While out to dinner at a full service winery, my family was impressed with the handheld POS system used by the server.
· Food/drink orders were entered with a push of a button
· The kitchen received real time notifications
· Service was fast and efficient
That is until the system went offline.
Fortunately, we had already received our food but when we asked for our check, we were told “we’d have to wait due to the system being down.” Our second and third check in yielded the same result, along with a genuine apology.
There was no redundancy. No emergency back up plan.
When we pushed back, we were finally told that although they couldn’t accept credit card payment, which would have been processed tableside, we could pay by cash.
Miraculously we had enough.
Lesson learned: any high tech system needs a redundant high touch solution!
Do you usually prefer high tech or high touch service? Or a combination?