Common Mistakes and Errors made by Restaurant Management

This Blog was first published on Limetray’s Restaurant Management & Marketing Blog.

Approximately 6 out of 10 restaurants fail every year and while there can be a lot of factors behind the failure, there are some common mistakes which restaurants tend to make.

A lot of times these mistakes appear minor and can escape the management’s eye but they leave a significant impact on the restaurant’s image and operations. To help you avoid errors and mistakes, here are some of the most common ones made by a restaurant’s management.

1. Poor menu designs

Your restaurant’s menu contributes a lot to how your customers perceive you as it represents not only your offerings but also your brand. Restaurants tend to mention just the name of their dishes and drinks in the menu which can often misguide a customer. Adding an image of the dish and stating the main ingredients in the menu will help your customers know your meals better without any confusion.

For example, state the toppings on your pizzas or fillings in your sandwiches. A well-engineered menu reduces customer’s confusion about the dish and also reflects on the brand image.

2. Overpriced food and average quality

Your customers look for food and beverages with value for money. Inadequate food portions with high prices can then disappoint your customer and is one of the most common mistakes made by the restaurants. You can consider pricing your dishes according to the portion size and adding the options for small, medium and large for beverages. Make sure that the taste of your servings are standard for all your outlets.

3. Unsatisfactory customer service

“Your customers are responsible for your company’s reason for existing.” ― Marilyn Suttle

Focus on your customer’s needs and requirements by delivering the expected. Your customers are the reason behind the sustenance of your restaurant, so having a sharp eye for the minutest of customer service errors becomes important.

Insufficient Staff

Your customer service can take a backseat with nobody to attend the customers during the peak hours of your restaurant. In order to attend your customers on time, having enough staff is important.

Staff Behaviour

While having enough staff is a prerequisite for every restaurant, it is also necessary to train them in a way that they don’t upset your customer. Poor greeting and rude behaviour are common behavioral mistakes made by the management.

Customer Feedback

“Thank your customer for complaining and mean it. Most will never bother to complain. They’ll just walk away.” ― Marilyn Suttle

Listen to your customer’s feedback and take it in a constructive way by resolving to work on it. Provide a solution and solve their problem, if any.

4. Encourage your employees

Poor employee behaviour comes from low employee satisfaction which can force your customer to never visit you again.
Don’t forget that, employee’s satisfaction is as necessary as your customer’s satisfaction. They represent your restaurant and encouraging them to provide the best of services to your customer is mandatory. Begin by building a team spirit and creating a supportive environment. Offering rewards and incremental wins to your employees for every exceptional service they provide is also one of the ways to encourage them.

5. Mismanaged finances

The other common mistake often made by the restaurants is that of mishandling the finances. Often times a restaurant owner ends up spending too much on a particular aspect of the business. Dividing and managing your finances and financial needs then become essential.
Go about your restaurant business by dividing your expenses according to your restaurant’s goal and tracking them.

6. Failing to create customer engagement

Know and create engagement with your customer through social media, SMS and Email campaigns. Every restaurant business wishes to see a surge in its revenue and sales which can readily be done by putting online campaigns into use. Don’t make the mistake of taking internet for granted. Rather put it to full use by creating engagement with your customers in order to increase your customer retention rate and repeat rate.

7. Handling reviews

Restaurants often fail in handling negative reviews constructively by ignoring the cause or not acknowledging it. This affects your customer experience and reflects on how much you care for it.

Become active on Zomato, Yelp, Google Reviews and TripAdvisor to handle bad reviews which is an important step to build customer loyalty. Apologise for any inconvenience caused to your customer and assure him that he wouldn’t have to face the same problem again. Doing so will build a good rapport of your brand.

A lot of times your customer will not even give you his feedback due to a lack of time or extremely disappointing services. In such cases, offer your customers with a feedback form or an online review platform. You can even have your own feedback system and monitor the reviews even before your customers post them on online review sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp and Zomato.

No matter how hard you avoid, you might still end up making some of the above common mistakes. Whenever that happens, make sure that your customer does not leave your establishment, disappointed and angry. Make it a rule to provide the best customer service.

Read more about how to deliver excellent customer services.

This Blog was first published on Limetray’s Restaurant Management & Marketing Blog.