For customers, who are pressed for time, the Normandin chain is launching a new “Table Express” service allowing them to order and pay for their meals in advance even before arriving at the restaurant.
This new option is offered in the 43 restaurants in the province, according to Jean Julien, vice-president of sales and marketing at Normandin.
“It allows customers to pre-order their meal at the table. The principle of ordering in advance already exists at the counter, but on site, in the dining room, to my knowledge, it does not exist. This is a new service that we began to deploy over the summer throughout our network,” explained Mr. Julien.
This formula offers several advantages, he says, including ensuring better planning of kitchen resources.
“It allows us to know, for example, if someone has a business meeting tomorrow at noon with six people, already we are able to set up the staff accordingly. It goes much faster. It’s an efficiency gain for our employees and a time saver for customers.”
Labor shortage
With the labor shortage affecting the restaurant industry in general, innovation is required to counter this difficulty.
“Everyone feels it. We sometimes have waiting sites at home, like everywhere else. Sometimes we operate with reduced staff. So the more we are able to predict what is coming, the more effective we are,” he added.
With students returning to school, restaurants are juggling work schedules to avoid service disruptions.
In Normandin’s case, Julien says the company has regarding the same number of employees it had in 2019, with 2,600 people.
“The difference with today’s employees is that they give us slightly fewer hours of availability, hence the relevance of tools like Table Express because we will be able to plan even better.”
Functioning
To take advantage of this new formula, simply make an online reservation at least two hours before visiting the restaurant. To access the “Table Express” service, simply go to the restaurantnormandin.com website and choose the online booking option. After selecting the location of the restaurant of your choice, the application will offer you the option “Table Express” in order to choose the arrival time and the choice of the menu.