Sitting comfortably in the restaurant in a dining room you order your meal. The waitress jotted down the order on an electronic tablet before moving on to another table. It returns after a few minutes, accompanied by a robot loaded with your grub. They’re not dreaming, and this scene isn’t from a sci-fi movie or an Isaac Asimov novel. Welcome to the dining room of the St-Hubert restaurant in Rivière-du-Loup.
The Louperivoise franchise is the fifth company in the chain to enlist the help of robots from Montreal company GreenCo Robots. Under a cat’s air, each of them represents an investment of several thousand dollars. “Each robot is equivalent to the price of a small SUV,” Pomerleau admits with a laugh.
WORKFORCE
As labor shortages continue to strike and restaurants in the area are struggling for staff, the challenge isn’t to replace the human with a “machine,” it’s to make the work of the on-site staff easier.
For Charles Pomerleau, owner of the restaurant, the investment was made to optimize waitresses’ time with customers.
“It supports your work. The robots are not there to replace them, on the contrary, they are there so that they can focus on the customers. You don’t have to go to the kitchen as often. In the case of our waitress in the bar area, she can focus on her customers, on making drinks, rather than running to the kitchen all the time. When the dishes are ready, the robot only has to join them at the table with the trays,” explains the entrepreneur.
The robot, which can neither communicate nor take orders, is initially limited to bringing the food to the customer’s table, but there is no question of self-service here. Throughout the interview, Mr. Pomerleau emphasizes that the two robots allow his facility to enhance the customer experience.
EMPLOYEES
Employees, as well as customers of St-Hubert, quickly got used to the presence of robots. “We had a representative from the chain and another from GreenCo for two days. The customers reacted obviously but positively to their presence. The staff had concerns about the operation and our intentions. But once we took the time to explain it to them it was fine. The team was reassured and it was important to me,” assures Charles Pomerleau.
As for customers, the feedback is positive. We’re curious, and when I saw that robots existed, I wanted to experience them. Honestly it’s a big plus to see a really pleasant customer experience as our dishes arrive on one of these brand new robots and our very charming waitress Nathalie who always gives us an excellent service. And thanks to this new assistant, she takes even more time than usual to talk to us and give us an attentive service,” said Maryse Rancourt, delighted to have such an avant-garde operator.
If GreenCo Robots’ robots are still far from Asimov’s, the future is now.