Addressing Pain Points In Guest Experience

Your guests’ experience is intrinsically tied to the success of your restaurant. For example, an exemplary experience can turn a one-time diner into a loyal customer and a brand ambassador, who is motivated to speak highly of your restaurant to friends and family as well as positively review you. On the flip side, a dissatisfied guest may never dine at your restaurant again or go as far as speaking and writing negatively about your restaurant. These actions both indirectly and directly hurt your bottom line.

Bad customer service reaches more than twice as many people as praise for a good service experience.

The impact of a negative experience is unfortunately weighted against you; notably, the White House Office of Consumer Affairs reports that bad customer service reaches more than twice as many people as praise for a good service experience.

With customers’ soaring expectations and the increasing competition in the market, your restaurant needs to meet and exceed your guests’ expectations. If your customer retention is suffering, there’s a proliferation of negative feedback, or your sales are dropping, you need to address the pain points in your guests’ experience.

A Consumer Reports survey spoke to over 1,000 diners to identify Americans’ most common restaurant complaints. We’ve focused on four major complaints and how they can be easily be remediated with the restaurant technology.

Inaccurate Orders

Sixty-two percent of respondents cited inaccurate orders as a major complaint, and their gripe is losing you money and customers. There are costs to your business associated with remaking a dish: food waste, productivity, and time. Not to mention, the most expensive cost, which is losing a customer due to poor service.

The effectiveness and productivity of your back of house is critical to produce accurate, on-time dishes. Improve order accuracy by using a Kitchen Display System (KDS), where orders get sent to the kitchen automatically from servers along with any special requests. There is no need to wait for the paper trail. This reduces confusion in the kitchen and eliminates the need to print multiple paper records. The KDS also seamlessly syncs with multiple channels, including self-service kiosks, mobile app, and online ordering, ensuring an in sync front of house and back of house.

Slow To Seat

Fifty percent of respondents complained that their table was not ready more than 15 minutes past reservation time. When servicing time-starved consumers, it’s imperative to recognize that their time is hugely valued and that failing to meet their reservation expectations can cost you business.

Know the status of each table, so you can quickly seat incoming guests with table timers. This feature will allow you to change colors over the course of a meal based on wait time. Whoever is staffing the table can maintain consistent check-ins with a table over the course of a night to ensure your customers are happy and feel taken care of; all while, the host has optimal transparency of when the table will be turned.

Inaccurate Checks

Forty-eight percent of respondents complained about inaccurate calculations on their check. Manual accounting leaves plenty of room for human error and miscalculations that can easily perturb or frustrate your guests and shortchange your business.

Thanks to general bookkeeping, the orders are automatically synced and coupled with the table layouts, so you don’t have to do the math. You can easily split bills for any number of situations and payment types. The staff can even divide orders based on individual seat numbers to accommodate parties with varying order sizes, ensuring accurate checks for each individual.

Slow Service

Fifty-one percent of respondents complained about slow service. In similar vein to slow seating, guests can easily be frustrated by the time it takes to get food on the table. Avoid “hangry” guests with a robust business management platform.

Through a centralized piece of technology, you can track the status of each order with the KDS. An automatic time counter begins so you can see how long customers are waiting for their orders to be completed and how much time it takes for items to be prepared. Here you can easily manage how long it’s taking to serve your customers and make adjustments accordingly.

Additionally, with a mobile POS you can accept online and mobile ordering requests, from anywhere. The quick ordering process can help to minimize lines at the restaurant and keep both in-house and on-the-go customers happy.

According to Harvard researchers, you can expect to increase your profits from 25 percent -125 percent if you increase repeat customer visits by just five percent. By deploying restaurant tech, you can ensure the success of your guests’ experience, and ultimately the success of your restaurant.