There’s no doubt that starting or running a restaurant business is very hard. Ohio State University has found in a study that around 60% restaurants change ownership or close in the first year of business, and 80% fail within the initial five years.
One of the major challenges for restaurateurs is to build a great customer experience and have same consistency all the time and every time. There are many moving parts in a restaurant business which have a direct impact on customer experience and it is critical for each and every restaurant to have a holistic experience throughout customer journey.
Right from when you opened a new restaurant, your biggest goal to to bring new customers into the door but also have a great experience to convert those to your repeated customers. Building a customer loyalty in a high touch business like restaurant is super challenging as even a single bad experience can take away your regular customer.
Here are 5 reasons why your restaurant might be losing the customers and some final thought around what you can change to provide the exceptional experience to these customers.
- Bad Customer Service
With so many alternate options availability to a restaurant customer, he/she doesn’t have to endure poor customer service. The expectations of today’s customer is really high and with social ratings and sharing, a single bad individual customer experience can lead to widespread customer outrage. Therefore, you need to focus on several important factors that help you to improve the customer services, such as competitive price, great services, No long wait times, on time delivery, courteous and experienced staff with good communication skills and so on. The progress of your restaurant depends on the state of your customer service.
2. Inexperienced Staff
Having a qualified and trained staff is very important for the effective running of the business. Especially, the restaurant industry needs experienced staff to handle day-to-day activities as many staff members interact directly with customers. Your staff does not only act as the customer’s first impression but also responsible for building the whole dining experience, from taking orders through in person or over calls or attending customers at front desk. However, an untrained Staff can end up taking wrong orders due to less knowledge about the menu or services. A higher staff attrition and lack of english proficient candidates can multiple this further.
3. Long Wait Time
Another reason to lose customers is a long wait times from in-person to placing an order over the phone, waiting to make an reservation or waiting to pay bills in the end. With shortest span of attention in today’s customer, any wait/hold time can certainly results in losing your customer’s trust. With plenty of options available to customers, they generally prefer to jump to a different service at those wait/hold times. It means you not only lose your sales at that moment but also a valuable customer who may become your regular customer in the future.
4. Poor/Inconsistent Food Quality
When it comes to the food quality, it is a core and sometimes unique selling point for any restaurant. Your customers are fairly expecting to have a great quality food at all times as food is what defines a restaurant. If the food is cold, bad in taste or just inconsistent since the customer last visit, then they won’t come back. Moreover, the food quality and consistency also gets affected during peak hours or holidays seasons because of high order volumes. It becomes difficult for a manager to handle peak hours calls and in-dining customers at front desk while keep preparing quality food for their customers.
5. Missing Customer loyalty
A great set of loyal customers are what sometimes make a difference from under a decade old restaurant to a multiple decade old independent restaurants or big chain restaurants. It is super hard for restaurants owners to know all of their regular/new customers and the preferences over the time to build a unique experience for the customers. Keep in mind, the repeat customers are the ones that are going to grant you the excellent feedback and becomes a free marketing person to advocate your business.
Final Thoughts
A recent study has found that 70% of restaurant customers never make a visit again. And, even the restaurateurs do nothing to preserve those customers and encourage them to return.
Voix is the first restaurant AI voice assistance which helps take customers’ orders and sends to POS or kitchen directly. With no hold time, menu suggestions based on historical orders and easy to verify process, your customers can experience a great customer service. Moreover, Voix works using AI, so there is no need for any training and experience. It will give your customers Intelligent suggestions like ‘special of the day’, or promotional based, to increase the sales. This is not enough, there are lots of other benefits that you can get with the help of Voix. Explore Voix to learn more.
Several restaurants turn toward the latest technology by using advanced food ordering system. Have you? If not, then it is the right time to start. Save your money and time with Voix AI order assistant for receiving food orders.
