5 Tips to Make Your Restaurant Customer-Friendly
Want to make sure your restaurant not only serves delicious meals, but also makes customers feel welcome and important? All you need to do is follow these simple rules listed below.
1. Make Sure Your Waiting Staff Is Friendly and Well-Trained
Beyond being friendly and personable, servers can really wow guests by offering a more personalized experience. Encourage them to get to know the guests, and to greet regulars by name. Remembering drink orders or preferred menu choices can also make customers feel valued and appreciated.
People want to be remembered and important. Teaching customer service skills that are focused on personalization and friendliness can go a long way in making your restaurant more customer-centric.
How can your staff improve the customer experience?
- Smile and be friendly
- Be respectful to customers and use respectful titles
- Improve conversation and listening skills
- Have patience with customers
- Practice proper etiquette and respect
2. Don’t Forget to Reward Your Customers
Loyal customers will keep your restaurant in business. Reward your regulars with a loyalty program.
With some programs, diners earn points with each purchase. After accumulating certain number of points, they can exchange them for a meal or food items, such as drinks or desserts.
If you’re not ready to offer a loyalty program, you can reward your regulars by surprising them with free food or drink. Diners are always happy to receive a surprise, and they will likely spread word of your kind gesture to friends and family.
3. Listen to the Feedback You Get
Your customers are telling you what they want to see and experience at your restaurant. They’re also telling you what they love about your establishment, and what you could change for the better.
Take constructive criticism with grace, and understand that every complaint — no matter how trivial — is important to the customer. Other customers may have similar complaints. While you don’t have to make changes based on every single complaint you receive, you should take every piece of feedback into consideration.
4. Handle the Emerging Disputes with Grace
The key important thing is to react to the situation quickly, efficiently and as gracefully as possible. Make sure that your servers understand how to handle disputes and diffuse situations before they escalate out of control.
Always be respectful and professional. Make every effort to make the customer happy. Offer to comp their meal, or offer a gift certificate for a return visit.
Offering free food items may cost you, but you will be repaid in repeat visits. Even if the customer never returns, offering something for free may prevent that customer from leaving negative feedback or reviews.
5. Connect with People
Servers, who will be spending more one-on-one time with customers, should try to connect with the customers at their tables. If they engage in conversation, customers will feel more relaxed and it can put them in a better mood. Happy customers are more likely to return and will likely spend more money with each visit.
A customer-friendly restaurant is a successful restaurant. It’s important to make sure that your servers and the rest of your staff are taking every step possible to make diners feel welcome and at-home when sitting down for a meal.
Source: https://mcdonaldpaper.com/blog/how-to-improve-service-make-restaurant-customer-friendly
