This easily could have been condensed into a tweet.

Is it still reasonable for, say, a restaurant to offer reservations via email & phone, if they don’t have the ability to handles reservations on both? If they do give you that option but they only answer the email sporadically, would you still like the option or not?

If the hostess who typically answers the phone and writes down reservations on the notepad at the front is now tasked with email as well, how would that work? Would you give her an iPad to answer emails, along with guests who walk in, and people who call (to make reservations, ask for the wait time, ask for the address, etc.)? Will the experience once you get to the restaurant still be as good for all customers? The reality is, a lot of businesses aren’t digital natives and balancing the experience for all customers and the customer experience throughout the entire experience is just as important. Think about it like this. Your experience is not just making a reservation. Its making reservation -> arriving -> being greeted and seated promptly -> ordering -> being served -> eating -> having your drinks refilled promptly -> getting your check -> having someone smile and say “hope you had a great meal” when you leave.

I am a digital native to and abhor picking up the phone. But when I’m designing and developing websites for clients, finding out what they are capable of handing and updating is just as important as what color the header is or what content is where. If a business or client doesn’t have the technological comfort to handle emails or digital contact with grace, it doesn’t make sense to implement. If the business or client doesn’t have a dedicated person to stay on top of digital contacts, it doesn’t make sense to implement. Because in a week…or a month….or a year….they will start to fail answering emails, they won’t call me to remove the feature from the site, and the experience would be far worse for you.

Just an alternate POV.