Guide: How to Improve Customer Experience in Restaurants

There could be one really strong yet silent force that will play a major role in shaping destiny: the experience a customer has at a store. More than the great dishes one gets, it’s the warmth of a smile, the attentiveness of a server, and the environment that will turn a simple meal into an unforgettable journey.  

Imagine such a delightful dining journey that your customers can’t stop raving about you online, driving your ratings and reviews skyward. 

Indeed, Harvard Business School states that with each star increase on Yelp, your revenue increases 5–9%. Now, isn’t that just incredible? That’s the power of an outstanding customer experience. 

But what does that mean? How do you specifically ensure your guests leave your doors happy, already planning their return visit? 

In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of the restaurant customer experience and the strategies to achieve it.

Why is Customer Experience So Important for Restaurants?

Delivering a wonderful customer experience is crucial to any business, but for the restaurants, it’s paramount, since all their work is highly dependent upon the dining experience.

These days, customers have plenty of choices, and ensuring a great experience in your restaurant is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

As per the PricewaterhouseCoopers research, 74% of diners truly believe that a good consumer experience when dining out is higher than the average in any other industry.

Below are some of the reasons why building a better consumer experience is a necessity for your restaurant business:

1. Builds Profound Consumer Loyalty
   

   Customers come back for more of those ‘positive experiences’. Valued and enjoying a good dining experience, customers do repeat, most of the time. Building up repeat customers becomes essential for the long-term survival of any restaurant. In fact, according to Deloitte’s study, which explored about 60% of its research base, respondents would be willing to pay more for an enhanced dining experience. Even more so, existing satisfied customers often become brand ambassadors, freely spreading good word-of-mouth and driving new customers to the doors.

2. Drives Revenue Growth
   

   Happy and loyal customers spend more and refer more. Word-of-mouth recommendations and good reviews attract new customers and bring them in to spend more. This spending increase will exponentially improve your restaurant’s profitability over time. A moderate rise in customer experience generates an average revenue increase of $823 million over three years for a company with $1 billion in annual revenues. (Temkin Group).

3. Establishes Strong Brand Reputation.
   

   Great service is consistent service, and it yields a strong reputation that will attract new customers. A well-regarded restaurant is more likely to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace and attract a steady stream of diners. In fact, 46 percent of restaurant-goers, or 79 million consumers, report that positive online reviews made them more likely to dine with those restaurants. Through consistently high ratings and glowing reviews, you can ensure that your restaurant’s profile will rise and a continuous flow of new patrons ensues.

4 Key Tips and Strategies to Improve Restaurant Customer Experience

Now that you know what this superior customer experience offers, let’s get down to tactical ways of improving it. Here are four strategies to help you enhance the customer experience in your establishment; whether that is your simple diner or even a high-end restaurant, here is how you can make your restaurant stand out and provide a memorable dining experience.

1. Create a Welcoming Environment

Revamp Your Space

It will help you rediscover your restaurant space to create a warm and receptive environment that welcomes your customers and softly leaves a perfect first impression on them. To begin with, arrange the tables to give them comfort and flexibility, and separate them properly so that they could have enough space between them for ideal comfort, mobility, and privacy.

Include various seating configurations that provide space for small and large groups, allowing a flexible design to meet diverse clientele needs. Add a certain level of allure and modernity to the space by introducing design elements that brand your restaurant in terms of furniture, artwork, and interesting accents.

Enhance the experience of diners with warm lighting that evokes a mood. Employ ambient, task, and accent lighting to create a warm atmosphere in your establishment.

Refreshing the décor on a regular basis keeps it fresh and stimulates new and old customers alike to come in and dine with you and enjoy the ambiance.

Keep Your Team Happy

A great experience for your customer really begins with investing in the happiness of your team. Happy employees pass this happiness on to customers, leading to larger tips, higher customer satisfaction, and lower likelihood of leaving—reducing costs associated with hiring and training. Senior employees literally will know the menu inside and out, with a knack for upselling and personal recommendations for your customers.

When your team is happy, that’s very radiant, making for a nice ambiance—something the guests will feel. This infectious happiness makes them want to come back and recommend your restaurant. Better service quality equals increased customer retention.

This study indicates that 89% of customers would not return after their bad experience. The increased morale of the employees due to the appreciation in customer interactions helps hold more patrons and will ensure the perseverance of business success.

2. Make Dining More Convenient

Internet Orders and Reservations

Accessible web-based reservation services enable clientele to reserve tables from anywhere, thereby enhancing extra convenience from the client’s side while benefiting the restaurants with efficient ways to control table availabilities. Automated reminders and confirmations make it even more hassle-free.

You can also implement pre-ordering arrangements, where customers are facilitated to place orders prior to arrival, so everything goes in line for rhythmic dining. This mode reduces the delay in service delivery, ensures seamless service, and streamlines kitchen operations—especially during peak times.  

Second, real-time wait time and table availability updates inform customers and keep frustration to a minimum, thereby making the overall dining experience more enjoyable for them. It sets the stage for obtaining repeat business by paving your way to repeat business.

Implement Efficient Service Models

Servers, on the other hand, can take the order immediately by the table using their tablets or mobile apps, thus ensuring that there might be no errors and that the process is fast. This ensures that orders get quickly sent to the kitchen.

On the other hand, mobile payment options, including contactless cards and digital wallets, guarantee one thing at checkout: fast service and increased turns. This enables customers to trust in safe transactions.

You can also introduce self-service kiosks that allow customers to place orders on their own, especially during the busiest periods. Kiosks can reduce the workload on staff and give customers control over their dining experience whereby studies have shown that customers prefer having the majority of the control, hence giving customers increased interest in their dining experience.

3. Personalize the Customer Experience

Implement a Loyalty Program

Implement loyalty programs for the customers and send out a more personalized approach toward the customer. You make them repeat customers, and the rewards may be in the form of discounts, free items, or special events.

You can create an easy-point earning and redemption system that will help customers easily earn and redeem their points towards rewards to ensure participation and engagement. The clear instructions and the easy process through which customers are able to redeem their points will have them seeing the benefits that come with their loyalty. 

On the other hand, special deals and previews for loyal customers will make them feel appreciated and valued in their restaurant, thus strongly bonding with it.  

Give Customers Some Birthday Treats

Another good way to put a human touch on customer experience is by giving customers birthday treats. Having special deals on their birthdays, including a percentage off of food or a buy-one-get-one-free deal, really makes them feel special about eating at your restaurant.

Personal touches of messages or cards with their names tell them that you are aware that it is their special day and that you celebrate it with them. The surprise would be when you give them free dessert for their birthday; they will never forget that.

These personal touches will not only make your customers feel special but also create an emotional bond with your restaurant that will have them coming back for more and referring more customers to your place.

4. Upgrade Your Offerings On a Regular Basis

Take Inventory and Update Your Menu

A menu audit and regular menu updates will enable your restaurant to maintain fresh and contemporary offerings. Establishing activities that allow for constant gathering and evaluation of customer feedback for the menu items will be affirmatory in understanding what is working and what is not.

Regularity in the introduction of new dishes and seasonal specials will help in making the menu fresh and will enhance taste excitement for the clientele.

Also, high-quality standards control ensures menu items meet customers’ expectations, thereby enhancing overall satisfaction and customer experience. 

Obtain Customers’ Feedback For Informed Decisions

Customer feedback is very important for constant improvement. Conduct questionnaires regularly to get firsthand information from your customers regarding their dining experience and food preferences. In addition, tracking the online reviews and being responsive also helps keep up with the pulse of public perception and lets your customers know you take their thoughts seriously.

Furthermore, prompt feedback and more profound insights on specific aspects of your menu and service by using focus groups, deliver feedback from a small group of engaged customers. The continuous customer feedback will enable fully informed decisions promptly to adapt and improve customer dining experiences and keep offers relevant and attractive.

How KNOW App Can Elevate Customer Experience in Restaurants?

Ease of operations

The app deals with the scheduling of staff efficiently and allows you to plan and notify your staff about upcoming shifts right on their mobile phones. Automated reminders such as shift timings and late changes avoid no-shows and result in coming late to work, ensuring a restaurant maintains its threshold for staffing at all times.

The more advanced feature of “open shifts” can fill last-minute vacancies by itself to best manage the workforce schedule and bring forward a balance of full- and part-time staff in the setup. Knowing when your staff is available, planning their schedules, and tracking attendance lets you run a smooth and seamless operation—translating into better service for your customers.  

Effective Onboarding and Training

KNOW App greatly improves the process of onboarding and training your team. KNOW lets you design the personalized learning journey for new hires in small bites, allowing them to experience your company’s knowledge base anytime from any place. This would ensure that fresh blood begins not with a whimper but with a bang and is well-equipped to serve the customers in the best way possible.

Improves Communication

Moreover, real-time announcements not only ensure a seamless kitchen handover but also guarantee that appropriate opening and closure checklists are completed and that other crucial information, such as daily sales or wastage, is recorded to foster an effective and organized service environment. With all the details going hand in hand, through the use of the KNOW app staff are able to keep high service levels and, therefore, will deliver the best dining experience to every customer.

And are you ready to take it further?

KNOW App is the easiest way to get your restaurant started, without any hosting, infrastructure, or IT support—just ready to go, right out of the box. It’s very easy to use and highly flexible to adapt, granting you the ability to customize features, set tight access control, and configure settings based on your operational needs.

It has a lightweight architecture, is optimized for basic devices, and weighs very less on your device’s storage to make sure it works seamlessly, even offline, so it’s really well-suited for the fast-paced restaurant environment.

The interface for the KNOW App is user-friendly, hence accessible by all staff, both young and old, in all major countries, without language barriers. Being multi-lingual with a support base in all major languages, we assure you that support will come smoothly with a team of great diversity. We pride ourselves on great customer service—going out of our way to make sure you get the help you need to really use the app for all its worth.

This combination of convenience, customization, and support helps you quickly improve operations for your restaurant and the experience of its customers.

Ready to take your restaurant customer experience to the next level? Don’t miss out! Book your free demo of our KNOW App right now. Experience firsthand how we can enhance your restaurant’s service and customer experience.