I’ve worked in Tech for 30 years, done software development in enough areas and at a sufficient senior level to be able to implement the whole QR code support, both coding and systems design, all the way from an App in a smartphone taking a picture and translating into a URL, to the webserver and if needed database on the other side including if needed an ordering system integrated with some internal order request system.
If I was faced with this I would ask for them to bring me or show me a menu. If they said “no” I would literally get up and leave.
I’m not going to be spending time mucking about with my phone to read in it’s comparativelly small screen something they could have available on an A4 piece of paper or an even larger format hanging from somewhere in the restaurant just to, at best, save them a few cents or, at worst, satisfying somebody’s totally misplaced idea that any Tech is cool just for being Tech. I’m even less going to enshittify my smartphone experience with some app that demands access to my Contacts and wants to pester me with notifications entirelly for the benefit of somebody else.
If there is one thing 3 decades in the Industry, often at the bleeding edge, have taught me is that Tech isn’t necessarilly the best solution for everything and that being newer doesn’t make something better and I’m not interested in being the beta tester for some half-arsed solution which serves most customers’ requirements worse than the older solution and I’m even less interest in installing a software agent doing the will of somebody else on my phone.
It’s exactly because I know Tech so well that I just judge Tech tools as I would any other tools and, damn, so much of it out there are just horrible ill-adjusted unstable tools worse than the old-Tech or non-Tech versions.
somebody’s totally misplaced idea that any Tech is cool just for being Tech
Nah, it’s worse than that. It’s somebody’s totally awful idea that they can meddle with their menu prices in real-time and do “surge pricing” and other schemes to rip you off. If they committed to a paper menu they would have to honor that printed price in most jurisdictions, which would preclude them from such shenanigans.
My problem is that for me as a customer their chosen “solution” (me using my phone to see their easy to change menu) provides me no gain whatsoever whilst adding hassle. There are various possible options they could’ve gone with (blackboard, digital system with tablets for customers, printed piece of paper) with various balances of cost and ease-to-change and they chose the one that maximizes their advantages, minimizes their cost (and maybe it doesn’t even do that properly compared to, say, a blackboard) and increases hassle for customers.
In other words, in their requirements for the solution they’ve chosen to use, they focused entirelly on what was best for them and screw the customer, and if I have a choice I’m not going to bring my custom to a business which has activelly chosen to make my life more of a hassle purelly for their own gain.
Even though they’re using Tech for what they’re doing, the actual problem for customers is a Tech-agnostic “they did what was best for themselves and made the customer experience worse”, and maybe because of my immense familiarity with Tech I really don’t get dazzled by there being lots of Tech in their choice and just look at it from a “what does it do for me” point of view (a way of looking at business practices which itself derives from my professional experience: since I both worked on and implemented Business Requirements I got used to look at systems from a “what does this provide to the user” angle as part of the work of designing such systems).
I’ve worked in Tech for 30 years, done software development in enough areas and at a sufficient senior level to be able to implement the whole QR code support, both coding and systems design, all the way from an App in a smartphone taking a picture and translating into a URL, to the webserver and if needed database on the other side including if needed an ordering system integrated with some internal order request system.
If I was faced with this I would ask for them to bring me or show me a menu. If they said “no” I would literally get up and leave.
I’m not going to be spending time mucking about with my phone to read in it’s comparativelly small screen something they could have available on an A4 piece of paper or an even larger format hanging from somewhere in the restaurant just to, at best, save them a few cents or, at worst, satisfying somebody’s totally misplaced idea that any Tech is cool just for being Tech. I’m even less going to enshittify my smartphone experience with some app that demands access to my Contacts and wants to pester me with notifications entirelly for the benefit of somebody else.
If there is one thing 3 decades in the Industry, often at the bleeding edge, have taught me is that Tech isn’t necessarilly the best solution for everything and that being newer doesn’t make something better and I’m not interested in being the beta tester for some half-arsed solution which serves most customers’ requirements worse than the older solution and I’m even less interest in installing a software agent doing the will of somebody else on my phone.
It’s exactly because I know Tech so well that I just judge Tech tools as I would any other tools and, damn, so much of it out there are just horrible ill-adjusted unstable tools worse than the old-Tech or non-Tech versions.
Nah, it’s worse than that. It’s somebody’s totally awful idea that they can meddle with their menu prices in real-time and do “surge pricing” and other schemes to rip you off. If they committed to a paper menu they would have to honor that printed price in most jurisdictions, which would preclude them from such shenanigans.
Digital menu
Pros: You can change it at any time, no problem. You can let them order digital and the register automatically checks in the order.
Cons: can’t read shit on a smartphone.
Solution: Big tablet for each table. Now everybody can read it.
But you have to spend a lot more on tablets than you would 5 years printing new menus.
Yupes.
My problem is that for me as a customer their chosen “solution” (me using my phone to see their easy to change menu) provides me no gain whatsoever whilst adding hassle. There are various possible options they could’ve gone with (blackboard, digital system with tablets for customers, printed piece of paper) with various balances of cost and ease-to-change and they chose the one that maximizes their advantages, minimizes their cost (and maybe it doesn’t even do that properly compared to, say, a blackboard) and increases hassle for customers.
In other words, in their requirements for the solution they’ve chosen to use, they focused entirelly on what was best for them and screw the customer, and if I have a choice I’m not going to bring my custom to a business which has activelly chosen to make my life more of a hassle purelly for their own gain.
Even though they’re using Tech for what they’re doing, the actual problem for customers is a Tech-agnostic “they did what was best for themselves and made the customer experience worse”, and maybe because of my immense familiarity with Tech I really don’t get dazzled by there being lots of Tech in their choice and just look at it from a “what does it do for me” point of view (a way of looking at business practices which itself derives from my professional experience: since I both worked on and implemented Business Requirements I got used to look at systems from a “what does this provide to the user” angle as part of the work of designing such systems).