

Sounds familiar? Well, you are not alone. An article in Nautilus has an easy explanation: “Slow things drive us crazy because the fast pace of society has warped our sense of timing.” Does it mean humans first experienced impatience when life became fast-paced sometime in the 19th century? No, nature gave us impatience as a useful instinct. In fact, animals also show impatience. “It’s an internal timer that tells us when we have waited too long for something,” says the article. A webpage took 4 seconds to load in 2006, 2 seconds four years back and 0.25 seconds today. We are still impatient until it loads. How true!

The iconic Sambhar at Ratna Café, a popular restaurant in Chennai which is over 6 decades’ old takes a few hours to be prepared every morning to get that consistency and a lasting taste. The iconic Lassi from Punjab is stirred for hours together while the Tanjore Spice powders and Chettinad Pickles take days to be prepared. Although I am a pure vegetarian when it comes to food, I have heard how it takes 10-12 hours to prepare the Hyderabadi Haleem dish. Remember, an egg has to spend 270 days inside a womb to be given birth as a human baby. Good things take time. Great things take eternity.

So why do humans get upset upon small delays? Why do we forget that unforeseen and unnatural delays are normal? And even if someone is actually late, why fuss so much? If the delivery boy turns up later than proposed, what would actually happen if the customer waits a few more minutes? If the Cashier at the till is slow in his/her work (probably a beginner), why cannot we wait a few more minutes and encourage them, rather than chide & complain?

I am not a psychologist, so I wouldn’t be able to answer many of those questions. But I can probably say how Retailers and Customers are handling this or perhaps supposed to. With so much of tech taking over our PoS billing solutions, why wouldn’t Department stores and Hypermarkets invest on small benches for customers to sit near the check-out areas, quite similar to Hotels? Even the smallest Lodge in town has a seating area near the Cashier while Star hotels have experience centers such as an Aquarium. This, in my opinion is the most important reason why Customers shrug the Trolley and prefer the Mobile Apps for shopping. It’s the impatience of standing in Q that drives customers to choose one over the other. While it is clichéd to say Men are bored at Department stores while their wives or girlfriends are shopping, I am yet to see (In India) a store which has a seating area or Foosball tables for men to hang around, let around a café or a bar. I don’t know of a shopping centre which has an affordable play area or Crèches, save for the one off “Fun City” outlets which end up being more expensive to hang around for an hour or so than actually shopping & dining together. 

In services businesses like a Salon or a Restaurant, chances are lower to replace the physical presence. While the Food hailing Apps can deliver even the most exquisite delicacy in town all the way to your private dining area at home, the “Dining Experience” is something that cannot be replaced. However, Restaurants take way longer time to prepare, serve the food and send the bill than it is supposed to, thus making Customers lose their cool and get impatient while leaving, although after a sumptuous and a happy meal. Sadly, most Restaurant owners and Customers fail to understand the difference between a find-dine and casual dine restaurant, forget what is a Quick Service Restaurant. 

Ultimately, impatience begins when expectations are mismanaged. So, Hello Retailers – set your business expectations right to your patrons – like a simple placard on the dining table (or even on the Menu card itself) which states the estimated time for serving the food; or like at Airports, where you estimate the waiting time for Security Check or walking time to reach the Boarding Gate.

Setting the right expectations can turn the experience to be much better. In Retail or in our personal lives. Isn't it?

Waiter, Please Wait.

You walk in to a restaurant and search for a place to get seated yourself. While you are still contemplating to wash your hands (yes, few of us still do) before eating, the Waiter or the Captain ask you for your Order (A Waiter manages usually 3 tables and a Captain manages 3 Waiters). The Waiter narrates the standard Menu, usually the top selling ones and at times the slowest selling ones as advised by the Kitchen King. You ask for the Menu and the Waiter sulks. You see that he Menu has atleast 200 items and start discussing with the Waiter asking for details about a few interesting names. The sulking and discomfort of the Waiter increases with an indifferent attitude as well and you decide to order something. If you are a bigger group, say 4 plus, things get a bit complicated.

Assuming you order a quick snack, even before you start digging on it, the Waiter again prods you for the next item order. And this repeats till you ask for the Bill. Worse still, the bill arrives even as you are about to start eating the last item you’ve ordered. The Waiter stands till you pay up and if it’s a plastic card you plan to pay, then he gets even more moody for the tip amount then is suspicious. Only till you have left a decent tip on the folder which usually looks dirtiest and appears to be a charity by some Bank, the Waiter leaves you in freedom to enjoy your meal. His sulking continues if he’s unhappy with the tip. And you feel miserable.

Does this sound familiar? Has it happened to you or someone you know?

This is the state of affairs at most restaurants in India, especially in South India where I spend most of my time. When the above scenario occurs, I tell the Waiters and Captains that that they are running a restaurant, especially a dine-in where patience is key. I try to explain one waiter at a time, one hotel at a time, the difference between fast-food and dine-in. Most fast-food joints in India have a pay-up/self-service model where the Guest first pays for the food and drink and then settles down at a table, standing or sitting. While in a dine-in restaurant, you expect someone to actually come to you and serve you. I take the effort to educate the Waiters the difference between the two and that the Guest has preferred their outlet over others. Some get the drift, some pass me on as a complaining customer.

The above has happened to me so many restaurants including some marquee names. Sadly, the fault is not of the Waiter, rather it is the of the Management, which hardly takes the effort and time to train the staff on etiquette and behavior. Most restaurants have this ego that he Guests are flocking to their outlets only for the food they provide. And believe the food taste, quality and price will compensate for any otherwise unacceptable behavior. There are a few at least in Chennai who provide special prices or “Combos” during popular hours and the Waiters believe they are doing charity for Guests who are short on budgets or cash.

In my last 21 years, I have said this every day to my staff – “Remember, our families are able to eat three meals a day because the Customers decided us over the others in the Market. Be grateful for that and treat them as Guests and not as paying machines”. Sadly, somewhere Business owners lack empathy and this drizzles down to the lowest guy in the rank. With his or her educational and cultural background, I do not expect the Waiters to pick up patience and empathy all by themselves. But how many company Chiefs actually walk the floor every day and see what the Guest is going through? At least, I have seen very few of them.

Dining experinces redefined

I had the opportunity recently to stay at Hotel Vista Park. It is located bang in the middle of the iconic Sector 29 Market at Gurgaon. This market is very special since it is the only area in Gurgaon which has about two dozen eateriees, restaurants, pubs and cafes. It also has Reliance Mart, one of the few Hypermarkets operated by Reliance Retail which is on its way to become the big daddy of Indian Retail in the organized segment. Footfalls pour in all through the day and night; mostly office goers who drop over for lunch or an evening catch up with friends and colleagues; And families over the weekend. Bikanerwala, one of the largest food chains in North India has a two storied very large outlet that sells sweets and condiments, has a fast food counter and a well laid restaurant. There is also a Micro brewery, Hops & Brews which I visited twice just for the love of fresh beer - and weisbeer is extremely rare to get in India except at such places.

Then there is Starbucks Coffee, which brushes shoulders with Cafe Coffee Day and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. There is Mainland China and a couple of other restaurants that serve chinese/oriental cusine. Sphagetti Kitchen, one of the most remembered names for high quality Italian food is a mainstay in the market. Cream Centre, the high-end Veg Only Restaurant along with Sasuraal serves authentic North Indian and Punjabi food.

And then there are two large hotels which have over 25 rooms each, one being Hotel Vista Park where I stayed. These hotels also have restaurants and a small bar. To my utter surprise, there was literally no one in the in-house restaurants in the evenings. I would have expected the hotels to run a few schemes such as Happy Hours in the Bar or Food combos. But no. The staff were not bothered that guests were walking away to nearby restaurants. The Management seemed to be unaware as well. 

Restaurants in hotels, especially the Bar is expected to be a money-spinner. Delhi/NCR has more than 25,000 rooms of all classes and sizes, so most of the hotels have not more than 85% occupancy during peak times and about 45-65% occupancy during the year. Therefore, ancilliary income from room service, restaurants, banquets and party arrangements become extremely important for Hotels. These revenue streams are not always given a keen look by the Hotel Management teams, thereby allowing guests to spill over to nearby restaurants, bars, pubs etc. The main reason for Guests to move  out of the Hotels is because of the boredom created by the restaurants that are within and repetitive or usually uniteresting food and beverage options. 

So, are stand alone restaurants, pubs and cafes a threat to these Hotels? Indeed. To circumvent this kind of a spill over, Ginger Hotels, a part of The Tata Group had tied up with Cafe Coffee Day. The cafes of CCD are located within the premises of these hotels, usually in the lobby and would normally be open 24/7 and would even serve piping hot Cappuccinos and Sandwiches to the rooms. Most of the Ginger Hotels have these cafes. A few standalone hotels too have made such arrangements to attract non-resident guests and the public at large. In the West, it is common to see cafe chains such as Starbucks, illy, Costa, to name a few to have their cafes within smaller boutique/business hotels. 

Hotels could do better to have attractive F&B units within their premises to add value to their revenues. Alternately, they could have more exciting dining spaces to retain resident guests. Ultimately, it is what they want to offer to their guests as part of the overall experience.