Questions to Consider
Why did you choose the restaurant to dine in? What was it about that particular property that influenced your decision?
- Was it conveniently located?
- Was it a newer restaurant a colleague recommended or a spot you've been going to for years?
- Was it price or the type of cuisine?
- Did the décor or ambiance influence your decision?
- Do you shop around or call other restaurants to find what would best fit your needs?
- When calling for reservations or information, does the tone of the voice influence your decision?
- Do you expect to find something unique, tailored to your expectations, economic means, and style?
Once you have chosen and enter the restaurant, what did you expect?
- A friendly face and an escort to a clean table?
- A welcome by a server who presents menus and offers to take a beverage order while the menus are reviewed?
- A prompt return by the server with your beverages and an explanation of specials and/or menu items?
- The taking of the food order and a presentable, accurate, reasonable delivery of your food items?
Consider how you reacted to any of the following:
- Did a server try to up-sell you on something you didn't want?
- Did you not receive immediate attention?
- Did a server not listen to you or bring the wrong order?
- Was the staff at large rude or make you feel out of place?
- Did you overhear front of house staff gossiping or complaining about customers?
- Were you overcharged on your bill?
Now think about your customer's expectations. Why did they choose your establishment? There are many combinations of reasons customers choose one restaurant over another, however, once they walk through that door, they expect good service and good food.
Put yourself in your customer's shoes and evaluate your business from that vantage point. Ask your staff the same questions and seek their input on ways to improve customer service. Compliment your staff on a job well done, and work on those areas that need improving.
Solutions
- Greeting
If a friendly face isn't greeting guests, hire a hostess who is smiling! The hostess is often the first person customers meet. It is their first impression of the property. A curt response from an overworked hostess is hard to recover from. How do you respond when you are the customer? More often than not, the entire evening is spent critiquing the restaurant. Anything else that isn't up to par gets added to the list of why not to return.
- Space
What about the dining area? Is it maintained and kept clean? Depending on the style of restaurant, certain properties can get away with a little more than others can. For example, the counter at a busy diner with a few plates and cups on it that are cleared in a reasonable amount of time won't offend customers. However, seating customers at a dirty table at a casual or upscale restaurant is risky. The higher the check, the higher the expectation, particularly in cleanliness.
- Acknowledgement
An acknowledgement of newly seated customers by the server is important. Even if the server is busy, stopping by the table to greet customers lets them know they matter, they've been seen. It is reassuring and quite simple: "Hi how are you tonight? I'm Scott and I'll be right back to take your beverage order." Customers aren't blind and they can see when a server is really busy. The ones who take the time to let customers know what is going on can guide their customers and truly take care of them throughout their dinner. Customers can trust their server because it's clear they are paying attention.
- The Sale
Sometimes the most difficult thing to teach staff is how to read customers. How do you know when to suggest an item and when to leave it alone, particularly if there are certain goals to obtain? Chances are that asking your lunch customer what cocktail they'd like to start out with won't win any points because most people work during the day and don't drink alcoholic beverages. So, a goal to increase bar sales during lunch may result in frustration on both the customer's and the server's behalf.
- Smart Marketing
Focus your marketing efforts on popular lunch items (soups, salads, or sandwiches) and reward servers for sales of key items. Because the basic needs of a lunch customer are quality food at a bargain price in a reasonable amount of time, creating incentives for sales of these items will not only meet the demands of your customers, it's an attainable goal that your servers can achieve.
- Up-selling
Sometimes customers take offense to the "up-sell" of an item, particularly if they don't like marketing. Again, think about how you might react to the situation as the customer. Do you like to be talked into an import beer when you prefer a domestic? It's hard to gauge which customers want more information and which ones just want what they ordered.
Because bar beverages are mostly the area for up-selling, make sure servers maintain a current knowledge of menu items. Product information is also very useful. For example, if you're trying to convince a customer to try a brand of gin, it helps to explain why they are different, why one tastes better than the other.
Customers crave product information and the more the staff is provided with, the more prepared they are to answer questions.