Every restaurant owner at some point will be the victim of a dine and dash. This type of thievery has been known to be prevalent in some areas and even lead businesses to shut down. Dine and dash customers get creative to get away with not paying for their meals. However, if you are prepared for these types of customers, it will be difficult for them to pull off their elaborate schemes. Follow our methods for preventing a dine and dash or a virtual dine and dash to keep your restaurant alive and thriving.
What Is Dine & Dash?
Eating at a restaurant and leaving without paying is commonly known as a dine and dash. The patron uses trickery to sneak out of the restaurant and leave the bill unpaid. Some dine and dash incidents are planned, others are spur of the moment, while very few are incidental. Either way, it is a form of fraud that is illegal and a punishable crime. Although, the degree of punishment depends on the area in which you live.
What Happens If You Dine & Dash?
If caught by the authorities, dine and dash patrons might have to pay a fine of up to $5,000 or even face jail time. Dine and dash laws are different for every state and each state has its own set of penalties. Look up dine and dash consequences specific to your state online.
If caught by the owner or staff, it is up to the restaurant owner to decide if they want to involve the authorities. Typically, restaurant owners require patrons to pay what is owed and ban them from the restaurant.
How To Prevent A Dine & Dash At Your Restaurant
The best way to stop a dine and dash incident at your restaurant is by preventing it. Putting together a prevention system will help you detect high-risk customers and keep your restaurant from becoming a target. Use one or a combination of the following methods to prevent dine and dashers from pulling off their crime.
Add A Security System
Install surveillance cameras in your establishment and have them face the entrances and parking lots. With security cameras, you’ll be able to look through the security film and identify patrons or see their license plates. This information will help police officers catch customers that managed to get away. If a surveillance system is too pricey for you, install fake cameras as customers won’t be able to tell the difference and they will serve as a deterrent.
Change Your Payment Service
One of the reasons patrons manage to get away is because they escape while the server is getting the check. This presents a window of opportunity due to the lack of eyes on them. As a solution, you can change your payment service by:
- Making tableside payments - Use a handheld device such as a tablet or credit card reader right at the patron’s tableside. With these devices, you can quickly process payments and eliminate any opportunity for customers to get away.
- Offering counter service - Instead of having customers wait at their table for the check, they can simply make their way to the counter to pay for their meal. With this payment service, they won’t wait at the table and have to make their way to the counter.
- Opening a tab - Before guests begin enjoying your service, you can open a tab by preauthorizing their credit card. This way, you have customers’ information available to you in case they want to walk out without paying. This method is most common in bars.
Properly Train Your Staff
Your servers are integral in stopping a dine and dash from happening and should be considered your first line of defense. They can prevent a customer from dining and dashing by:
- Providing excellent customer service - While you may already require this from your servers, great customer service is not only for making sure customers return. An excellent customer service experience involves making a connection with your customers. If a customer is considering skipping out on their bill, they will think twice about it if they built a great rapport with your server. This could result in making customers change their mind and paying for their meal.
- Keeping vigilant - Instruct your staff to watch out for any suspicious activity by having your host always keep an eye on the entrance or telling your servers to closely watch customers who order a large number of expensive items. By carefully monitoring suspicious customers, you’ll be able to stop a dine and dash from happening in the first place.
Designate A Special Exit For Customers
Having more than one entrance and exit makes it easier for customers to get away. To prevent them from developing a good exit strategy, provide only one exit for customers’ use. This should serve as the main entrance, and other doors should serve for the use of staff or emergencies. By designating only one entrance and exit for customers, will make walking out any other door highly suspicious and keep them from leaving through other exit points.
Virtual Dine & Dash
Now that many customers are ordering take out and delivery more often, a new form of skipping out on bills has developed; the virtual dine and dash. For this type of dine and dash, customers use tactics such as:
- Claiming they never ordered food
- Arguing that their order was never delivered
- Dispute orders with their credit card company
All of these methods allow them to get their money back and rob you of your profits. These methods are very effective because it is difficult to disprove their claims, making it easy to get away with theft.
How To Prevent Virtual Dine & Dash
In order to prevent a virtual dine and dash from happening in your business, the best thing to do is to have proof. For example, if a customer claims that their food never arrived, have your delivery driver take a picture of the order at your customer’s doorstep. Make sure you maintain records of all of the purchases so that you can present evidence to the authorities or a third-party app. Remember, this is integral as third-party apps tend to side with the customers.
Stay Safe
If you happen to spot a customer trying to get away, do not try to chase after them and catch them. This could result in you or one of your employees getting hurt or the customer getting hurt and suing your business. As stated before, the best response to these types of situations is to gather your evidence and get law enforcement involved. No matter how much money they skipped out on, it is not worth the well-being of you and your employees.
