According to an independent survey from Motorola, 53 percent of decision makers in the hospitality space believe wireless ordering and reservations will provide the greatest technological impact for their organization within the next five years.
The most obvious benefit is in time as the survey showed that mobile applications saved hospitality employees an average of 44.1 minutes per day.
At a presentation Tuesday at City Winery in Manhattan, Andre Nataf, business development manager at Digital Dining, a restaurant POS systems provider, said wireless devices address many of the "natural inefficiencies of restaurants and hospitality concepts." (Hospitality also includes hotels, gaming and sports stadiums.)
The largest inefficiency involves taking an order or a credit card and then needing to walk over to a terminal to input the order or process the card.
"So many inefficiencies often happen after a server takes your order initially," said Mr. Nataf. "They may get stopped and have to take another order, they may get paged to pick up food from the kitchen - all these things in restaurants that happen no matter how good they are as an operator. Having mobile is like having the terminal with them at all times."
Mr. Nataf also said wireless devices present upsell opportunities through more attentive service.
"The National Restaurant Association has for years said the number one customer complaint is getting the check when you want it and I think we've all been in situations where we would have ordered another drink or appetizer if we could find a server,' said Mr. Nataf.
Other benefits of wireless devices in the hospitality space, according to the session, include an increase in inventory visibility since the devices instantly show what's in stock. Orders are also found to be more accurate when keying them in at the table, especially since many restaurants still rely on a waiters' memory rather than a notepad to tally orders.
Employee retention also tends to improve, and Mark Self, Vice President of Industry Solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions, said wireless can dramatically enhance a server's performance.
"It used to be all about hiring the "great individual employee" at a restaurant as opposed to supporting them to move from good employee to a great employee like other industries," said Mr. Self. "But we're finding if you put mobility in the hands of a number of workers, particularly customer-facing workers, we're seeing opportunities to increase service levels."
The top five key mobility benefits were increased employee productivity/efficiency, increased customer/partner satisfaction, increased business revenues/sales results, reduced labor costs via automated processes, and increased order fulfillment accuracy.
The top five mobile challenges: cost of hardware; security concerns/risk; cost of software, integration, service and support; difficulties in employee training and support; difficulties integrating mobile apps, existing infrastructure.
Asked about mobile applications for retailers, Adrees Ali, a manager at Brooklyn Bowl, a recently-opened restaurant/club/bowling alley, noted a situation when his staff was able to use a mobile device to quickly corral a shirt from another floor for a customer who had a tray of drinks spilled on him. Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, said at a general admission concert, his staff used mobile devices to sell tickets to a long line that had gathered outside the establishment.
Mr. Nataf said his firm has been contacted by a large supermarket that found that they had "lost the service element" by using deli ordering kiosks and were looking at mobility "as that hybrid between talking to a machine and talking to just a person who is taking an order verbally."
Frank Riso, Motorola's senior director of retail solutions, said the applications vary across mediums but the results are similar.
"Bottom line, it's customer service, inventory management and worker productivity. That kind of cuts across all parts of mobility," said Mr. Riso.
Discussion Questions: Do you think mobile technologies have the potential to likewise reduce the "natural inefficiencies" of sales employees on retail selling floors? Which wireless applications available so far make the most sense for retail?