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A little, goes a long way...

Robbie Dale

18 November, 2010

I love this.

It’s five tick boxes, and a bit of text. That’s it.

But it makes a huge statement.

This is the current menu they’re using in Ping Pong (a London based dim sum restaurant with awesome prawn balls, for those not in the know…) Ping Pong’s menus are fairly unique, in that you use them to fill in your order (just put a mark next to the item), and hand the whole thing to your waiter. It’s easy, and it’s simple. And it’s always been that way.

What’s new however, since my last visit at least, is this top section. Five simple tick boxes that put you at the centre of the evening. Now that’s what you call service. Especially for a UK audience with our reserved ‘don’t want to make a fuss’ attitude. Everyone wins. And it takes 10 seconds.

It’s easy to forget sometimes that the most helpful ideas, and those with the most impact, can be achieved without the need for fancy technology, or expensive gizmos. Sometimes all it takes is a little thought and a second print run of menus.

Cost to do it? Minimal.

Cost of not doing it? In today’s climate, who knows…

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  • wizzardsblog

    Good job they added “keep it clean” to the last selection :-)

  • http://www.mollyflatt.com Molly Flatt

    Love this. So simple, so memorable. Finally Robbie's Ping Pong habit reaps creative dividends :)

  • http://twitter.com/aogw Robbie Dale

    I did have to eat a lot of duck spring rolls to create this blog post…
    @wizzardsblog, also love the 'keep it clean' – who knows, maybe they had issues before :)

  • http://shkspr.mobi/ TerenceEden

    Just come back from Ping Pong and I'm a little conflicted about the checkboxes. I think it's more of a placebo than an actual way of improving the dining experience.

    1) The bill checkbox may overcome British embarrassment about money – but it's no different to asking for the bill once you've ordered.
    2) I've never met a waiter who couldn't tell that the couple making moon-eyes at each other wanted to be left alone!
    3) Find me a restaurant that *doesn't* offer to refill your glass as soon as it's placed empty on the table.
    4) Again, a waiter who can't tell that a group of people are celebrating isn't much of a waiter. Or perhaps I'm just bitter that they didn't bring me any birthday cake!
    5) Actually, that's quite handy – although how is it different from telling the waiter that you're allergic to nuts or you want the dishes brought to the table in alphabetical order.

    Overall, while it's a lovely touch – does it really accomplish anything? IMO It makes make the customer *feel* like they're important without the staff having to anything substantive.

    Or is that the point?