The Service that Customers expect

Customers today are a pretty smart bunch. In the last 30 or so years a shift has taken place in the restaurant industry, which should be recognized and responded to.

One of the many major changes that have taken place is in the customer's service expectations. Customers have come to understand a pretty basic principle. "They need us a whole lot more than we need them. There is a tough amount of competition nowdays.

Customers today are better educated and better informed than at any other point in history. Specifically, they know a lot about the industry and they also know what it takes to get what you want. They have learned to "Vote with their feet" when the experience they have in any restaurant doesn't meet their needs.

If they feel like you neither want nor need their business, trust me, they'll go somewhere else and most of the time you will never know it because they will never tell you. They just simply will never come back.

Rising "BAD SERVICE" awareness has evolved into "BAD SERVICE" intolerance.

Customers just will not accept it.

Hundreds of chain restaurants are now operated in cities where only a dozen may have existed before 1960. With so much competition in our industry, it's not hard to imagine that customers think of some restaurants as "good restaurants" and some as "bad restaurants". They also know if you are one of the latter, they can and will go somewhere else to eat.

So, what are customers expecting you to provide every day, beyond the basics?

Forty years ago, it was revolutionary idea to have inside bathrooms and air-conditioning in your store. Today if you do not have these things, you also don't have customers. These were major marketing initiatives in the 60's and 70's and today they are minimum table stakes.

Without these, you don't even get to be in the game. Today's consumer demands you provide the basics just to get them in the door. They also expect to receive your undivided attention, outstanding courtesy and a pleasant place to eat. They care enough about atmosphere and a stress free environment that if it is not provided they just won’t come back. They understand that if you don't provide these things and exhibit a friendly "Glad to see you" mentality, someone else will.

This is our challenge. Make the customer feel like we are glad to see them, make them feel like we want their business and make them feel like we want them to return.

Keep these things in mind as you think about how your customers see you.

BAD SERVICE happens all by itself, GOOD SERVICE and good relationships with our customers has to be managed. It takes planning, real training and effort.

Marketing is not the answer unless you also deliver the promise. We can say we are "Committed to excellence" or strive to provide a "Spotlessly clean restaurant with a friendly environment", but if we don't also deliver on that promise, it will mean nothing.

It's not what you say; it's what you do that counts to customers. If you don't deliver on your promises, the results you achieve will reflect it.

Customers know when you are listening. They want to be able to talk with you about their experience. Most people just want someone to know when something went wrong. If you spend almost no time talking with your customers, you will never know how they feel about your restaurant. If you respond to a customer with a low level of concern and an answer full of excuses and policies, they'll know you weren't really listening to begin with.

Customers know when you are listening and when you are just making excuses.

The fact is all of us are consumers. All of us are affected by and make decisions about where we shop and where we eat based on these kinds of things. Every one of us could stand and tell a story about the last restaurant with "BAD SERVICE" that we just will not go back to.

Think about it and ask yourself one question. The answer will amaze you.


When is the last time you went anywhere and had too much GOOD SERVICE?