Servers Are Here To Stay
With technology and automation increasing, the future of the service industry has been put into question. This paper is going to examine the future of restaurant servers, specifically in British Columbia, Canada. I have been a host and server for the span of my university career, and even previously while attending high school. It has been an amazing part-time job while I work on my academic career. The restaurant industry has given me the opportunity to save money and work flexible hours while also having the ability to book time off when school became too demanding. With recent events that have precipitated social distancing, the necessity of restaurant servers has again been called into question.
This question first arose when servers began to fight for their rights and try to unionize their jobs. Since many servers do not work under the best conditions, they are usually taken advantage of by being forced to work long hours with little to no breaks. As the service industry moves towards fully automated systems such as, self-checkout at grocery stores and drug stores, the question remains for many, are restaurant servers necessary? (Evans). According to Evans, it has been estimated that within the next 20 years about 47% of all jobs will be automated. The website goes on to say that the lower skill jobs such as jobs within the service industry are the ones to be targeted at a higher rate. With that being said, the real question remains, will the food industry survive? Do people expect their food and drink order to be taken by a live human server? I believe that in the future, although technology will be there to enhance the industry and the customer’s experience, it will not replace the job of a server. Humans are social creatures and this is one industry that thrives because it is a social experience. According to Restaurants Canada Blog, “technology can certainly help fill some of the gaps, but can’t be a total replacement for the human touch” (“Why Technology Will Never Replace Chefs and Servers”).
At the present moment I work as a server at one of 31 Cactus Club Cafe locations around Canada. When I started there 3-4 years ago, they were just beginning to implement iPad use with each server to speed up the process of taking food and drink orders. Now because of COVID, we have minimized the amount of menus in use to a small percentile and we encourage our customers to access our online menu system to view the menu. Technology has the ability to benefit the restaurant industry as well as the service industry as a whole in many ways. While technology has taken away some jobs, it has also created new jobs or given workers more time and opportunity in order to do their job better and more thoroughly. From the perspective of a server, having an iPad has given me more time to socialize with my guests, and more time to run food for my tables and other tables throughout the restaurant. The major benefit of having an iPad to take an order is the increased efficiency. I can take a drink order, send it through, and have the drinks delivered to the table while I am still focusing on guest engagement and taking their food order. This among many other things, would have never happened in the past. The automation of certain jobs has possibly affected the tasks of the job itself, but not necessarily taken away any workers from the restaurant industry (Holt).
There are numerous restaurants that have attempted to move towards a more automated and technologically advanced restaurant. Some examples are; the tipsy robot in Las Vegas, on track orders, and train/conveyor belt service; there is even an example of this in downtown Vancouver called Sushi Train on Denman Street (Romeo). At Sushi Train you are able to order all of your food through an iPad on the table and it is brought to your table on a conveyor belt in a little plastic train, there is one person there to oversee things but he is only there to do the payment at the end for the most part. I believe that places such as these are cool experiences and people will choose to go to these locations on occasion when they are looking for something different to do. Some may even argue that COVID has caused people to want to socialize less, so these types of businesses and restaurants will be booming, but at the end of the day I am a firm believer that dining out at a nice restaurant, being served by someone who enhances your experience and provides a social aspect is something that will never totally disappear. When restaurants opened again after COVID first happened, I was worried that people were not going to want that social aspect, but to my surprise people were chattier than normal. Many people haven’t been having much socialization in other aspects of their life so this is their opportunity to get that. “An industry built on hospitality and the human touch” cannot be fully taken over by automation and technology because humans value the social experience that they receive when they go out for a dining experience (Holt).
Just like any industry, restaurants are always looking to cut down on costs, increase profits and efficiency. Technology and automation can help with that. At the beginning of the summer, when restaurants opened up during COVID, we had a new system where tables could pay their bills online by scanning the QR code at the bottom of the bill. This was rolled out in order to decrease the amount of times we were standing at/near the table with the ultimate goal to minimize chances of passing along the virus. Instead, these QR codes and online payments actually increased the amount of time we were at the table because we had to explain and help customers use the system and pay for themselves, so instead of becoming more efficient it actually added extra time and pressure for each server. There were also technical problems arising with the system and people paying online because if a server had the table opened on another screen and a customer was trying to pay the transaction wouldn’t go through. Unfortunately, no one would know until the customer was gone, so it would be considered a dine and dash. This would increase the servers and management’s time dealing with the loss of revenue. This was an instance where technology required even more server presence at the table, as well as business losses on unpaid bills.
In an article called, “Why Tabletop Tablets Can’t Replace Servers”, Austen Mulinder examines the necessity of servers within the industry. Mulinder states that “dining out is its own brand of entertainment”. As someone who not only serves but enjoys indulging in a delicious dinner and a few drinks every once in a while I tend to agree . The article goes on to explain that tablets can not only give servers “more quality time with their tables”, but can give servers the opportunity to increase the level of “attention and service” for each one of their guests (Mulinder). I found it interesting that studies have actually shown that not only do tablets help increase the tip percentage for the servers, but they help increase revenue for the restaurant as a whole because customers order more food due to such easily accessible ordering (Mulinder). In the future I could see Cactus adding tabletop tablets or allowing people to adjust their orders through their phone to help increase revenue and allow more time for socializing and other aspects of the service. As a whole, I believe these technological advancements would serve the purpose of aiding the server and enhancing the experience, without eliminating the server’s job itself.
To sum up everything that has been stated so far, I believe that there are high hopes for the future of the human servers in the restaurant industry. Servers are a very important part of the whole dining experience and although technology will assist them to do their jobs more efficiently in the future, their jobs will not be eliminated altogether. As Steven Holt explains, it really comes down to economics and efficiency versus the guest experience, and although machines can be economical they are not equal to the experience of human interaction. He concludes by saying that “often, one of the best aspects of dining out is interacting with a great server, bartender, or staff member” (Holt). In addition to the social experience that people value, the service aspect as a whole helps to increase the value that people place on the experience of dining out. I truly believe that a fully automated food and beverage industry will deter people from wanting to go sit in a restaurant and dine out.
Works Cited
Evans, Kim. “Will an Automated Food Industry Result in Fewer Jobs in the Future?” Www.jobs.net, www.jobs.net/article/cb-209-talent-network-restaurant-will-an-automated-food-industry-result-in-fewer-jobs-in-the-future/.
Holt, Steve. “Will Foodservice Robots Take Jobs Away from Human Workers?” Eater, 3 May 2018, www.eater.com/2018/5/3/17314620/restaurant-robots-spyce-boston-daniel-boulud.
Jul. 08, Peter Romeo on, and 2016. “This Week’s 4 Head-Spinning Moments: Special Robotics Edition.” Restaurant Business, 2016, www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/weeks-4-head-spinning-moments-special-robotics-edition#page=0.
Mulinder, November 2013 Austen. “Why Tabletop Tablets Can’t Replace Servers.” FSR Magazine, 2013, www.fsrmagazine.com/fsr/expert-insights/why-tabletop-tablets-cant-replace-servers.
“Why Technology Will Never Replace Chefs and Servers.” Restaurants Canada Blog, 25 July 2018, blog.restaurantscanada.org/index.php/2018/07/25/5265/.