Learning the Importance of Quality and Customer Service in Restaurants

Running a restaurant is complicated due to the nature of the business (serving food) but the market conditions only contribute to make it more difficult. Restaurants that want to flourish should learn the importance of quality, with independence of how tasty your menu, how fashion your place, or how famous your clients, customers will not come back if they perceive bad quality and have bad experience with your service. People can get food anywhere so what will differentiate your restaurant from the others? These little quality and customer service practices could give you a place above the competition.

On one hand, to deliver a good customer service:

1. FIX PROBLEMS INMEDIATELY – It is important to deal properly with customer problems because having dissatisfied customers is a cost for your business. Good problem solving people and correct interactions between clients and staff are mandatory to avoid losing a client and also future guests. Train your front-line staff to deal with problems and succeed at it, remember that a non-satisfied customer will spread a bad experience more than four times a satisfied customer does.

2. BE FRIENDLY AND PROMPT – Training employees to offer a good customer service will help you but in order to offer great customer service you must hire people who love to serve, who are friendly, cheerful and share the values of your restaurant. For example, waiters and hosts who ask customers about their day could make the service look exceptional. Also, staff must learn to take care of customers´needs in a right time frame this could be encourage by asking them to keep lists of customer needs or to care for one customer before moving on to the next.

3. TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS – Look for constructive feedback and ask questions about the food, the service, and their expectations (this action can be rewarded with free drinks, desserts, discounts, etc.). By doing so you will contribute to make them feel valued and your business will easily obtain keys to success.

Happy waiter

On the other hand, good quality in restaurants can be shown if you:

4. MAINTAIN CONTINUOS IMPROVEMENT – By paying attention to what the competitors are doing, customers´reviews or in-site observations you will be able to identify potential areas for improvement and your restaurant will be a reference of quality. Also, track mistakes and unnecessary waste and find the reasons why they occur and how you can avoid them. Mistakes and waste cost money to the company so improve also means save money for your business.

5. SET CONFORMITIES AND NON-CONFORMITIES – This can be applied to food but also to employees. Train your staff with clear guidelines in order to make sure that the defined service is being delivered according to the standards. Do the same with the cooking method and the final presentation of your meals; never accept a service or a product that mismatch your own expectations.

6. ORGANIZE QUALITY CIRCLES – These are groups of voluntary employees who are in charge of making a business better. In order to make effective quality circles, let them pursue their own agenda, analysis, goals and just schedule a time to present their findings. The purpose of this activity is not to solve a particular problem but to create engagement around the process of finding concerns.

Main course in a restaurant

References:

Morley, M. (2016), What Are Examples of Good Service in the Restaurant Industry? Chron. Available from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-good-service-restaurant-industry-38058.html

Thompson, M. (2016) How to Improve Customer Service in a Restaurant. Chron. Available from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/improve-customer-service-restaurant-40461.html

Inc. Staff (2016) 5 Ways to Improve Quality. Inc. Available from: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/09/5-ways-to-improve-quality.html