How Google Reviews and Review Sites Have Changed Restaurant Customer Service
User reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and OpenTable have transformed restaurant customer service by making diners' experiences—both positive and negative—crucial to attracting customers, emphasizing the importance of promptly addressing complaints with active listening, sincere apologies, and effective solutions to foster customer advocacy and improve business success.
User-reviews from sources like Google, Yelp, and OpenTable have changed our approach to dining. According to RestaurantDive, “77% of diners check restaurant websites before visiting.” This means your customer experiences—good and bad—influence diners’ choices. The good news about bad reviews is that although they are inevitable, how you address them and the strategies you use to avoid them can drive the positive reviews that will bring diners through your doors. Ensuring customers have a great experience at your restaurant is essential to the success of your business while also helping your serving and kitchen staff make better tips—so it’s a win-win.
There are several things you can do to build and maintain a customer-service oriented food service operation:
1. Respond to all complaints
Whenever and wherever you receive a complaint, always address it. From small kitchen mishaps to large mistakes with detrimental consequences, taking accountability and offering a formal apology for a problem with service is the first step to having a good customer service-oriented culture. Restaurant Hospitality reported: “…addressing one customer’s complaint increases that customer’s advocacy by up to 25%, ignoring a complaint has the opposite effect, lowering advocacy by as much as 47 percent.”
Almost every diner has experienced a meal that is less-than-satisfactory at a restaurant. However, the way the restaurant responds to the complaint or feedback is what determines the relationship going forward.
So, what do you do when a customer has a complaint?
- Step 1: Actively listen to the customer, so they understand that you are taking their concerns seriously and so that you can appropriately determine how to solve the problem. Remain calm while listening and be prepared to take action to rectify the situation.
- Step 2: Offer an apology. Saying ‘Sorry’ goes a long way. Empathize and apologize.
- Step 3: Provide a solution. The solution can be in the form of a replacement meal, a discount, a gift card for a future visit, or if there is something reasonable in particular that the customer is seeking as remediation, try that route.
2. Build relationships with guests
Being customer-obsessed means knowing and understanding your customers. Greet customers at the door, maintain low wait times, and encourage polite and respectful dialogue to help leave a good impression every time. Relationship building can be as simple as addressing guests by name and can go further when you have a loyalty program in place that allows you to understand and learn customer behaviour and preferences. Being friendly and engaging with your visitors helps to build personal relationships. It’s no secret that people buy from people they like—so be likeable, friendly, and interact.
3. Welcome and encourage feedback
Being able to embrace feedback is a critical part of delivering good customer service. All team members, from servers and cashiers to kitchen staff, should welcome customer feedback in order to help them improve. Encouraging your guests to give feedback through surveys and by providing incentives is a good way to keep a pulse on your customer service skills.
4. Train your employees
Having a well-trained staff helps to deliver an overall better customer experience, as they will be able to properly address questions on your menu, provide helpful recommendations, and reduce errors. When guests have inquiries, you want your team to be able to confidently and professionally provide responses, so conduct thorough onboarding and perform seasonal training sessions as your food and beverage offerings diversify. Food and beverage tasting is a great way to help your team interact with the menu and provide helpful recommendations—not to mention, who doesn’t love free food?
By focusing on customer service you can help drive your business’ success. Technology is also available to help support your team shorten wait times, reduce errors due to tableside ordering, and improve kitchen and order management. To learn more about how technology can help you deliver better customer service at your food service venue, talk to us today.
Related
Increase Average Check Size
The article explains how food service venues can increase their average check size by up to 50% post-closure or reduced service by training staff to use verbal upsell prompts and leveraging existing POS and self-serve kiosk technology to suggest high-profit add-ons and complementary items in a consultative, non-pushy manner.
A Dining Loyalty Program is Key to Success
Implementing a dining loyalty program—such as loyalty points, tiered rewards, or referral incentives—is essential for restaurants to enhance customer retention, increase revenue by encouraging higher spending and frequent visits, gain valuable customer insights, and differentiate themselves in a competitive market where 86% of customers prefer brands with rewards programs.
Balancing Speed and Personalization: How POS Tech Elevates Foodservice
The article discusses how modern foodservice operations use advanced POS technologies, such as self-service kiosks and tableside ordering tablets, to effectively balance the need for speedy service with personalized customer experiences, enhancing efficiency and guest satisfaction in various settings including quick-service restaurants, healthcare, and senior living communities.
Eat Better, Earn More: The Rise of Loyalty Points in Workplace Cafeterias - Volanté Systems
Volanté Systems highlights how workplace cafeterias are evolving into smart food ecosystems by integrating badge pay, loyalty points, and data analytics to incentivize and track healthier eating choices, thereby influencing employee behavior, improving financial outcomes, and enabling continuous optimization of wellness programs.
How POS Customer Displays Can Make You More Money
Customer-facing POS displays, commonly used in cafeterias, quick-service restaurants, and concession stands, enhance the customer experience by providing real-time order visibility, improving order accuracy, promoting specials and combos, and complying with certain legal requirements, while being customizable and available in various sizes to fit different budgets and spaces, ultimately helping businesses increase sales and streamline the checkout process.
Self-Service
Workplace cafeterias and foodservice environments are increasingly integrating technologies like badge pay, loyalty points, self-checkout systems, and automated hot food vending machines to promote healthier eating, improve operational efficiency, and better support busy employees—especially healthcare workers—by providing convenient, fast, and incentivized dining experiences.