Who Needs a Server? The Dine-In Mobile Ordering Trend Is Picking Up Steam

2019 may very well become known as the year of mobile ordering in the QSR and fast casual segments. While brands in the industry continue to develop new ways for customers to order their food online—whether it be third-party delivery, cubbie pick up, self-driving cars or even drones—it seems that the newest trend might be ordering not from your phone...but from the table.

Chick-fil-A launched dine-in mobile ordering Thursday, which allows guests to order from a table instead of waiting in line, according to a press release. Guests place a dine-in order via the Chick-fil-A app, scan a smartphone to a table number and a team member will deliver the order to the table using the table number. Customers can also use the feature to order additional items following their meals without having to walk to the counter.

Chick-fil-A isn’t the first to test out this convenient, yet somewhat anti-social, ordering method. In 2014, Panera started offering table delivery as part of its Panera 2.0 release, seeking to create a more polished version of fast casual service by allowing customers to simply walk into the restaurant, take a seat and wait for their order. 

Earlier this year, BJ's Restaurant tested a dine-in pre-ordering technology with Allset that allowed customers to reserve a table, order ahead and pay the check before even getting to the restaurant. This technology represents a strategy for making fast casual even faster, finding the middle ground for busy consumers who still want to go out to eat. As digital ordering becomes the norm, order-ahead options allow for increased dine-in business among on-the-go mobile customers.

Other major fast casual players, including Dine Brands—parent company of IHOP and Applebee’s—started experimenting with this type of technology last summer. In fact, the CEO of Applebee’s claimed that the mobile dine-in approach could be like “converting casual dining to fast food.”

Although at first glance the mobile, order-ahead trend sounds like it could create less human-to-human contact, the capability could prove to streamline operations and therefore give employees more time to focus on customer service.