Bonji Foods Aficionado Smart Brief: Volume 59
The Service Struggle
Hi all, welcome back to the Bonji Food Aficionado Smart Brief! Happy Tuesday and we hope you had an amazing weekend! Restaurants depend on a variety of factors to keep customers coming back, but one truly stands out. Yes, you need quality and consistent food. However, service is something that reaches deeper than food. This isn't to say forget about your menu, but your strategies for service are just as, if not more so, important to retaining customers.
Strategies For Improving Service in Restaurants In doing some research, there are endless strategies that can help improve service in restaurants or any area of business. We came across a bunch of potential strategies such as a foundation of effective communication or proper and consistent training of employees. However, there is one overarching strategy that we think could really boost your customer service and customer loyalty overall. This strategy has been deemed “The 5 Point Plan," by Dylan Chadwick. 1. Create Clear Staff Expectations This tends to go hand in hand with proper and sufficient training, but it gets a bit deeper. You cannot have overwhelming expectations, but there should be a standard set that is clear and easy to understand. Additionally, communication plays a major role here as well. Working with your team to develop plans for when things go wrong or they receive a complaint are massive when creating expectations. Take this idea into consideration when laying the foundation, or reviewing your processes. 2. Personalize Guest Experiences Truly in any way you can, you should be adding small personal touches to each guest experience. Even if it as simple as remembering the guests' names, this can go a long way for building relationships with customers. The customers will feel at ease and accommodated, which is usually a great way to ensure they will return. Once a relationship is started, it's important to build upon that, but it gets easier and more fun as it goes! 3. Manage Wait Times There's truly nothing worse for customers than long wait times. Implemented automation to help manage this has been popular, but if you choose against that, no worries! There are plenty of ways to manage wait times and table turnover. Even creating a welcoming environment for guests to wait in can help put them at ease. 4. Respond To Concerns/Complaints Although this can be tricky to navigate, you should always respond to concerns or complaints. Focus on the customer, clarify the problem, apologize, and resolve the issue. The more you can make the customer feel appreciated the more likely they will be to return. Also, ensure that your team is aware of the issues and keep a log of them for reflection periods. The keys to service is constant improvement! 5. Table Touches Management table touches can be a vitally important strategy to improve service. When asked specific questions by a management representative, customers feel more willing to be honest and open. It's good to note that these shouldn't be fishing for compliments, or for complaints either. Let the customer feel as if their voice is being heard and understood. Regardless if it is positive or negative, you should take the information and build upon it.