7 Effective Strategies to Improve Your Restaurant Service
7 Effective Strategies to Improve Your Restaurant Service
All customers have preconceived expectations of the restaurant before visiting it. Both food and service are essential in providing excellent restaurant service to your valued customers. Restaurant owners, managers and employees are responsible for ensuring that customers are treated professionally. Good restaurant service will help leave a positive impression of a great dining experience and help retain your customers. This article provides practical tips to improve your restaurant service and offer an exceptional customer experience.
Use this customer service checklist to ensure you maintain optimal restaurant service standards and deliver a stellar experience to your customers every time.
Tips to improve the service of your restaurant
Do you need clarification about how to improve a restaurant’s service? Don’t worry; we’re here to help. Follow these seven tips to help you provide stellar restaurant service, which will help in employee retention.
Train Employees for Great Customer ServiceIt is indisputable that excellent customer service is a must for any restaurant. If your restaurant provides reliable customer service, there is a chance that you will retain valuable customers. It is the responsibility of the restaurant owner to train the staff members in a way that should aim to make their customers happy. Ensure that each of your staff members receives the required training and is aware of your customer’s expectations of your restaurant service.
Proper etiquette must be maintained in all restaurants, regardless of any format, to ensure better customer service, which we have mentioned below.
- Food must be served and removed from the diner’s left. However, drinks must be poured and refilled from the right.
- Whenever a member of staff must interrupt customers, they must be courteous.
- Clean dishes, bring the check and process it right away.
- Stimulate and train them to think about customer service beyond basic service. The caring concept includes steps as simple as smiling at your customers, promptly greeting them, and understanding their needs, such as refilling water glasses and storing extra napkins.
- Ensure you are clear about the service you want your staff to provide, and then create a manual or training manual. A training manual will ensure that your team knows the kind of service you expect from them so that they can provide themselves more efficiently.
Having restaurant service standards helps your staff deliver consistent service every time. When hiring and training your staff members, focus on qualities like empathy, patience, and clarity to respond promptly when interacting with your customers. This is also your opportunity to introduce and reinforce the company culture, teaching employees how to adhere to their chosen etiquette protocols and handle specific demanding situations.
Foster effective communication among staff members
The essential principle of any excellent restaurant service is that there must be consistent and effective communication between all staff members. Regular staff meetings should be held so that all staff members are on the same page. Staff members must be trained to communicate professionally.
El Asadero, Tusum, Mexico
There must be good communication between the servers and the kitchen staff to ensure timely service as soon as the food is prepared. If jobs are divided between people, coordination becomes easier. Have just one person call in orders, designate the ticketing position, and ensure the order gets to the wait staff.
When your staff members change shifts, it must be with the written approval of your restaurant manager. This will ensure communication between two employees and understaffing.
Ensure accurate wait times
One of the significant turnoffs that lead to poor restaurant service is delays. Whether it’s a delay in seating customers, offering the menu, taking the order, bringing the food or the bill, delays can ruin the customer experience. For excellent restaurant service, wait times must be accurate.
(i) Inform customers about the waiting time.
The server must inform customers if a dish takes a long time to prepare. If there’s already a line of customers waiting and you know it might take another hour to seat new customers, let them know. It is always better to surprise your customers with a shorter wait time than to disappoint them with a longer one.
( ii) Keep them busy during their waiting time
Many restaurants offer customers complimentary bread or a light snack while waiting for their orders. Put a TV in the waiting room, so they don’t get bored and never want to come back. Make sure your waiting area has Wi-Fi access. You can also have board games in your restaurants to keep customers busy during waiting.
Address customer complaints and concerns
“The customer is always right” is the most well-known proverb associated with restaurants. Any problem or concern of any client must be addressed as a priority. However, customers prefer to post their complaints on social media platforms in the digitized world. But whenever the customer posts their complaints online, the management must be receptive and respond courteously and courteously.
(i) Recognize customer complaints
If any of your customers are not satisfied with your restaurant’s service, allow yourself to express your concerns freely and pay full attention to their words. It is often helpful to repeat the client’s words to ensure that he fully understands them and to show that he has heard correctly.
(ii) Respond immediately
Employees must be able to handle customer disputes because it is the best and most cost-effective way to resolve a problem. Apologize to the customer immediately and act effectively. Your main goal should be to remain calm and prevent the situation from escalating.
(iii) Offering gifts
Offering compensation is the best type of apology you can offer. Even a tiny offer, like giving away a free dessert or small appetizer, can earn you colossal customer service points. These small acts will make your customers feel appreciated and have positive associations with the restaurants.
(iv) Encourage feedback and generate change
After the customer’s dining experience, solicit their feedback and suggestions. Asking for feedback also helps avoid lousy customer reviews on social media. Customers are less likely to post a bad review on restaurant review sites and social media if their concerns have already been addressed.
You can analyze your customers’ responses and conclude what your restaurant customers don’t like and the same. You can make decisions to improve your restaurant’s overall service by strictly evaluating customer feedback.
Use technology for better restaurant service.
The use of technology is becoming more manifold across all industries alike, and in this digital age and with so many new restaurants opening, the industry is becoming competitive at every turn. Automating restaurant operations helps improve your efficiency, which in turn will improve your restaurant’s service.
Technology is currently playing an essential role in both cost control and theft—all of the restaurants we now operate, all of our Hidden POS systems.
Let’s see how technology can improve your restaurant’s service quality.
(i) Online restaurant reservations
If your restaurant has limited seating, it will be profitable for your restaurant if customers can reserve the tables online in advance. The restaurant customer base can increase if the online table reservation process can be digitized. Reservation management allows restaurants to view all guest information using a single interface. Restaurants can quote accurate wait times for both walk-in and pre-booked customers.
(ii) Tablet ordering system
An implemented tablet ordering system can enhance the customer’s dining experience by:
- Orders taken are more accurate, and there is no chance of manual errors.
- The speed and efficiency of your restaurant’s service are improved, contributing to a better customer experience.
- Increased speed and efficiency of service means increased table turnover, allowing your restaurants to serve more guests.
More word-of-mouth recommendations will be generated if your customers are happy and satisfied.
(iii) Customer relationship management
CRM technology has now become the key that helps improve customer engagement in your restaurant through loyalty programs and others. Centralized restaurant CRM allows you to collect customer data related to customer contact details, frequency of visits, preferences, and average spending per visit.
POS-integrated CRM provides excellent insights into customer demands and behavior and enables you to make informed decisions based on the captured data that will improve customer service. Servers can view this detail at the point of sale, upsell, and suggest items based on the customer’s order history.
(iv) Customer feedback management
As mentioned above, asking for feedback is critical to improving your restaurant’s service, and you can use technology to collect better and analyze customer feedback. Instead of a standard feedback form, you can use a feedback management application that solicits specific customer feedback based on the ordered item, ambiance, and restaurant service. This detailed level report also helps you identify the performance of dishes on the menu. The Feedback app automatically updates customer details in the CRM, thus eliminating the need to update the data and scope of errors manually.
Maintain hygiene and cleanliness in your restaurant
Hygiene in restaurants is essential to ensure the health and safety of your employees and customers because it plays a critical role in the perception of your restaurant. Customers can be very disappointed if the dishes on which their food is served are dirty. One of the most prominent complaints from diners is about dirty bathrooms. Any restaurant must follow cleanliness and hygiene standards to ensure that its customer has a positive overall impression of your restaurant.
The benefits of having satisfied customers are undeniable. Any customer, if they have chosen your restaurant to dine in, has prior expectations of great food and excellent customer service. Failing to deliver both can cause your restaurant business to suffer tremendously. If your customer is happy and satisfied with your restaurant’s favor, they are likely to discuss their experience with others and are likely to return as well. Having happy customers starts with excellent customer service, and having excellent customer service starts with effective hiring and training.
Having a restaurant management checklist is also highly recommended to help you streamline your operations and ensure better service.
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7 Effective Strategies to Improve Your Restaurant Service
