8TIPS TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN RESTAURANTS

There are many reasons to improve the way you welcome guests to your restaurant.

Our top 8 tips for improving customer service in your restaurant

The first rule of greeting is politeness. It’s absolutely essential to use polite formulas, and we often refer to the SRAM formula. It’s a little memory aid to help you remember to smile, say hello, goodbye and thank you.

This makes your customers feel welcome. You’ll also put your guests in an excellent position to strike up a conversation with your team and start their dining experience! With a polite and courteous welcome, but without familiarity, your dishes will immediately have a better flavor.

Smiles and friendliness are the ingredients of a quality customer welcome. By ensuring that your welcome is warm and full of positive energy, you can build a climate of trust between your establishment and your customers. On a busy day, you and your colleagues must not communicate your bad mood or weariness to customers. You should also take care to avoid pessimistic and negative vocabulary.

Another golden rule of customer care: don’t leave customers waiting in the lobby. If they see that no one is interested in them, or that you’re too busy to deal with them, they’ll just want to turn around.

Pay particular attention to the appearance of your reception staff. Their physical appearance and manner of expression must be impeccable, as they are the first face guests see when they enter an establishment they may not know, and the one they will associate with your brand.

So make sure your staff respect a dress code that’s more or less precise, but always neat and tidy.

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Personalization is the key to taking your customer reception to the next level. Make your guests feel that they’re unique, not just another customer to boost your sales. As soon as they enter your restaurant, study their gestures and facial expressions, and ask yourself the following questions:

Does this customer need to be taken care of?

Is he looking for something specific?

Etc.

All this will enable you to adapt your welcome to the personality and needs of each customer. All these attentions can help you stand out from your competitors’ restaurants, where customers will feel less valued.

If he’s a loyal customer, refer to a past conversation. If their favorite table is available, make sure you reserve it for them.

Every time you enter a store, you’re conducting a little investigation. By observing your customers or engaging them in conversation, you must be able to discover the purpose of their visit and their needs, in order to satisfy them fully. The quality of your customer service depends on your ability to listen and observe.

In most cases, the people passing through your door will be coming for lunch. Be considerate , and offer to take their coats, strollers and bags off their hands, so that they’ll feel at ease in no time.

When it comes to pampering your customers, nothing should be left to chance, especially not the decoration of your entrance. As well as being clean and tidy, it should immerse your customers in your concept and put them at ease.

Take care not to set up tables too close to the entrance, to encourage customers to push open the door and enjoy a pleasant, dedicated space while you welcome them and a seat becomes available.

Point number 8 is closely linked to point number 3, “Make yourself available”. One of your objectives as a restaurateur is to eliminate idle time. The seconds or minutes that elapse between the moment a customer enters your establishment and the moment they place their order is unnecessary latency. It costs you money and often irritates your guests.

To avoid this, you can rely on order kiosks, for example. These are usually installed close to the entrance and allow customers to quickly order their meal.

Another solution, the QR code, enables your customers to order quickly and autonomously! Because the service is faster and more efficient, the customer experience is more pleasant.