A recent article in
the Atlantic Wire
discusses how waiters
at restaurants are tracking
guest preferences.
“Craig writes ominously,
“what most customers don’t know
is that hundreds of restaurants are now
carefully tracking their individual tastes,
tics, habits and even foibles”—
whether it’s your first time at the place
or you go there all the time,
whether you’re famous
or infamous
or just a person eating in a restaurant.
They know it all!
What seats you want,
what temperature you like your butter,
the type of water (Brooklyn tap, please!)
you always ask for,
your tipping prowess, allergies, preferences,
how you behaved last time,
how much you’ll spend on wine,
and if you stayed too long…”
When I take a cruise,
I’ve come to expect this level
of service
or ‘knowing.’
When I donate at my favorite charity,
I expect them to have
my contact information on file.
My buddy expects the employees
at her local Starbucks
to know her order
before she places it.
Frequent customers expect businesses
to know their preferences.
If you don’t currently have a system
to track these preferences,
you should consider installing one.