As a restaurant guest at the country's restaurants, I am sometimes surprised over how seldom you restaurateurs recommend or “sell” your dishes or your drinks to us guests – all in a positive sense – I mean as part of increasing the level of service. Rarely is anyone presenting the menu or ingredients, I am rarely recommended food or drink and even more rarely the waiter suggests a glass of wine or a dessert after dinner. And this can not only have to do with the lack of staff in the restaurant industry - the problem also existed before the pandemic.
In recent years, when we have been out eating at a restaurant, I often feel a little abandoned at the dinner table. And, I have tried not only small neighborhood restaurants but restaurants in the middle-class segment and also so-called "fine dining" restaurants all over Sweden. The experiences are fantastic and of course I have been warmly welcomed, shown to a table and gratefully received a menu in my hand. But almost each and every one of these experiences have one thing in common, something that has become increasingly clear over the years; I am rarely recommended food or drinks or suggested a pre-drink or the evening's most well-cooked starter.
So what does a restaurant visit today look like? Well, of course I am welcomed to the restaurant and to our table and given a menu to look at. But then the wait staff often leaves the table. As we deep dive into the menu, often no one is telling us about the evening's ingredients or which dishes are best today. Nor does anyone ask if we want a pre-drink or an appetizer. We are thus expected to ask the waiter for exactly everything we want, without recommendations or any presentation of the dishes offered. We order a main course and wine, everything goes pretty fast and we soon sit and eat delicious food - but - no one asks if we want more wine, no one “sees us", as I think would benefit you restaurateurs.
As guests, we often wonder why no one notices us and why the plates are left on the table long after we have eaten. With empty glasses we stay seated and no one asks us for dessert. And we ask for the bill, and we leave.
Read how Pedro at Peterson's restaurant on Käringön does to sell more at each table
Today, there are several ways for restaurateurs to increase the service to their customers. With our mobile ordering and payment solution Trivec Buddy, the guests can order and pay with their mobile phone. The probability that the guests will order an extra glass of wine, a beer or dessert increases as they do not have to wait to order. The only thing you need to do as a restaurateur is to display nice signs with QR codes on the tables in the restaurant, on your outdoor terrace or if you run a hotel, in your lounge space. Guests scan the QR code and get a menu on their mobile phone. Your guests can then choose the payment method and pay via Swish, Google or Apple Pay or with regular credit cards.