Do you own a restaurant? Or are you about to start one up? Either way, you need to ensure your customers are going to be satisfied. This isn’t just achieved with good food, though…
Highly trained staff – and enough of them
Never underestimate the power of the best trained staff in the business. A lot of business owners just assume that people will pick it up as they go along. That being a waiter is an easy task that should come to anyone naturally. But customers can always tell when you’ve just thrown your staff in at the deep end.
Find some time to get some training in them away from the actual job itself. Having them trying to learn the basics during rush hour is not the way to go. You should also make sure you have enough of those highly trained staff to go around. When service gets spread too thin, waiters are unable to do their job with the attitude and attention they’d like to give.
Anti-Gordon Ramsay
If I had a penny for every time I’ve been in a restaurant and watched as a manager tried to imitate Gordon Ramsay… Well, I’d probably be as rich as Gordon Ramsay. I don’t necessarily mean that the manager of the restaurant is swearing at the top of their voice all the time. But they always seem to be putting their staff down, or being mean for the sake of it.
A lot of people who have worked in this business will know that the bosses can be very unreasonable. I suppose it’s a stressful business, but this behavior really just makes everything worse. When customers see you treat your cooks and waiters like trash, they have a bad time.
The bill
The last thing a customer experiences is paying the bill. That doesn’t mean it should be last on your list of things to improve, however. In fact, the final impression you make is the one they’ll be leaving with, and so will be the freshest in their mind in the future. Of course, when the billing process is quick, people barely notice it.
But if you take too long? Well, when customers ask for the bill, it means they want to leave. So however long you take to bill them, you’re holding them up. So it should be a priority for you that this process is made as quick and painless as possible. You may want to look into mobile credit card processing. This could be the fastest way to sort it all out.
Best menus ever
The amount of times I’ve looked at a menu and almost gone cross-eyed? I couldn’t count them all. The design of your menu is of the utmost important when it comes to complete customer satisfaction. A customer should be able to know exactly where to look at the first glance of the menu. Vegetarian and vegan options should be clearly marked. Categories of dishes – into type, nationality – should be separated. Make your menu accessible and a joy to look at. Consider working with a skilled graphic designer!
