E la Carte Digitizes Restaurant Service

A number of applications are now being developed to digitize service at restaurants.  E La Carte, a US based company, has developed its own tablet, that let's diners book tables, order their food, play games while waiting, make their payment and provide feedback.

If used correctly, these tablets should not be seen as a replacement of physical waiters, but as a tool to increase sales, improve service and receive immediate customer feedback.

The team behind E la Carte claims that restaurants could see increases in sales of up to 10% simply by including pictures of their food in on the digital menus.  They should also see improvements in customer satisfaction, as customers no longer need to wait for waiters to make their orders and to receive the check and make payment.


From a payments perspective, it is interesting, but not surprising, to see that the payments process has been integrated in the tool.  This is a fantastic opportunity for the E la Carte, and similar companies, to intermediate the networks and extract a healthy profit. 

If they are successful at building a network of restaurants, they should also be able to gather valuable information about their customers; which restaurants they visit, what they eat, how much they pay, etc.  This could be fantastically useful for restaurants to fine tune their offerings and in tailoring marketing programs for the customer.