Pay at the Table: Serve Up Customer-Pleasing Payment Experiences
Dining experiences are as important to a thriving restaurant business as a tasty menu or market-based pricing. A 2024 survey from brand experience agency ChangeUp found that 69% of restaurant guests say they’d eat out more often if it were more enjoyable, and about 66% of guests say experience is even more of a factor in deciding where to dine than price. Your restaurant probably makes food preparation and service speed priorities to keep customers happy. However, it’s a smart idea not to make them wait to pay. A YouGov survey found that 22% don’t have any patience when it comes to waiting to pay the check, even if only for five or ten minutes. Pay-at-the-table solutions offer you tools that help enhance guest experiences while increasing table turns and revenues.
Why Tableside Payment is the Future
The traditional process of settling the check with a payment card involves multiple steps and wasted time. Payment at your restaurant probably looks something like this:
- The server takes a check to the table and then walks away.
- The customer responds by putting the check and a credit or debit card on the table.
- The server takes the card to a terminal on the dining room floor to start the transaction.
- The server returns to the table with the payment card, receipt, and a pen.
- The customer adds a tip and signs the receipt.
- The server returns to the table, collects the receipt, goes to the terminal to add the tip, and completes the transaction.
Although your customers are familiar with this process, they could see it as a clunky, time-consuming way to end a dining experience. Most consumers use their smartphones and other mobile devices to make their lives easier and accomplish things faster — including payments. Restaurants that use slow, outdated check-settling processes will increasingly frustrate customers who know there’s a better way.
Pay-at-the-table solutions replace a long, back-and-forth process with a single step. Servers arrive at the table with a user-friendly mobile device that allows customers to confirm their check amounts, add a tip, use a physical card or contactless payment method, and pay in seconds. Tableside payment experiences are fast, easy, friendly, and the best way to cap off a great evening out.
Pay-at-the-Table Benefits Beyond Better Customer Experiences
Although pay-at-the-table solutions give restaurants the ability to enhance customer experiences, they deliver added benefits that you can measure in dollars and cents:
More Table Turns
When payment transactions take less time, your team can turn tables faster. It may save only minutes per table, but through the course of a lunch rush or an evening, those minutes can add up to extra seatings and added revenues.
Payment Data Security
When diners pay at the table, payment cards never leave their sight. It gives customers the assurance that their payment data and personal information is never vulnerable to misuse. It also helps your restaurant build customer trust and prevent having to deal with a data breach if a card falls into the wrong hands.
Workforce Optimization
Streamlining payments gives servers more time, which may allow them to cover more tables at one time. This allows you to assign employees to where you need them most to increase front-of-house efficiency and provide great service.
Bigger Tips
Pay-at-the-table solutions that calculate tips can lead to larger tips. Diners don’t have to do the math, sometimes inaccurately, and customers can easily add the tip to the transaction without writing on a receipt. Bigger tips can lead to happier employees and, at a time when it’s still a challenge to find talent, keep great servers on your team.
Key Pay-at-the-Table Solution Features
You’ll find a variety of pay-at-the-table solutions on the market, but you’ll get the most from your investment if you choose one with these features:
- Durable handheld service
- Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity for use inside or outside
- Easy recall of open checks
- Tip prompts and the option to add custom tip amounts
- Split checks by diner or even splits
- Option to provide an email or printed receipt
- A total solution with secure payment processing
Give Your Business an Edge from Modern Payment Processes
With consumer behaviors and attitudes toward technology changing quickly, it’s risky to stick with traditional ways of taking payments. Furthermore, as more of your competition gives customers an easy pay-at-the-table experience, customers will expect you to have that ability as well.
Take the friction out of payments and keep customers focused on enjoying their favorite menu items, tasty beverages, and the dining atmosphere you’ve created. Contact us to learn more about a pay-at-the-table solution that you’ll love.
For a deep dive into this topic, download our ebook A Restauranteur’s Guide to Order and Pay at the Table.