One in 10 diners admit to not paying the bill because of waiting times

That’s according to a recent survey on customer service from payment app QikServe, which found that 12 per cent of restaurant goers admitted to ‘skipping out’ on a bill, with 50 per cent of those saying this was because they had been kept waiting too long, or they couldn’t find a member of staff to pay at the time.

Nine in 10 respondents said that they had withheld tips, with 80 per cent saying they had done this thanks to ‘terrible service’, and more than one in three saying that ‘being ignored when trying to pay’ had also led them to forego the tip.

Looking at hospitality customer service in general, 68 per cent of respondents said that the most annoying thing was ‘bad staff attitude’, while over half said that ‘waiting too long’ for their order was the worst thing. Over one in three respondents said that ‘not being able to get staff attention’ would annoy them the most.

Daniel Rodgers, chief executive officer at QikServe, said: “We were surprised to learn that so many people admitted to skipping out on a bill, but we believe this higher than expected number is a sign of the times. We live in an age of instant gratification, driven in part by the ubiquity of mobile devices and apps, where consumers are becoming increasingly less tolerant towards waiting.”

He added that mobile ordering and payment options via smartphone apps could help ease some of the issues by ‘addressing the waiting challenge directly’.