How We Respond to Restaurant Psychology

Restaurants take us to more than food.

They are about psychology.

Restaurant Psychology

Our story starts with a small inexpensive New York restaurant. After receiving national recognition as one of the best new eating establishments in America, its problems began. It was supposed to be a neighborhood place, attracting diners from a five-block radius. However, the publicity brought a new crowd.  Suddenly it became a destination where customers from distant places stayed longer.

But low prices and lingering customers were not a good combination.

So, when the owner, Roni, needed to reconsider his business plan, he spoke with a professional food service designer. We could say, though, that she was a restaurant psychologist. Concerned with spacing the tables, she said that 16 inches was ideal but knew a small eatery does not have nearly that much room. For Roni, it was a six-inch divide between tables. The designer also knew that less comfy chairs would reduce a long dessert and the space occupied by a table for eight could become a more flexible area with three smaller tables.

Aware also that we feel more secure in an enclosed apace, the designer added a small wall next to the table near the door. Furthermore, the chairs do not look very comfortable:

Using a spend-per-minute metric, the redesign was successful. They went from 49.3 cents to 68.3 cents. Annually, that was close to $18,000 more revenue.

Our Bottom Line: Incentive

Success in the restaurant business means managing your prices, timing, and space.

As a result, from the moment we enter, a restaurant shapes our behavior. Through the menu, it tries to increase what we spend. Still true, 10 years ago, we said how restaurants use a reference point. Explained by economics Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow, a reference point is a beginning that shapes your opinion of what follows. On a menu, that could mean listing a $65 seafood platter at the top right hand side next to a $45 platter. The $65 option becomes a reference point, also called an anchor. Seen next to the $45 item, the $45 option appears very reasonably priced. At the same time, the music and the chairs can speed us up or slow us down as will a bread basket. And now, saying people used an extra 20 minutes, Roni has stopped serving tea.

Indeed, all add up to the incentives that compose restaurant psychology.

My sources and more: Always interesting, The Sporkful podcast looked at one restaurant’s psychology while Planet Money had a recent update. Then, at econlife, we looked back at (and quoted) posts, here and here.to recall the restaurant psychology we’ve considered.