May 21st, 2024
Your restaurant’s reputation is built not just on food or price but also on customer service quality. Repeat customers, positive reviews and referrals also depend on the quality of service offered by your restaurant.
In this article, you’ll learn the top strategies you can use to improve the guest experience and service quality at your restaurant. It all starts with front of house operations and especially waitstaff. Here are the best ways to improve service quality at your restaurant.
A simple smile can go a long way in providing positive customer experience. Asking your waitstaff to greet guests politely and warmly, with a generous smile on their faces, will boost customer service quality. Plenty of research supports the fact that guests have more positive experiences with smiling employees. Since good first impressions are crucial in the hospitality industry, your servers should be well aware of how a smile can impact a customer’s perceived service quality and waitstaff’s tips.
Alongside a smile, polite and authentic communication is the key to providing quality customer service. Have your staff treat your guests with respect, but avoid encouraging fake or over-the-top politeness. Instead, promote authentic interactions that are built on a genuine desire to help the customer.
If customers have questions, they typically want quick answers. Your serving staff needs to memorize every aspect of your restaurant’s menu, from the wine list to the daily specials, to answer questions about how the meal is prepared or what drink pairings would go well with the chosen food. These prompt responses will impress customers and improve their overall experience.
Customers expect their meals to be structured in a certain order. If their food comes jumbled up or at staggered times, it could diminish the quality of service. Make sure your staff serve drinks, starters, mains, sides, and desserts in that order, ensuring that everyone at the table receives their food at the same or very similar times.
Special requests are common in restaurants, and servers must be equipped to handle these effectively. For example, if a guest asks for a dish to be made without onions, your server should politely accept and relay this information to the kitchen staff.
Other times, customers may want the music turned down a little or an extra spoon to share one dessert between two people. Whatever their request, encourage your servers to do their best to accommodate the guests where feasible.
I’m sure you’ve been to plenty of restaurants where the waiter comes over mid-meal to check that everything’s okay. This is a practical customer service strategy to show the guests that they’re still being looked after. It also gives the guest a chance to ask for things like more water or more sauce or just to raise any questions they may have.
Food allergies are incredibly common in North America, and they’re on the rise. According to FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), the most common food allergies in adults are shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, and milk. These ingredients are found in many restaurants, so your serving staff must be trained to spot signs of an allergic reaction and handle the situation appropriately.
Waiter training is an ongoing process. Your servers should be constantly looking to learn and grow, and a big part of this is receiving feedback and criticism, either from customers or from management staff. As a restaurant boss, it’s your job to give constructive criticism that works. This could include balancing negative and positive reinforcement, demonstrating empathy, and being consistent in your delivery.
Working in a restaurant means that servers will be on their feet almost constantly. Investing in high-quality shoes that fit the dress code can improve the comfort of your staff and reduce accidents caused by slippery floors or broken glass.
To help everything run smoothly, your front-of-house staff (servers, waiters, bartenders) must collaborate effectively with the back-of-house staff (cooks, chefs, dishwashers). Get your staff to befriend each other by hosting teambuilding events, ice-breaking meetings, or encouraging staff to take their breaks together. When employees are familiar with each other, they have a great sense of accountability and are less likely to commit errors. A friendly team environment can also translate into better customer service quality.
You can improve your waitstaff’s customer service by encouraging them to be friendly, polite, and attentive. Training them in correct restaurant etiquette and helping them learn the menu are also good methods for improving service, which in turn boosts your reputation and popularity.
Good manners and knowledge of the restaurant’s menu can go a long way in offering restaurant customers superior waiter service.
Service quality is one of the most important aspects of any guest experience at a restaurant. High service quality can increase repeat customers, positive reviews, referrals and boost restaurant’s reputation.
Average review ratings, average tip amount and repeat customer frequency are good indicators of how quality a restaurant’s service is.