customer service | The Restaurant Guy

WAITSTAFF BEHAVIOUR

Thursday, January 24th, 2019

Unhelpful, surly waitstaff will drag down the mood at any restaurant!

In fact, unhelpful and unfriendly waitstaff may be the main reason customers do not return to your restaurant.

Don’t let it happen to you …..

It’s far easier to train an upbeat, fun person on restaurant service than it is to teach an experienced, grumpy person to be nice.

Remember, your restaurant is only as good as your worst team member, so don´t permit staff to remain if they are rude, condescending, surly or unhappy.

There are plenty of great people out there who want to work in your restaurant. Find them, train them, and improve your sales.

What are your thoughts on Waitstaff Behaviour ? Let me know in the comments!

WHERE IS THE OWNER ?

Thursday, January 10th, 2019

Restaurants are hard work. The hours are long, the work is tiring, and it can be repetitive. But if the owner doesn’t care enough about the restaurant to show up, why should the staff?

No one is going to step up their game until their boss tells them to.

The only person who can inspire and lead is the leader.

Absentee owners are a recipe for failure, precisely because it is presence and leadership that can turn around a failing restaurant, not an owner in hiding.

Owners often disappear when the sales start to fall or the job starts to seem less fun. But of course, that is exactly the time when the owner is the most needed.

That said, the owner can’t be expected to be there 24/7 and needs a life outside of the restaurant … so work – life balance is essential.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

POOR SIGNAGE

Thursday, October 25th, 2018

People will not know that your restaurant is there unless you tell them, so I see your Signage as one of the most important ways to tell the outside world who you are and what you are doing.

Consider these points:

Is the typeface easy to read? Your sign is not the time for cursive or strange typefaces.
Is it high contrast? Black on white is great; dark green on black, not so much.
Can you see the sign from the road?
Can you see it at night?
Is it well lit?
Can you read the sign from more than one direction? The sign boards should be readable no matter where you are coming from.
Is there a lit menu board outside the restaurant? The menu board is as important as any other sign. Without it, walk-by customers are likely to just keep walking.

What are your thoughts on the points above? Let me know in the comments!

MY RESTAURANT IS IN A BAD LOCATION

Thursday, October 11th, 2018

This is the one mistake that is almost impossible to fix.

You can fix terrible food, a badly thought out menu, awful decor, surly staff, incompetent chefs, missing signage or snail-like service. But after you sign the lease, you can’t do much about the location.

So this is one problem you have to prevent in advance.

Don’t believe what any landlord or real estate agent tells you. Verify everything yourself.
Check traffic patterns, both pedestrian and auto.
Check the noise levels of your neighbours.
Go by the venue at all times, mornings, afternoons evenings and late nights.
Some locations always see restaurant failures and for no logical reason. If more than one restaurant has failed in a location you’re considering, you might want to pass.
Consider neighborhood lighting and safety. Would you feel safe walking there at night by yourself?

Remember, this will be one mistake that may be impossible to fix so check, check and check!!

Let me know your thoughts on this blog post in the comments below!

DOES YOUR RESTAURANT OFFER PARKING?

Thursday, September 13th, 2018

This is not always the case … but more often than not, if customers cannot find a place to park, they may not come to your restaurant or at the very least; you are limiting your customer base.

So I think that parking needs be taken into account before the lease is signed.

Are spaces included in the lease?
Are they adequate to what you will need?

If there is no dedicated parking, count the spaces immediately surrounding your location.

Are there enough?
How much competition is there for those parking spaces?

Is there a public car park that’s close enough to become part of your parking?

Is the public transport good enough to make parking less of a concern?

If ‘none of the above’ apply to you … consider if you will you have enough pedestrian traffic to offset any lack of parking?

Let me know in the comments below your thoughts on this blog post!

Where is the Waitperson?

Thursday, August 9th, 2018

For a restaurant customer, one of the things that is most annoying is the disappearing waitperson.

Wait staff should always come back to the table after the order is delivered. First, they should check if everything is alright, and if the customer needs anything, and then they should return again later in the meal to check if the customer enjoyed the meal and would like to have something else.

This seems like a very simple thing, yet many restaurants I dine at or come across get this wrong every day. The only thing you can do is to train, retrain and observe carefully. This is an easy fix for many restaurants, yet many restaurants still get this wrong.

Every customer should receive a warm greeting when they enter your restaurant.

Every customer should be thanked for coming when they leave.

It is 10 times easier to retain an existing customer than to find a new one – and surveys often show that customers consider service and friendliness more important than food in a restaurant. Then why don’t all restaurants do this?

Your staff should be carefully trained on this skill. Being kind, warm and helpful will go a long way to building a loyal clientele and a successful restaurant.

Tag: customer service