Offering incredible customer service is the key to running a successful restaurant. Whether you suggest a complimentary beverage or use their name upon greeting them, going the extra mile can make you stand out and earn the customer’s loyalty.
The key is building a relationship with your customers and showing them that their patronage means something to you because having their returned service is what contributes to your success.
Therefore, in order to help you build an effective customer service strategy for your restaurant, we’ve compiled our top tips that you can use to help build loyalty and revenue.
Be Warm and Welcoming
Your customers should feel warm and welcomed right out of the gate. Whether you use hostesses to greet at your entrance or have servers welcome customers as they are seated, making them feel comfortable and welcome can set a positive tone for the duration of their time at your establishment.
Being warm can be as simple as asking about a customer’s day or saying hello. By being personable you build that positive bond to reinforce a relationship with your customers to make them loyal.
If you want to make sure no customer goes un-welcomed, train your team on when and how to greet customers when you onboard them. Set up processes and delegate certain team members to stand in key areas of your restaurant, so no customer is ignored.
Promote Upselling
Upselling is a great opportunity to increase your revenue and appease your customers. With it, servers are able to make thoughtful suggestions based on what the customer ordered so they feel more tended.
To ensure effective upselling, make sure your team members are trained thoroughly on product knowledge so they can make appropriate suggestions from the menu and daily promotions. If you consistently switch up your menu or specials, make sure to hold regular shift meetings to communicate objectives and to answer any questions team members might have.
You can further promote upselling by incorporating gamification. With the use of an incentive, servers will feel more inclined to suggest and add on certain menu items that can really propel your bottom line.
Consistently Check-In on Customers and Listen To Feedback
If there is something about your establishment or service that a customer doesn’t like, it should be a priority for you and your team to know what it is and what you can do to resolve it.
In order to ensure your team is constantly aware of any issues, your team members should be checking in on their customer consistently. If a customers meal isn’t up to their standards or if they think service is too slow, your team can address the issue in real time and take the necessary steps to resolve it and keep it from happening again.
You can also gain a more holistic view of the customer experience by implementing a feedback solution to retrieve customer insights – without direct confrontation. Having a solution in place ensures that customers can express their concerns on the channel of their choice at their convenience. Whether on an in-store kiosk or their mobile device, it’s an opportunity to help steer customers away from venting their issues online. In addition, because a feedback solution enables a level of anonymity you also increase the chance of a customer telling you how they really feel.
Make Sure Your Establishment and Team Are Tidy
Nothing is worse than an unclean dining area or an unsanitary team member, it can turn off a customer in an instant and damage your restaurant’s reputation immensely.
To offer exceptional customer service make sure you are keeping your restaurant clean. You can do this by setting cleanliness expectations before and after each team member’s shift. Make it part of team duties to preset tables and wipe them down when meals are complete.
You should additionally make sure all team members are wearing their appropriate uniform and that they are clean. A sloppy team member can translate into a sloppy establishment and you don’t want it to reflect poorly.
Ensure your website is mobile responsive
Providing exceptional customer service doesn’t have to take place solely in your restaurant. In today’s digitally advanced world, almost everyone has a smartphone, and they’re using it daily. Providing exceptional customer service can mean offering a mobile responsive website design, where customers can order or rate their service at their convenience.
According to a Wolfgang Jaegel report, 83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important. In addition, SWeor reported nearly 8 in 10 customers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device, and a large 57% of internet users said they wouldn’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.
With such a large impact on customer experience, having a website that is mobile friendly is a huge opportunity to amp up your customer service. If you’re not sure about what kind of website you offer on mobile, it’s easy to pull it up on any smartphone. If it is hard to navigate through it might be time to consider hiring a professional or firm to optimize the experience.
Providing exceptional customer service is the key to any successful restaurant. By incorporating our top tips above, you are well on your way to celebrating the customer every time they come into your restaurant.
