Most Common Quality and Customer Service Mistakes in Restaurants

According to Chef Rocco in his reality television program titled “The Restaurant” nine out of ten new restaurants fail in their first year. Lack of quality management and poor customer service are among the reasons as also these two factors determine the restaurant´s level of success.

In restaurants quality means “to satisfy the clients´expectations”, it implies that the features of our products and service must be aligned with the client´s desires. As a business, restaurants design the way they will deliver the service and the product according to established standards but sometimes what is designed is not delivered.

If you pay attention to these common mistakes and avoid them, your business will be able to provide an outstanding product and customer service:

1. TAKE QUALITY FOR GRANTED – Although it sounds unbelievable many businessmen take quality for granted, they think it is a waste of time paying attention to product and service details and only care about the “numbers” and offer top products. However, quality does not mean “the best”, the idea of quality as a lux is old-fashioned and now it has to do with technical and economic measures to have the right impact on customers. Do not take quality for granted and dedicate time to define, communicate and rethink quality and customer service standards.

2. IGNORE WHO YOUR CUSTOMER IS – Quoting Tapan K. Bose “quality must bring in prosperity and raise the standard of living”; how can a business achieve this goal without knowing who are they selling to and why? Listen to your customer if you want to know where to move next because it is a great opportunity for the company’s improvement but also for success. Many businesses act in their own self-interest ignoring their client’s needs and complaints hence creating a negative perception about their product or service.

3. POOR COMMUNICATION – Effective teams are characterized by professional communication. In restaurants everything must be integrated and coordinated so to communicate plays an important role on determining success since any failure on this area will lead to detrimental effects on the company´s efficiency, customer satisfaction, profits and market share. We can avoid it by ensuring that our employees are kept up to date, fully understanding of their roles and work within the company guidelines. Each of them is a pillar to achieve goals and to make customer satisfied so let’s talk continually.

4. INADEQUATE EMPHASIS ON HIRING AND TRAINING – A restaurant is a team, a group of people and they must work towards the business goal. Quality should involve all the organization and it requires putting time and effort into hiring and training, these two actions will be translated into profitability and your current and future customer database will also gain.

5. LACK OF COMMITMENT – A restaurant employs people and work directly with them; some may want to do things on their own way so it is important to maintain control of the staff, set values, guidelines, objectives and standards. If this happen employees must be able to respond to any inconvenient in line with the organization and small incidents will not escalate and jeopardize financial viability.

References:

Abu-Yousef, R. (2008). Top Ten Reason Restaurants Fail. Restaurant Innovations. Availbale from: http://www.r-innovations.com/ReasonsRestaurantsFail.html

Sidney, G (2016). Restaurant Failure Rates. Restaurant Owner. Available from:

Bose, T. (2011) Total Quality of Management, Chapter 1: Perspective of Total Quality. Available from: https://goo.gl/Qm77mP

Kalb, I. (2012) Here’s What Happens When You Don’t Listen to your Customers’ Complaints. Available from: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-happens-when-you-dont-listen-to-your-customers-compiants-2012-1