Using Customer Service Skills for Restaurant Management (Infographic)

A set of customer service skills created by Nextiva was originally designed to inform trends in large corporations and online or phone assistance. However, it’s fascinating to see how the attributes that they ascribe to these kinds of customer service arenas translate perfectly to the face-to-face service that is necessary in the restaurant industry.

The metrics say that customers are nine times more likely to be engaged, and therefore to continue to patronize your establishment, when they are greeted with customer service that feels empathetic.

While the infographic below has language that seems to cover general customer service skills, factors like adaptability, empathy, and active listening are imperative for any service environment.

The metrics say that customers are nine times more likely to be engaged, and therefore to continue to patronize your establishment, when they are greeted with customer service that feels empathetic.

After introducing these useful customer service traits as focal points for discussion, the piece includes advice on how to improve each of these within any environment.

For example, by focusing on conflict resolution you can stop issues from escalating at the front lines and therein avoid embarrassing reviews or wasting management time with something that should have been dealt with before getting that far.

Restaurants, perhaps even more than other industries, rely on reviews and online promotion to help inspire customers. Therefore, customer service initiatives that deescalate situations that would send someone to complain online are that much more imperative to master.

In addition to issues that happen in the restaurant, managers have to be savvy enough to contain issues that happen on social media. It is easy for a problem to become a viral online issue that will quickly bite into reputational reviews. Learning about general customer service skills can help understand how best to approach these situations.

Certainly, introducing service concepts like the ones below, in meetings and through training manuals will improve customer service and allow for general improvement throughout your restaurant environment.