8 Ways to Improve Restaurant Customer Experience

From the minute they step into your door to the moment they leave, making your customers feel welcome is essential. But how does your restaurant management guarantee it happens every time, with every customer?

No matter how delectable your food is, your customers are less likely to enjoy it to the fullest if you don't serve it on time. Likewise, quick customer service won’t impress your guests if you fail to create an inviting restaurant ambience. Hence, several things go into providing excellent customer service.

While it takes time and effort to improve the overall customer experience of your restaurant, the benefits of providing an excellent restaurant customer experience make it worthwhile.

Generally, good customer service includes:

•         Creating a nice restaurant ambience.
•         Offering quick and courteous service to improve the guests’ dining experience.
•         Adopting technology to automate routine tasks. Restaurants can use the latest POS and online ordering systems for managing inventory and identifying their most loyal customers.

But that’s not all! There’s a lot more that goes into providing an impressive customer experience to new and frequent diners. A restaurant should also focus on catering to online users who frequently order food from them.

Best Ways to Improve Restaurant Customer Experiences

Here are the top 8 ways to improve your restaurant customer experience to keep them happy.

1.  Audit Your Menu

To ensure that you include all your target audience’s favorites in the menu, evaluate your menu periodically. For example, a restaurant can decide how to optimize its menu by keeping track of each menu item's popularity with a POS system.

Similarly, you can’t eliminate the dishes that aren’t doing well. However, these updates will reduce food waste, streamline inventory, and save staff time. Hence, your management will have more time to focus on providing an excellent restaurant customer experience.

In addition, making sure all your menu options fit with the purpose and theme of your  That will make your customers feel welcomed, and they will be eager to choose your restaurant when choosing dining options.

2.  Introduce a Loyalty Program

Another great way to improve your customer experience is to invest in restaurant customer engagement ideas. That means engaging your customers by offering incentives like a loyalty program.

Setting up systems to push restaurant guests to extend their loyalty is an excellent example of providing an exceptional customer experience. After all, who doesn’t want to win loyalty rewards and gift cards?

There are numerous benefits to offering loyalty programs or incentives. Employing a customer loyalty program or a loyalty rewards program motivates repeat visits. For example, rewards like small gift baskets, discounts, a gift card, or a free appetizer/dessert can encourage customers to revisit your restaurant.

In addition, your restaurant management will gain insight into your customers’ preferences which will help them optimize their menu according to their eating habits.

Ultimately, this strategy will bring in more repeat customers willing to spend more, generating more profits for your restaurant.

3.  Keep Your Team Happy

A happy staff is more courteous and welcoming. Everyone should be glad to be working for your restaurant, from your servers to your gourmet chefs.

How your staff connects with your customers reflects how happy they feel to serve your restaurant. As a business owner, one of your priorities should be to keep your team respected, engaged, and comfortable.

Taking care of your staff’s needs means paying them on time, making work shifts flexible, and automating tasks, so they don’t have to conduct everything manually.

Every restaurant management should hold regular feedback sessions with their employees. These discussions help owners identify problematic areas which need attention. In addition, make sure you frequently express your gratitude for their efforts.

4.  Create a Nice Ambience

Research reveals that frequent diners prefer a restaurant that has an appealing ambience. Creating an inviting ambience means upgrading your interior décor, providing comfortable seating furniture, and installing beautiful lighting fixtures to suit your customers’ moods and preferences. In addition, your cutlery, tableware, and food should be of the finest quality.

Using certain colors or a specific theme is one of the most popular restaurant branding ideas. Make sure you stick to colors from your logo or menu cards.

Another major factor that helps create the perfect restaurant ambience is lighting. Make sure the lights aren’t too dim or too bright. Warm and ambient lighting is ideal for the bar and dining spaces. The kind of cuisine you are offering at your restaurant also helps decide the type of lighting needed. For instance, if you are a burger joint, you can keep the atmosphere vibrant and well-lit. On the other hand, if you run a fancy dining restaurant, you can keep the lights dim to make the ambience more romantic.

Furthermore, consider the elements which your target customers find essential. That may include an Instagram-worthy décor or a speedy Wi-Fi connection.

5.  Make Reservations Easy

One of the first interactions new customers will have with your restaurant is when they attempt to make a reservation. Online reservations will improve customer satisfaction since they are quicker and more convenient for people who are always on the go.

Adopt an efficient online reservation system that allows you to keep track of repeat and new customers. This small step will go a long way to keep your guests happy and feel valued.

6.  Encourage Customer Feedback

Some guests don’t always come out and express their thoughts and experiences regarding their eating experience. However, customer feedback is a priceless source of knowledge to identify your restaurant’s strengths and weaknesses. Several ways can encourage clients to offer feedback, including asking for client feedback via forms, email, or other digital mediums.

7.  Invest in Staff Training

Customers can identify a trained staff and prefer dining at restaurants where everyone knows their job well. Providing basic and advanced training to your team will allow them to serve your customers more confidently. Offer employee development programs and on-site/off-site training opportunities for your chefs, servers, and management staff.

Familiarize your staff with technology. They should know how to work with mobile ordering systems. For instance, a server can take orders on a handheld device and send them to the kitchen directly. That’s a great way of reducing common errors in ordering.

8.  Collect Reviews and Conduct Polls

Customers are naturally more inclined to restaurants that collect reviews after every dining experience or hold frequent polls. Surveys that are part of digital receipts can be used to collect feedback for your restaurant, or you can ask for their opinions via third parties like TripAdvisor.

According to statistics, most dissatisfied customers would leave your restaurant without making any complaints. Giving these customers a chance to register their complaints will allow you to focus on areas of improvement.

Bonus Tip

Adopt an Online Ordering System
Companies like Uber Eats and Deliveroo are thriving, showing tremendous demand for delivery. Aspiring food truck owners or small business owners, who are starting up their restaurants, may need a website to process orders. So, how do they deliver to their customers and provide a memorable restaurant customer experience?

Any restaurant can integrate food delivery with an efficient cloud POS or online ordering system. These systems have several features to make online ordering a quick and convenient experience. Restaurants can also use a loyalty program to include a survey request or ask for reviews with every delivery order.

Get Book My Order to Provide Matchless Restaurant Customer Experiences

Do you want to offer the best restaurant customer experience? Are you having difficulty managing your customers’ online orders because you don’t have a business website yet?

Welcome to Book My Order. The application/online ordering system is becoming more popular among aspiring restaurant owners. This system offers an intuitive user interface and quick and efficient back-end and front-end processing capabilities.

Get this system today to provide convenience to users who want to order from your restaurant. Various payment options allow your customers to order food safely and quickly. In addition, a simple check-out process will ensure your customers keep returning to place more orders.

Whether your restaurant offers catering, takeout, or delivery services, you can do it with Book My Order. Contact us for more details and start providing excellent restaurant customer experience from today.