Customer service is the cornerstone of a great restaurant experience, but what does that mean exactly?
While each customer’s preferences are different, there are a few markers that standout restaurant experiences share in common.
We set out to define the factors that make for a great customer dining experience because ultimately that’s what generates positive online reviews, compels more diners to book online reservations and skyrockets your revenue per service.
What makes a great restaurant experience?
What consumers expect from a restaurant experience certainly varies depending on the restaurant type, but there are some fundamentals that separate the great restaurant experiences from the forgettable ones.
1. Friendly, personalised service
Guests want to feel human, not like a number that servers rush out the door to maximise profits.
The opportunity to deliver a human experience starts with your hosts and servers. They’re the ones your guests will engage with as soon as they walk in and throughout their meal. Guests want sincerity and positivity, someone who is as excited to serve them as they are to be enjoying a meal out.
How can you make sure that this is the case? It starts during the hiring process.
Some restaurant owners put people applying for host and server positions through a five-second likability test. It may seem like not very much time to pass judgment on someone’s character, but ultimately that’s how long it takes for a guest to decide whether or not the people serving them are likable.
Hiring candidates with outgoing personalities, the ability to multitask, move at a fast pace and perform under pressure with a smile, is a rewarding benefit.
To do that, a timed assembly test that simulates the pressure of a busy Friday night service, can be very helpful in testing for their ability to handle pressure gracefully. If a candidate is too focused on the task at hand, they may not be able to balance interacting with guests and making them feel comfortable at the same time.
Tips for friendly, personalised service
While part of delivering friendly, personalised service comes down to your server and host’s personality, there are two simple, scientifically-backed things they can do to increase their likability and their ability to upsell and cross-sell menu items in the process.
Address guests by their name
It’s a simple tactic that makes your service more personalised and friendly. Plus, there’s science to back up the notion that when people hear their first name, it triggers a unique reaction in their brain.
Research has shown that hearing your name triggers brain activity in the brain’s middle frontal cortex (which is associated with social behavior), the middle and superior temporal cortex (which is associated with long-term memory and auditory processing) and the cuneus (which is associated with visual processing).
Remembering a person’s name is one of the six ways to make people like you. And when people like you, they’re more likely to listen to your suggestions (like when your server suggests a wine that pairs well with their dish, for instance).
Remembering and calling your guests by their name is the first step in delivering friendly, personable service. Plus, it can lead to more success in cross-selling and upselling menu items, which results in more revenue per table served.
2. Consistently great food
The food you serve is the cornerstone of your business and certainly influences how guests perceive their restaurant experience.
Food quality can suffer when there’s a lack of emphasis on quality control or when there are miscommunications between guests, the server taking their order and kitchen staff preparing that order.
Your cooks should consistently evaluate the dishes they’re preparing to see if they have the flavour profile they want before it’s served.
Your food runners should verify each dish’s plating and presentation and make sure that it’s up to standards.
Empower each of your staff, from the cooks to the runners, to focus on food quality and presentation and to hold one another accountable. Each menu item that you serve shapes how guests perceive your establishment and their dining experience as a whole.
Presentation matters
The way your dish looks is proven to influence how well a guest thinks it tastes.
It’s suggested that food presentation can actually make a dish taste better.
In a study, 60 people were given three salads and asked to rate each one both before and after they ate them. Each salad used the same ingredients but they differed in their presentation.
One was put together with no effort given to its presentation, one was neatly arranged and the third was made to resemble a painting by artist Wassily Kandinsky.
Can you guess which of the three salads the study participants thought tasted better? It was the salad that resembled the painting.
In fact, participants thought it tasted 29% better, even though it used the exact same ingredients. They were even willing to spend up to three times more on the beautifully-plated dish.
3. A memorable atmosphere
From your color scheme to your furniture choices and lighting, your establishment’s aesthetic is an extension of its brand and a powerful way to generate interest in and drive traffic to your restaurant.
Adhere to a concept
The foundation of a restaurant’s atmosphere is built from the moment you choose your restaurant’s concept. From that point on, the concept should be considered in every decision that potentially shapes the restaurant’s atmosphere.
Sometimes, the concept won’t need a specific atmosphere to make it feel authentic. A modern steakhouse, for example, doesn’t have a precedent. Customers don’t have a preconceived notion of how this type of establishment is supposed to look and feel. Even when there’s no blueprint for creating a good restaurant atmosphere, the atmosphere still matters.
Keep decor and furnishings consistent
Diners are more likely to respond positively when the wall decorations, paint colors, furniture and decorative accents are all part of one cohesive theme. Consistency is key in creating a restaurant design that contributes to a memorable restaurant atmosphere.
Soften the lighting
Restaurant lighting has a huge effect on the ambience. Some fast food and fast casual restaurants go with bright, fluorescent lighting. However, at sit-down locations, a comfortable, warm light is more inviting and appealing to guests.
As a general rule of thumb, harsh lighting isn’t conducive to a good guest experience because it contributes negatively to your restaurant’s atmosphere.
Choose music thoughtfully
The music that you play should contribute to a positive dining experience for guests. For example, while fast casual and fast food dining establishments can get away with nearly anything in the way of music, loud or hard-charging music is not the ideal choice for an upscale dining experience.
The volume at which music is played also matters. If music is too loud, diners typically attempt to talk over the music. This increases crowd noise, which generally isn’t a positive contributor to the overall dining experience.
Design with Instagram in mind
Instagram is a visual platform that 60% of its users use to discover products and places. You can attract guests by using the platform to show off your beautifully-plated dishes and trendy decor.
With venues in Sydney’s CBD and the eclectic suburb of Newtown, Continental Deli knows how to leverage their ambience, decor and food presentation in their Instagram feed.
The right decor encourages people who discover your restaurant through Instagram to make a reservation, document their dining experience from the food to the decor and share it with their Instagram followers. This is what we call user-generated content (UGC), and it’s probably the most authentic type of marketing out there (in other words, it actually works).
You can even repost the best-looking posts on your restaurant’s Instagram feed to drive more engagement. User-generated content posts receive 28% more engagement than other types of social posts, partly because they’re perceived as more authentic.
Part of why this UGC content is perceived as more authentic is because it isn’t created by the people who run the restaurant. It’s created by customers. It’s an honest depiction of what other guests can expect if they dine at your establishment.
Include user-generated content to add social validation (also known as social proof) to your restaurant’s social media marketing mix.
Repost: Sebastien Rankin 25.03.21
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or email us: inspire@designfocus.com.au