Adoption of technology in the restaurant industry has been accelerated by emerging technological development and stiffer competition. The rising reputation of the self-service technology (SST) and gains accrued to both customers and hoteliers, diminishes the significance of personal service in the industry. Players in the industry are embracing these technologies not only to ensure survival but also to improve competitive edge and profitability (Kucukusta, Heung and Hui, 2014). The successful adoption of these new technologies in the restaurant industry can largely be attributed to the customer acceptability due to sufficient satisfaction of their needs. For instance, according to 2018 American customer satisfaction index (ACSI) restaurant report, the restaurant industry scooped 79 out of 100 points (Chung and Cakmak, 2018). This figure represents 2% increment, from 2017. Americans are spending more to dine out and seemingly appreciating the experience more, largely due to new technologies. This paper attempts to analyze previous literature relating to consumer acceptance of automated service technology in the restaurant industry. The following factors heavily influence the extent to what consumers are ready for fully autonomous restaurants.
Convenient Service Delivery
According to Ivanov, Webster and Berezina (2017), the industrial revolution prepared the way for technological advancement which consequently entered various dimensions industries. For instance, vending machines, conveyors and automatic teller machines (ATM) are classical examples of early adoption of technology. In the restaurant industry, technologies provided opportunities for service automation. As a result, technologies such as artificial intelligence, service automation, and robots are embraced in the hospitality, tourism and travel industries as well. These technologies offer numerous prospects through improving operations and productivity, delivering reliable product quality and transferring some of the service delivery processes to the customers (Ko, 2017: Wei, Torres and Hua, 2016). Making consumers a component of the service delivery process enhances the quality of services and cultivates customer loyalty.
Continued development of communication and information technologies has led to the sustained improvement of customer experience and self-efficiency. Self-efficiency in that, the customer does not queue to be attended by staff; they can self-service themselves reducing time wastage (Kim and Qu, 2014). For instance, McDonald's is spending heavily on technology, installing self-service kiosks to its outlets. The self-service kiosks have a touchscreen that enables customers to make virtual orders according to their specifications (Chung and Cakmak, 2018). The touchscreen allows customers to browse through the menu and adjust various items and create their own taste. In addition, customers can order through mobile, customize their meals in different ways and pay in different pay. Although such robots do not have an equivalent human capacity, their ability to correctly perform intended tasks make the service delivery convenient.
Motivational Factors
According to Ko (2017), restaurant and hospitality industries have increased attention to the evolution of self-service technologies. Even though human interactions are a valued experience in the service industry, the industry understands that changes are inevitable in the course of existence. The benefits of adopting self-service technologies can reduce the costs of labor, create differentiation and improve operational efficiency. Consumers will readily embrace a new technology because avoiding congestion or completing transaction fast, serve as a general extrinsic motivator leading consumers to choose self-service technology over a service staff (Kucukusta, Heung and Hui, 2014). The choice of self-service technologies is reinforced by the fact that consumers believe in the ease of use and usefulness of the focal technology for improving the performance of an intended task. Other extrinsic motivations related to self-service technologies include social acceptance, process control, and autonomy, a reliable transaction and satisfaction and self-esteem (Ko, 2017).
Customers are also likely to accept automated service technology in the restaurant industry for intrinsic reasons. For instance, workforce adopts emerging technologies when they anticipate reveling in the new system. The liveliness of the web-based technology is a substantially intrinsic motivation for consumers to try web-based technologies. Additionally, fun is an intrinsic motivator appropriate to the adoption of technology. When a person fulfills intrinsic motivations undertaking a certain activity, they tend to reach a state of flow. In cases where customers are faced with two different options (service staff vs. SSTs) to achieve the same goal, they will align their preference with the option that adequately satisfies their intrinsic or extrinsic motivations (Wei, Torres and Hua, 2016).
Human Interaction
Human beings have feelings and desire for a company which cannot be offered by technology regardless of its convenience and suitability. The companion and interaction that customers can get from service staff cannot be compared to that of SSTs regardless of the efficiency of the technologies. According to Oh, Jeong and Baloglu (2013), desire for interaction with service staff serves as a countervailing construct against technology-related perceptions and a subsequent technology adoption decision. Some customers especially those in lone trips in foreign countries are likely to desire for service staff, who on top of providing prerequisite services, they can also help the customer settle in the country. These customers will desire for regular interactions with the service staff so as to be assisted adapt and also to be taught the simple values practiced in the country (Rastegar, 2018: Collier et l., 2015). Although such customers are visitors in a foreign country, they desire to be seen as they know the basic information about the country which service staff can help them attain as opposed to the SSTs.
Most players in the industry are automating many of their services but still maintain a number of service staff, who not only help the customers navigate through the SSTs but also standby for any clarification or assistance a customer may want. Humanoid robots are tasked with taking orders from customers in a conversational manner. Communicating with customers is facilitated by artificial intelligence and voice recognition technologies. Some robots are programmed to not only take customer orders and relay them to restaurant kitchen but to also accept payments (Ozturk, 2016: Chung, and Cakmak, 2018). However, despite such technology adoption, players in the restaurant industry are still retaining standby service staff to offer any additional assistance and humanly touch to customers.
Conclusion
The restaurant industry has continually adopted technology not only to ensure survival but also to drive its competitiveness and profitability. Although not all services can be automated, it is the self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, individual company’s competitiveness, customer experience, and economic efficiency among other factors that will determine whether to automate the service delivery process. In addition, human interaction is a valued experience in the service industry and some customers will actively seek to maximize the experience whenever possible. Hence, service automation and use of robots cannot wholly eliminate service staff so as to satisfy the intrinsic or extrinsic motivations of customers who may want to retain personal contact with staff. It is evident that consumers are ready for the fully autonomous restaurant industry to the extent that automation enhances the convenience of service delivery, satisfies intrinsic or extrinsic motivations and maintaining human interactions.
References
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