Most people can remember a time when a wobbly table ruined a dining experience, whether it meant a spilled drink or just an unwelcome preoccupation making every effort to balance the table out. Some forward-thinking operators have begun to address this issue across the restaurant industry, seeking to ensure that the customer service experience is nothing short of exemplary.
Australian-based NOROCK created a self-stabilizing table technology that went to market across Europe, Asia, and Australia in 2016. The mechanical design is simple yet innovative, and the results tend to “wow” operators: The base seamlessly stabilizes a table in less than two seconds and works equally well indoors or outdoors, on wood or concrete. The solution eliminates obnoxious, wobbling tables, and it also helps create a smoother restaurant operation by cutting labor costs and enhancing hygienic practices by ensuring staff isn’t attempting to come up with new inventive ways to balance a table with a pile of napkins.
“We have found that restaurant operators who really care about the customer’s complete dining experience love NOROCK,” says Toby Heyring, co-inventor and founder and director of NOROCK.
One such operator is Kevin O’Shea, chief custom office and co-founder of Hutton Brickyards, a luxury hotel in Kingston, New York. O’Shea says wobbly tables were long one of his pet peeves until he found out about NOROCK.
[float_image image=”https://www.qsrmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/doordashtacobell.jpg” width=”30″ link=”” caption=”” alt=”DoorDash, Taco Bell Party Pack” align=”left” /]
“I was thrilled to be introduced to NOROCK and it’s high quality, well-priced product that really does self-stabilize,” O’Shea says. “We have old concrete factory floors and there’s not a wobbly table in sight. I would use these again and again on future projects—and NOROCK’s service is very attentive, too.”
NOROCK’s award-winning technology is designed by Toby Heyring, his father, and co-inventor Chris, who had previously designed rally car suspension systems that set the industry standard and saw similar success in the boating world. When creating a table-stabilizing solution, Chris believed it had to be simple and user friendly, and thus came up with a mechanical solution as opposed to a hyrdaulic one.
“While NOROCK’s stabilization technology comes from a series of successful inventions, what we are most proud of is the design of the tables themselves,” says Chris Heyring. “It’s a truly beautiful and simple product, and we were thrilled when our design and functionality was recognized internationally in 2017 when we received both Germany’s prestigious Red Dot Award and the Good Design Award.”
Now featured at restaurants belonging to brands like Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, NOROCK can help restaurants save around $30,000 per year, says Toby Heyring. The design is versatile enough Heyring says, that it would fit into most any type of restaurant.
“NOROCK appeals to both high end and fine-dining venues, as well as the operators who have large staffs and venues, like chain restaurants,” says Toby Heyring. “Our tables are easy to use and require no training to fix, so staff spend more time focused on a customer’s dining experience than adjusting unhygienic screws in glides.”
For your free trial and more, visit no-rock.com.
