Customer satisfaction is a key component of any service-based business, and for restaurant operators it’s often the primary goal. Restaurant customer satisfaction means guests being pleased with the food, service and even ambience, and is supported by all job functions. Successful restaurants measure this in a number of ways – loyalty, surveys, volume by guest count and by sales – but no matter which measure applies to your business, managing guest experiences is crucial.
Here are three key tips for how to improve customer service in a restaurant, straight from a former Front of House manager at a James Beard-nominated restaurant and mentor to over 200 restaurant managers and 1,400 servers:
- Know your customer, know your restaurant. Understanding how much the average guest spends, the hours that most guests dine and the most popular menu items allow you to price, schedule and promote intelligently and strategically.
- Make positive first and last impressions. Prompt and kind greetings and farewells from hosts, servers and managers show your guests that you are committed to hospitality. Use metrics like average check per person and per table size, tip percent and turn time to understand the proper capacity for each server to provide the best impression.
- Empower your service team. With the right approach to restaurant server and staff training, everyone on your team has the potential to enhance the guest experience and achieve higher average checks. Go beyond identifying your top and bottom servers and use specific category details to focus individual and team training opportunities.
Learn more about how you can increase your restaurant’s customer satisfaction levels.
