Restaurant Customer Service - How to Get Repeat Customers

What is the customer's eye?

It is what the client observes, whether it's a pleasant sight that will cause that customer to state WOW, or a distressing sight that will develop a negative attitude. While your visitors are looking forward to service they are seated or standing and also have time and energy to observe your operations. Your guest sees everything, whether it's clean or dirty. Your guest can also hear everything such as for example: cooks arguing in the kitchen or the manager yelling at an employee. Do you really want to expose your dirty laundry to your customers?

In the restaurant industry you should crush your competitors. In today's economy it really is tough for restaurants to turn a profit and survive. It's not rocket science to figure out how to survive and even to succeed. It is vital for you to involve some experience in the restaurant industry to be able to understand what needs to be implemented in your restaurant. Unless you have that experience, then hire individuals who have experience and will invest in your success.

Your customer's feedback about your restaurant is crucial to your success. In the end, how are you going to know if your staff is doing the proper things for the proper reasons unless someone is observing them? Your customers see and hear everything while they're in your restaurant. What your visitors see and hear can make a huge effect on repeat business.

The next neglected areas will negatively impact repeat business:

Parking lot: Cigarettes and trash all over the parking lot. Trash cans smelly and full.
Hostess Area: Fingerprints are on the front doors. There is absolutely no one at the entranceway to greet the client. Employees are walking past the guest plus they are not acknowledging them.
Restrooms: Toilets and urinals are filthy. There are no paper towels or soap and the trash cans are overflowing. Baby changing station doesn't have sanitation wipes and is dirty.�
Dining Room: Dirty Tables and condiments dirty and empty. The floor is filthy and there are visible stains on the carpets. Service is slow or the servers are chatting with each other rather than paying attention to customers. Servers don't know the menu and can't answer questions.
Kitchen:Long check times. Cold food. Undercooked or overcooked food. Cooks talking too loud and the guests can hear the cooks using profanity. Food isn't prepared and all the menu items aren't designed for customers to order.
I am not saying that these things occur in your establishment, but what I am stating is that there are some restaurants that could have a number of of these issues. That is creating a negative outcome leading to dwindling repeat business.

Put yourself in the customer's shoes and see what they see and hear what they hear, the customer's eye.Train your managers to be proactive and head off the problems before they happen or escape hand. Eliminate all eyesores prior to the guest sees them.; Make believe you are the guest: start your inspection from the parking lot. Then do a complete walk-through of the entire restaurant and correct issues as you proceed. Create a list of things that require attention and delegate them to your employees. Be sure you do follow-up to guarantee the task that you delegated was completed properly.

Managers should be on to the floor during all peak times. They should be giving direction to the employees and conducting table visits to ensure the guest is fully satisfied. The managers ought to be on to the floor 90% of the time and at work 10% of that time period.

Here is the cool part. Do you wish to improve your customer service? In case you have answered yes, then the next part is not too difficult providing your managers are on a single page when you are and that they without fail correct any eyesores prior to any peak period.

There are lots of great resources to greatly help enhance your restaurant operation such as: Restaurant forms and checklists.

Restaurant front of the house checklists: Use an opening checklist to ensure your restaurant is ready prior to the restaurant opening for your day.  Click here  with a closing checklist to help close the restaurant properly and to create the opening shift. One way to keep your restrooms clean is to use a restaurant restroom checklist which ensures the restrooms are cleaned and stocked through the entire shifts. There are many different restaurant forms that could be applied to keep a clean, stocked and organized shift.

Restaurant server forms: I would suggest is the server steps of service form. This form can help increase overall customer service because it targets WOW service from the minute the client enters your restaurant all the way up until the client departs your restaurant. You can even utilize the server test or steps of service quiz to keep your servers knowledgeable.

Restaurant kitchen checklists: A Restaurant Kitchen Checklist is an excellent tool to be used to prepare the kitchen ahead of any meal period. The manager will conduct a walk-through in your kitchen looking for expired products, date dot use, and proper rotation of products. The manager will ensure that your kitchen is fully stocked and that all foods are at the correct serving or storage temperature.
If for some reason you are having difficulty or are frustrated in attempting to turn your restaurant around, then you may want to look for a specialist restaurant consultant to help facilitate your policies and procedures. The restaurant consultant can also show you in implementing quality training that you assist you to turn a profit.