Google has announced that it will display the restaurant wait times. It will be a valuable addition to the search features already available. So, the next time you plan to visit an eating place, you will get to see the restaurant wait times.
Data Leveraging for the Restaurant Wait Times Feature
It has been a couple of years since Google started gathering the data that it requires to provide you with restaurant wait times. We know the search engine giant’s obsession with the user experience. A few years ago, it started displaying the busiest times and days of the week for a place. So, the local businesses and customers could use these insights for making simple decisions like going out or shopping. In 2016, it started providing many of these ideas on a real-time basis.
Intelligent Use of User Data
The new feature of restaurant wait times comes by aggregating the anonymous data shared by the users. The information is collected from those users who have opted for Google Location History. Thus, besides seeing favorite times and visit duration, the customers will be able to know restaurant wait times.
Display of the Waiting Time
There will be a popup box appearing when you click on any of the bars showing timeframe. It will either show live or historical data with labels like “usually not busy,” “busy,” or “usually busy.” It will also display the time for you to wait before you get a table.
The feature will roll out for restaurants across the world. It will include information on around 1 million listings from across the globe. There are other applications already available that provide waiting times for customers going out to a place to eat.
NoWait is one example of a mobile application already providing this information. Thus, by enabling this feature, it is directly competing with these kinds of mobile apps. However, NoWait also lets you add your name to the list of those restaurants where you cannot otherwise reserve a table.
The feature will first display restaurant wait times on the listings. The users will be able to see them both on their mobiles and desktops. After that Google plans to roll out this feature to Google Maps for the Android operating system. The next industry waiting in line to have this essential search feature is the grocery stores.
What Does It Mean for Restaurant Goers?
Yes, waiting time is an essential indicator if a user would like to go to a place and eat or not. However, the eateries would have to manage their serving efficiency better. Waiting time is one of the many indicators of customers’ level of satisfaction including the type of cuisines served, and commute distance among others. But, if you had to decide between two or many restaurants with the same ratings, time will probably become an essential factor.
