Complex Ordering

I went with a group of about sixteen people to a local restaurant for an end-of-project luncheon, and I noticed how tedious the process of ordering a meal has become.  If it were just two or four diners, it might not have as obvious, but hearing the waiter go through the process with a large group each in turn, taking over twenty minutes just to gather orders (no exaggeration - I was watching the time), the complexity of the ordering process stood out.

Aside of explaining the specials and answering questions multiple times, the process of ordering was a gantlet of questions even when it went quickly.   It took two or three iterations for me to notice this, and I started keeping count of the number of questions asked per person: it was between twelve and eighteen. Here's how my own order went ...

1. What would you like to drink?
   Iced tea.
2. Would you like plain, mango, raspberry, or peach tea?
   Plain.
3. Sweetened or Unsweetened?
   Unsweetened.
4. Would you like sugar, equal, sweet-n-low, or splenda?
   None of the above.  (Though it's a fair question - people will order unsweetened and add sweetener themselves)
5. What would you like?
   A New York Strip.
6. The lunch special or the regular menu?
   The lunch special.
7. How would you like it cooked?
   Medium Rare.
8. That's going to have a warm red center, Is that OK?  
   Yes.
9. What is your side items?
   Asparagus and a baked potato.
10. What toppings do you want on your potato?
    Sour Cream and Chives.
11. Would you like soup or salad?
    Salad.
12. Ceasars, Wedge, Mixed Green, or Garden?
    Wedge.
13. What kind of dressing would you like?
    Blue Cheese.
14. Regular or low-fat dressing?
    Regular

I think this is accurate - I counted fourteen questions at the time, so if I've confabulated, it's a substitution rather than exaggeration.   I've also left out a few of the spots where I added complexity by asking questions (she asked me "what kind of tea?" and I begged her pardon, and I asked the difference between the lunch-special steak and the regular-menu one).  If ordering quickly was my primary objective, I'd have asked for a glass of water (though they can still gum that up by asking tap or bottled, then what brand of bottled) and a side order that had no options to it.

The point is, this is quite an onerous gantlet of questions for something as simple as ordering a meal.   I've designed applications for insurance products that ask fewer questions.  Granted, I'm thinking of the simpler policies, but even at that, the fact that you'd have to answer more questions to order lunch than purchase an insurance policy of any kind is totally outrageous.

And yes, I could have streamlined the process by stating "I want unsweetened iced tea, a new your strip cooked medium-rare, asparagus, a baked potato with sour cream and chives, and a garden salad with regular blue cheese dressing."   Even that seems quite a long sentence.     But I've tried that before, and it doesn't often work out: the waiter either forgets something I said or stops me mid-sentence ... or worse yet, gets something wrong.  As a customer, the best way to get what I want is to let the waiter go through the process, tedious and time-consuming as it is.

The lunch-ordering inquisition seems very clumsy and onerous from a customer experience perspective, but at the same time inevitable.   The customer is ultimately better served by getting what he wants rather than having a streamlined ordering process that might result in a less-than-satisfactory meal.  

I could likely nitpick some of the questions to effect a minor improvement.  For example, #4 could be eliminated altogether by providing a variety of sweeteners on the table (or, if the reason for not setting them out is to reduce clutter, bring them with any order of coffee or tea); #13 and #14 could be largely removed by having a default dressing on the menu and expecting customers who want something unusual to speak up; and #9 and #10 can be removed by having the chef choose sides, again trusting the customer to speak.

But by and large, complex ordering is a natural consequence of a customizable product - you don't find many restaurants that offer a single menu that will be served to all diners.  When they do, it's the chef's tasting menu or the special of the day (both of which are often used to push items for motives other than customer satisfaction, such as maximizing profit or pushing items that have been over-ordered and are about to expire).

As such, there doesn't seem to be a way to get around it.  Where customers demand a highly personalized product or service, it becomes necessary to add a question (or several) for each element for which they have a choice, resulting in an ordering process that is lengthy and complex.  I'm not keen on that at all, but for now at least I have the sense that it's just something I have to accept ... or more likely, it's something about which I will take notes and think more about it later.