ESP: Your Cyborg Will Seat You Now

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ESP: Your Cyborg Will Seat You Now

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uploaded by Jordan Yerman

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  uploaded by Jordan Yerman | add comment

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  uploaded by Jordan Yerman | add comment

I read a piece in CNNMoney about a customer-service framework called ESP, in which restaurant tables are fitted with touch screens connected to a wrist-piece worn by each table's waitstaff, connected by a private wireless network. The spokesman for ESP described the wristpiece as a "Dick Tracy or James Bond-like watch", but I couldn't help but think of Lobot who hung around with Lando Calrissian in Cloud City, given orders by a touch of a button from Billy Dee Williams...

According to ESP's website, "Guests are stranded, without access
to service, 94% of the time they are in a casual dining restaurant. " I see why, on paper, this sounds like a bad thing, but what it really means is that waitstaff is not hoveing over your shoulder for nineteen twentieths of your dining experience, which is cool with me. I have nothing against waiters or waitresses- after all, I am an actor- but I pefer to be left alone as I eat.

In theory, this solution is a good idea, but I think that fitting a bad waiter with an ESP watch would only make them a bad cyborg, rather than a good waiter: the human element is what has to work here. In New York, waitstaff work for a paltry shift pay, relying on tips for survival: in such a case, if a restaurant wants to boost customer service, perhaps paying their existing staff better might  be easier than robotizing and retraining them.

ESP is clearly marketed towards chain restaurants, which I tend to avoid, but their theory is sound: faster service means both quicker turnover and happier customers. My brain says yes but my heart says no:I cannot help but to spare a thought for the waitrons... I was a bad enough waiter as it was; strapping a remote-control to my wrist would have crushed my spirit. Also, check out the creepy demo video: those are some menacing smiles, and the guy waiting to be seated appears to have hostages. 

Wagamama has a somewhat similar setup, but only between the waitstaff and kitchen; I think their true cust-serv leap forward, though, is in bringing customers drinks as they queue.

The images to the right are screen captures from ESP's demo video.

(I am not affiliated with any of the businesses mentioned above, but this cyborg stuff fascinates me)