The Restaurant Biz Blog

How Great is Your Customer Service?

When guests come to your restaurant, you should treat them as if they are friends visiting your home. Treating your guests with care and providing an exceptional place for them to enjoy a meal is part of the reason they will come back to your restaurant again. They also expect quality in every aspect of the restaurant. Guests are looking for a value in the things they see, taste and touch, and so providing them with exceptional quality will certainly leave a good taste in their mouths; here are a few tips.

Food Quality

Food and beverages are probably the biggest indicator of quality that a customer notices. Food quality is not only important to the customers' impressions of the overall restaurant experience, but it is important for the their health, as well. Guests' health should never be compromised. Although not all restaurants can boast the best quality food in town, they can still take measures to ensure that food is stored and prepared safely. Take the following considerations when assuring food quality in your restaurant:

• Be sure to follow proper first-in, first-out (FIFO) rotation with all food products.
• Properly label and date all food products.
• Never serve food that has expired.
• Prepare products safely, avoiding cross-contamination with dangerous bacteria or cross contact with allergens.
• Wash hands before and after handling food products.
• Prepare and serve foods at proper, safe temperatures.
  

Quality Atmosphere

When guests enter your restaurant, they should feel as though they are in a special, comfortable place. Try these suggestions to create a superior ambience in your restaurant:

• Consider your concept, and be sure the strength of the light suits the tone you wish to portray to your guests.
• Make sure the volume of your music is audible but not distracting. Music should help create the ambience rather than overwhelm it.
• Decorate your restaurant with a special, unique theme or focal point.
  
• Even a quick-service restaurant needs to demonstrate a high standard of cleanliness for customers to feel good about the quality of food.
  
• Maintain a comfortable inside temperature in your building. 70°F is usually acceptable. Minimize drafts or hot spots from lights as much as possible.

Memorable Service

Perhaps even more important than food quality is the service the customers experience from the time they enter the restaurant until the time they walk out the doors. Although restaurants thrive because of sales, the sale should never be put before the customer's needs.

How to Speak with Customers

In any restaurant or food service environment, speaking to customers should always involve the utmost respect and courtesy. This goes for all workers, from drive-thru attendants to servers at fine dining establishments. This is rather idealistic. However, restaurant workers should follow these general guidelines when speaking with customers:

• Use respectful titles, such as "sir" and "ma'am."
  
• Be optimistic, and speak with a smile.
• Never interrupt or talk over guests' conversations if you can help it,
• Know your menu so you can speak intelligently to educate guests.
• Listen with respect and care to what the customer has to say.
• Be sure you ask questions to clarify a customer's order if there is any confusion.
• Be honest and straightforward with customers at all times, especially if there is a problem.

How to Serve and Clear Food

Serving etiquette varies depending on the restaurant serving type. The restaurant types where this matters the most are upscale or fine dining restaurants. Managers should train their servers in proper table etiquette if they are unsure of how to proceed in a serving or clearing situation. The following tips describe the basics:

• Service order is usually an important standard upheld in fine dining restaurants or formal banquets. In these dining establishments, it is appropriate to serve the guest of honor first, then the female guests and then the males. In less formal restaurants, it is acceptable to simply serve women before men.
• Servers should serve and clear food from the diner's left side. Some formal restaurants advise serving with the left hand for these tasks. Serving from the left is best since most diners are right-handed. Politely excuse yourself if you find that you are interrupting or reaching.
  
• Serve or pour beverages from the diner's right side since that is usually where the glasses are set on the table.
• Serving food, servers and food runners should not call out entrées to see whom at the table claims the dishes. Servers and food runners should have a system to identify which plates correspond to which guest without having to mimic an auction house.
• Good service extends beyond the meal to the entire length of time the party is inside the restaurant.
• Unless otherwise requested, clear all plates and empty glasses at the same time, and before presenting the check.

Caring for Upset Customers

Now and again there are bound to be problems. A customer may be dissatisfied with his meal or may find the quality to be below his standards. Sometimes guests will find the need to vent anger or annoyance before the problem can be resolved. Be sure to train servers the proper ways to handle customer complaints. The manager should also visit the customer to ensure the resolution met their expectation. Retaining upset customers can be a challenge. When you put in the effort and respect to recover distressed customers, you may be able to convince them to return to your establishment in the future.

 

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