How to Improve Customer Experience in a Restaurant

In the last Savory Blog post, we discussed ways to spread awareness and attract new customers to your restaurant. If you missed it, check it out here. In a Restaurant Customer's Journey, the next stage is their buying experience. They discovered your restaurant, they are hungry, and they are ready to try your menu. Let's review ways you can make this experience enjoyable, so that the customer not only wants to come back, but they look forward to coming back again and again.

What is the Restaurant Experience?

The customer experience in a restaurant includes every point of connection between your customer and your restaurant. How they connect with you online, over the phone, and in person, from before they actually dine at your restaurant and even after they leave. Over this time there are many opportunities to impress your customers or disappoint them. In this article we discuss ways to create a dining experience your customers will enjoy, talk to other people about, and get excited to return to.

Create the best Restaurant Experience for your Customers

Before they arrive...

To get the customer to choose to dine at your restaurant, the experience begins before they arrive. When they are making the decision of where to eat, they are likely to go to your website or social media page. Make sure they can find it easily, get to your menu within 1 or 2 clicks, and be sure to highlight specials or promotions to grab their attention.

They will likely want to read some reviews to know about other customer experiences. I understand how frustrating some of those reviews can be, and between us, the customer isn't always right, but don't tell them that. The important thing about customer reviews isn't to make sure they are all raving reviews, but make sure that the reviews that are less than stellar need to be addressed. Respond to customers who have taken the time to inform you about their experience and invite them back to turn their opinion around. Whether or not they take you up on the offer, the simple fact that you took the time to address it, tells every other future customer that reads it, that you care about their experience, you made an effort to make it right, and that communicates to your future customers that they will experience that caring attention as well.

When they arrive....

Once you have the customer walking in the door, your staff should treat each one as the most important. You already know how many options restaurant customers have to choose from. To turn first time customers into lifetime customers, you will need to have more than just great food. The customer's experience is what will keep those customers coming back.

Greet every customer when they come in the door. Customers waiting at the door for acknowledgement tend to feel like you don't care that they are there, that you don't want them to dine there, or that you are just too busy for them.
At the table, the service staff should take the time to introduce themselves, find out if this is the first time at your restaurant, and if it is, spend time introducing the customer to the restaurant, the concept, the vision, the food, the staff, talk about why your restaurant is better than the rest and then recommend the best thing on the menu, or the items you are known for. The server is not only building the connection to the restaurant, they are improving their own relationship as well, so when the customer returns, they are also likely to prefer the same server also. If the customer has been there before, the staff member should talk about new
menu items, specials and promotions, upcoming events or anything else that might excite a returning customer.
Put effort into restaurant decor, holiday decorations, music and lighting. Add photo backgrounds for posting on Instagram or Facebook.
Encourage customers to post their experiences on Social Media as well with hashtags to use, photo contests and polls.
Host events for customers, offer something more than just order, eat, and leave, as they can literally do that at any other restaurant in the world. Try hosting game nights, theme nights, or even viewing parties for sporting events or special televised events.

When they are ready to leave....

When your customer is ready to go, keep the positive experience going through the check presentation and departure.

If you must add fees to the customer's check, make sure they are aware of it before they order. Put it on the menu, on tabletop displays, or have the staff inform customers of new charges or additional fees that will be added to their check.
Explain guest checks to your staff well enough that they can answer customers questions as they come up. It can be frustrating for a customer to ask a server why something on the guest check is there or what a charge is added to their check for, and the server doesn't have an answer. In the time it takes for that server to leave the table to find a manager, explain the issue to the manager and get back to the table, the customer might have come to the conclusion someone was trying to slip something past them, take advantage of them or blatantly overcharge them. If your staff can give them a reasonable explanation, the customer quickly moves on and forgets about it within seconds.
Have the staff take the time to invite every customer back in for a future visit. This is a simple gesture, and you might even say, of course the customer knows you want them to come back, but when your staff actually says, "Make sure you come back this Friday, we will have 'Steven Tyler' as live entertainment", or whatever reason they should return, that customer is likely to recall that later when making future dining plans.
As your customer exits, be sure to thank them in the same manner that you greeted them on the entrance. It reinforces to your customer that you know they have choices, and you appreciate them choosing to dine at your restaurant.

The restaurant customer's experience is what sets you apart from every other restaurant in town. As an independent restaurant, it is what potentially makes your restaurant better than the chains. You have the opportunity to build lasting relationships with the people in your town, and creating a memorable dining experience is what makes your restaurant a success. If you would like to discuss how you can improve your customer's dining experience, I'd be happy to meet with you to find ways to connect with your customers, keep them engaged, and turn them into your restaurant's loyal ambassadors. Call me today at (352) 888-4838 or email me at info@savoryservices.com.

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