Or are they? Keep your menu vibrant by referring to popular food blogs online. One week might be sweet potato toast and the next a chocolate crumpet, but soon customers will cotton on that you are go-to for all things trendy and healthy. Play around with example platters and spirit tasting nights, where you can showcase the goods you have on offer.
Ensure that you are well versed in dietary requirements; particularly vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free, sugar-free and low FODMAP. When it comes down to it, foodies are looking for adventure and surprise in their dishes, but they also tend to be ethical consumers.
Driven by environmental and health concerns, another way to impress foodies is by highlighting the organic meats and non-meat protein alternatives that you offer, and even offering these foodies a chance to create their own meals with the ingredients that you provide. This collaborative approach will encourage creativity, and create a truly unique experience that very few restaurants offer. Nothing aggravates a parent more than a hungry child and slow service. This will make the customer feel heard and important and increase their chance of returning to your restaurant in spite of a negative experience.
It's also important to gather as much feedback as possible and respond adequately. Consider setting up an automated post-dining survey to gather feedback from as many diners as possible, analyze the data on a daily basis, and take actionable decisions accordingly. One of the biggest negative aspects of a restaurant that holds back customers from visiting again is slow service and lack of attention by the staff.
If customers have to wait around for their food or have to wave their hands and shout out times to get the waiter's attention, then your customer satisfaction levels are definitely in trouble. Providing a seamless experience to customers from beginning to end is very important to ensure that your customers leave with a smile from your restaurant, this includes paying proper attention to each person that walks in.
Always pre-plan your shift , have a look at the number of upcoming reservations, and look at your restaurant data to identify the busiest periods and make staffing decisions accordingly. You can also set up your table layout in advance to make sure your staff does not have to waste time moving tables after the customers have arrived.
Train your staff to maximize their productivity and have a designated server for each customer and try not to overcrowd servers to ensure that each individual customer gets enough attention - starting from the welcome greetings to bringing in the cheque. The customer should never have to make extra efforts to reach their server. For the customers who keep coming back, an added personal touch can make all the difference.
Addressing them by their name, remembering their regular order, table preferences, and communicating with them when they stop by will really make your regular customers feel important and keep them coming back. A reservation CRM system can help make sure your staff has this info on hand when regular customers come back. Other gestures like a complimentary dessert or a personal greeting by the restaurant owner or manager can also increase customer satisfaction levels and build long-term relationships at barely any cost.
Offering loyalty programs to repeat customers is also another great way of maintaining a good relationship and high levels of customer satisfaction. One of the biggest reasons people don't come back to restaurants is long waiting times.
If your restaurant receives a lot of walk-ins, it's crucial to set up a waitlist management system that can help you handle crowds efficiently and ensure no one leaves with a negative experience. Invest in a waitlist management tool that can help you maximize your floor setting and seat as many diners as possible, provide accurate wait-time estimates, and keep guests updated about their table with constant messaging.
This way, people are much more likely to wait to dine at your restaurant. No matter how perfect everything at your restaurant may be - the food, the ambiance, the atmosphere, it's always the customer service that keeps people coming back. When people feel welcomed and important at your restaurant, that's when they turn from a one-time diner to a regular. Providing guests with a personalized experience - calling them by their name, being aware of their allergies and preferences, providing them the table they always like to sit on, etc.
At the end of the day, your restaurant's revenue depends mainly on these loyal customers, that always keep coming back for more. Make sure you're enhancing your guest experience in a way that creates an unforgettable memory for them, and you'll have a winning ticket in your hands. An occasional look at the reviews of your restaurant can give you a good idea of their performance.
In addition, you can take extra steps to ensure the quality of your restaurant service keeps improving, some of which would involve solo efforts on your part, as well as investment in technology. What are the questions operators must answer before greeting them? VIPinsiders, a platform run by fifth-generation restaurateur Philipp Sitter, took a unique approach to answering these dilemmas.
In about 24 hours, it received 8, responses. This seems a pretty standard reality for most. The below question, however, is harder to gauge or predict. And it might change quicker than people assume. Or much slower. That could turn into a hefty investment for multi-unit chains. Yet one they have no real choice but to shoulder. Some concepts have gotten creative with making their own in-store for first responders.
Perhaps that might turn into making masks for their own employees. In some states and local jurisdictions, face coverings are required by government officials; some employers require them, too. In all cases, those coverings worn by employees should be kept clean in accordance with CDC guidance and cleaned daily. You can find that here. This might be a larger concern for full-service operators, those restaurants that bring menus to the table.
Quick-service chains could, in theory, just take their menus off the dining-room floor and let people look solely at the menuboard. Or just have disposable to-go paper options for customers to grab if needed. Rewards Network offered up some marketing tips to help restaurants connect with consumers through to-go materials. That could also be a way to divert some consumers to direct delivery instead of third-party, if viable and desired. Operators are also finding success with incentives designed to encourage repeat business.
Things as simple as special offers for an appetizer, drink, dessert, etc. COVID has narrowed the decision-making process for diners. And now could be a great time to supplement a positive experience with a deal that inspires another one. If that is the case for your business, consider offering daily specials on Monday and Tuesday.
For example, Monday could be a day when you offer half off appetizers. Tuesday could be a day where you offer Happy Hour pricing for the entire afternoon. Those specials will help incentivize people to visit during times that are historically slow for your restaurant. Similarly, Happy Hour discounts are often used to draw in customers at times that are usually slow for your business. Many times, this is the downtime between the lunch rush and the dinner hour.
Use discounts and specials to get customers in the doors, and they will come back as long as the service and the food meet their expectations. As we said before, you simply cannot underestimate the power of the internet. While local gourmands and foodies used to only talk with your friends and coworkers about their preferences, now they have a much broader audience.
Whether they post reviews on Yelp, Facebook, or their personal blog, people with good taste and adventurous dining habits often find themselves with hundreds of followers in a short period of time. Reaching out to these people individually is a great way to use their social media influence for your benefit.
Offer them and a guest a free meal at your restaurant, provided that they do an honest review. You could even create a special for anyone who comes in from their review by creating a coupon code discount they can share with follows. This special discount appeals both to the ego of the blogger you reach out to and to the people who follow them online.
You could make hundreds of dollars in revenue off of one free set of entrees and desserts. People want more from local businesses than they did in decades past.
Many times, people come to physical businesses because they are seeking a sense of community. While you can achieve that to some degree with friendly wait staff and personalized service, that may not take it far enough. Consider what your business offers to its consumers and what you represent to the local community. Explore how you could create a community or group that would benefit from your business.
This is a low-cost way to drive engagement and interest in your eatery. For example, if you have smoothies and freshly squeezed juice, starting a support group for a day juice cleanse could be a great way to get repeat customers in the door every day for weeks. If you are an Italian restaurant, you might want to start an Italian club, where people learning the language come in weekly to practice and enjoy a glass of wine.
The options are as unlimited as the infinite variety of foods and cuisines available to restaurants. You can also choose to offer discounts to people who join your group, and remember that participation in the group being free will draw the most people. As a locally-owned small business, you probably worry that the expense of developing a proprietary app for cell phones and tablets is too much of an investment.
0コメント