With more advanced and diverse forms of technology coming up from the augmented reality of Google Glass and now having your food served via autonomous flying robots, we are truly entering a technologically savvy age.
Infinium Robotics, a company that specializes in providing autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for commercial activities, will be employing its services to Singapore’s most popular restaurant cum bar chains, Timbre Group.
So if you’re waiting for your food, don’t be surprised if you’re greeted by one of these flying waiters known as Infinium-Serve.
Less personalized with robots? Absolutely not!
With these new flying waiters hovering in the restaurants airspace in place of real-life human waiters, does this new technology mark the beginnings of the end of face-to-face interactions?
Well, according to Timbre Group’s Managing Director, Edward Chia, absolutely not.
The introduction of Infinium-Serve will not eliminate interactions and engagements that the service industry prides itself with but, instead, will only enhance the opportunity to do so.
“This will allow us to serve our customers faster and, most importantly, it gives our staff more opportunity to engage and converse with customers. This creates an ideal situation because we can now focus on building customer relationship,” Mr Chia told Vulcan Post yesterday evening.
Technology has already begun seeping into our everyday lives in various ways, and this includes our restaurant etiquette. Timbre Group, known as one of Singapore’s renowned music and lifestyle group with five live music restaurants and bars, is unafraid of exploring new technology to constantly improve their service. They have already launched an iPad menu system for easy browsing and order for their customers.
The introduction of iPads into the everyday restaurant etiquette also allows for a real time online reservation system and a song dedication system made available to all patrons of the restaurants.
But with the coming of Infinium-Serve, which will be launched in Timbre restaurants late next year, we can expect even more efficient service and less waiting on our part, especially during the dinner rush.
We can say goodbye the days of watching the waiter stumble during dinner rush to get everyone’s orders on the table.
A prototype of Infinium-Serve was also showcased to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the inaugural launch of National Productivity Month just last month.
Perfect timing
I must say, as much as I enjoy a good chat with my waiter, the coming of this new innovation could not have come at a better time.
With the shortage of manpower that restaurants are facing in Singapore, it’s undeniable that even waiters are challenged with the need to provide excellent service and, at the same time, get our dishes served as quickly as possible.
According to STJobs, Singapore is facing a labour crunch, most notably in its service sector. The latter, which makes up about two-thirds of the economy, are facing challenges due to stricter laws on foreign workers as well as increasing costs.
However, Infinium Robotics CEO Woon Junyang says that he is confident the introduction of these flying waiters and robotic solutions will be able to help alleviate the Singapore’s labour crunch.
“This will result in an enhanced dining experience, which will eventually lead to increased sales and revenue for the restaurants,” said Woon as he spoke of this new innovation during the inaugural launch of National Productivity Month.
Mr Woon also added that the introduction of this technology into restaurants would ultimately take away mundane tasks of serving food and drinks, and allow human waiters to focus on higher-value tasks such as getting feedback from customers.
This means that customers get more talk time with the managers and servers on their dish choices as well as a better overall dining experience. And perhaps more opportunities to call upon the hot waiter too.
Infinium Robotics has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Timbre Group on October 31 with both companies seeking productivity-related government grants to help offset deployment costs.
With these drones serving my food at top notch speed along with the staff being more focused on service with less tasks on their hands, boy will I feel pretty spoilt with all this attention and spotlight.
But I am definitely loving the idea of it already, so hey, why not? Bring out the drones.
