Benefits of Using Digital Menus: From the Customer’s Point of View3 min read

The world of eating out is about to cross over to the future. Here is a point of view article on what it would be like to dine out using the advanced digital menus of tomorrow.

Let’s imagine that a whirlwind of a week has just come to a close. It’s Friday evening and you are just about to get out of the office. You and a few of your buddies are wondering what options you have as far as things to do. Your friend tells you about this posh new bistro that serves the most delectable steak chops and that features a modern and inviting interior, excellent customer service and a food quality and presentation that’s hard to rival.

So you are entirely sold on going out and grabbing some “divine bovine” with your pals that night.

You decide to send out a message on Twitter and Facebook to your other buddies, trying to see you if can harness the power of social media to organize a last minute Friday night gala. Not before long, you are getting text messages, tweets and Facebook responses back from friends confirming that they will meet with you. Like many other weekends in the past, last minute plans of grandeur have been laid in stone merely by touching a few buttons on your smart phone and spreading the word.

How convenient that technology in the palm of your hands is.

So you get to the restaurant and are seated … and you are entirely satisfied with the choice in dining, as this place is just a choice place to dine. Then the server comes to take your drink orders, and you ask where the menus are. A few moments later the server returns with a leather encased iPad digital menu, the likes of which you have never seen before.

Even though you are so accustomed to your smart phone that you effortlessly can organize a ten person function on a Friday night merely by pressing different buttons on the touch screen, never before have you seen such technological prowess offered up to you in the form of the most advanced digital menu ever devised.

The intricately designed screen is enticing, and high resolution pictures of the prime rib – your favorite dish – saturate the top banner on the digital menu, as you salivate when thinking that you may go for the gargantuan “King’s Cut” and dive into a tender 24 ounces of marinated prime goodness.

Suddenly, you realize that you forgot to order a drink and you are thirsty. Before you look around to find your waiter, you see a nicely designed “Call the Waiter” button on the screen.

You press it.

A moment later the waiter is at your table and ready to take your drink order. How easy was that? Pretty nifty, this digital menu is, you are thinking to yourself as your drink is brought to your table. As the rest of your friends are seated and arrive, they too are wowed and can’t stop talking about these fascinating menus either.

Before long, one tells you about breaking news, and flips the iPad in your direction so you can see the news feed that he’s reading. As you scroll through the highly detailed menu, a picture of filet mignon catches your eye, and you decide to opt for that, even if it’s a few bucks more.

Then … you realize you can even place the order from the screen. Oddly, you find yourself ordering that steak. Upon placing the order, an options menu comes up with specific cooking directions that you can submit to the head chef.

“Medium rare add mushrooms and onions” you tell the chef from your digital menu … knowing that’s exactly the way that you like your beef cooked.

As you wait for your meal to be cooked, you share some laughs with friends, and even send a tweet, via the enabled function on the digital menu, to a few friends who were unable to make it or who backed out.

“Should have come to the steakhouse guys …” … you tweet … “Amazing filet mignons & really cool menus.”