We were visiting my mom in April and one of the things on the agenda was Outback. I wanted my annual Bloomin’ Onion fix. One of my daughters wanted a a steak. My other daughter wanted anything cheese, Mac n cheese, grilled cheese, whatever.
But that’s not actually what I want to talk about.
This is a new entry in my ongoing Please Take My Money series, where I chronicle the seemingly rare occasions when a company makes it genuinely easy for me to give them money or when they make it really really difficult to do so. This time the subject is Outback Steakhouse.
Outback has tablets at the tables now. Let’s face it I have lived in London for over 8 years. Even though I have been back to Outback a few times since moving I do not recall when they put these things in. For all I know it’s been years. The are little battery powered things on stands. You can play games on them apparently, which I find mildly annoying. I don’t love screens at restaurants. But whatever, we ordered normally, the waiter came by, we talked, it was fine.
When dessert came around he kind of gestured at the tablet and said just order from there whenever you’re ready. So we did. Took our time, browsed, ordered. Completely seamless.
Then came the real test. Paying.
Paying at restaurants in the US is a whole production vs the UK or Europe. You get the bill. You give them your card. They disappear with your card. They come back. You add the tip. You sign. They take the bill and everything with it. You wait for the receipt. The charge your card again for the new total. The whole thing has like six or seven steps and your credit card is out of your possession for half of them, which from a security standpoint is not great. Europe figured this out a long time ago with chip and pin. You never hand your card to anyone.
So I was curious how the tablet checkout would go, half expecting to hit the usual wall. You know, they could make it easy. They sell you on how quick and easy it is and then you get there and it wants you to create an account. Enter your email. Set a password. Agree to marketing emails. All of that. None of it for your benefit.
Thankfully Outback went with customer convenience over their data collection. The screen showed the bill, everything itemized. Tap to pay. I tapped. It asked if I wanted a receipt by email or text, or not at all. That was it. Done. I get they can get your email or phone number by getting the receipt. I prefer that since it doesn’t stop me from paying. I also have no problem giving an email with no account creation since I have disposable emails give out for situations like this.
This was genuinely one of the smoothest restaurant checkouts I’ve had in the States in years. So good on you, Outback. You make a solid steak and apparently you also understand that sometimes people just want to pay and leave.
On my please take my money scale Outback got top marks.