Report: Consumers hungry for more restaurant technology

Technology has changed the way we communicate, how we work, how we get entertainment, and it could have much more of an impact on how we eat, according to a survey by OpenTable.

The online reservation service asked more than 6,000 adults in 10 United States metropolitan areas about how they use technology before, during and after a restaurant meal and found that many were hungry for more tech, especially at limited-service restaurants.

Most of the survey respondents, 76 percent, all of whom had made at least one reservation through OpenTable in the past year, said they believed technology had the potential to play a “much bigger” or “somewhat bigger” role at limited-service restaurants.

Although many restaurants are working on allowing customers to pre-pay for their meals or order in advance, their customers have other priorities:

• Know how long the wait for a table is: 85 percent

• Add yourself to the waitlist before arriving: 83 percent

• Choose your table: 68 percent

• Pre-order cocktails or wine: 19 percent

• Pre-order the meal: 14 percent

• Pre-pay for the meal: 12 percent

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