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Once you have started out on a new restaurant venture, luring many customers isn’t too difficult, but in order to ensure that your business stays profitable, you have to strive for repeat customers. Which means, you have to make first time customers happy so they will come back and also tell others. It is here that good customer service holds the key as it forms the essence and lifeblood of any business irrespective of the industry.
So it follows that good customer service is the most important aspect of your restaurant business as well, perhaps even more important than the quality of food served. And in good customer service, the SMILE is the most important element. The essential attributes of cordiality, warmth and affability are all enshrined in the radiance of a “SMILE”. The smile sets precedent to smooth communication between you and your guest, allowing you to serve him better. Even the food they say, tastes better when conjured by hands of love and served with a smile. Even in a telephone conversation, a smile should be mandatory for it reflects in the tone of voice. In this context, it is pertinent to mention that a phone call must be answered in not more than 4 rings. A prospective customer can then start to feel “Welcome” at the point of placing the reservation itself.
In the case of the restaurant business, customer service seldom rests in the hand of one or a few individuals. Every member of your staff forms a vital link in the chain that bolsters your effort to ensure cordiality and good customer service. From the person taking the reservation to the doormen to the receptionist in the lobby to the waiter at the table, the warmth and degree of geniality should be maintained. Never be curt in your replies and allows be willing to take that extra step by offering alternatives such as another dish on the menu should a guest’s choice be unavailable or out of season.
If telephone etiquette means that a phone should be answered promptly, the same protocol must be adopted while dealing with the customer in person. By all means, you should avoid making your guest wait too long for a table if he hasn’t made a reservation.
In the restaurant business as in any other, it is important to be a good listener. Right from the point of taking a reservation, listening skills have to sharp. There is nothing more vexing than explaining to someone what you want or what your problem is, like allergic foods, and then discovering that that person hasn’t understood or paid attention and you have to explain it again? For this purpose, it may also be good to have staff that is multi-lingual.
By following these basic rules in maintaining good customer service, you forge a relationship with your guests, a relationship that helps your business grow and prosper. Exceptional customer service keeps people coming back.
Lydia Quinn writes for R & I Solutions, makers of Cost Genie restaurant costing software. Get a free demo at: http://www.costgenie.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lydia_Quinn
A Professional is an excellent question asker and not a person teller.
This is the the heart of Customer Service.
If you have been following along with these articles, by now you know how much emphasis on Communications a Professional in this job description must have.
A person who lacks Communications skills, chiefly the ability to listen, is a dead duck. Second to listening is the ability to ask questions. Third in that list of desirable Communication skills is the ability to shut up.
If you can master those three key skills, you will absolutely make 5-10 times more money than everyone else you know. And you will be a happier well adjusted person, even if you are not one now.
Why? Ever talk to someone who seemed to know it all and just couldn’t wait to tell you, and in fact interrupted you so that they could impart some of their superior knowledge and wisdom from their obviously higher perch? How did that make you feel? You just wanted to sock ‘em in the face to get them to shut up.
The important thing to remember is this. If your gums are flappin’ when you should be listening you are losing the Customer Service game and making it very difficult for you to help your Customer. Start the process by learning to close your yapper and open your ears. It is easier said then done for a lot us. (I am including myself)
Once you have listened first and generously, you can you can begin to ask questions that will get you the information you need so you can devise a solution that will lead to an action that leads to that exchange. You know, money exchanging hands.
This is really very, very simple. You merely use the information the Customer has provided you and ask if you have it right. Crazy, isn’t it.
So, it might sound like this. “Mr./Ms. Customer, I would like to ask a question. I heard you say that your personal pleasure device stopped working when you put it away for the evening, is that correct?” Then wait. This is the part where you shut up. Your Customer will tell you what you need to know if you just wait it out.
Now suppose you decided you knew exactly what the Customer was going to say before they said it and you started off the conversation like this…..
“Mr./Ms. Customer, all we need to do to get your personal pleasure device back on the road is jump start the battery. I have seen a bunch of these here in the last week or so, and every one of them just needed a jump start. I have a funny story about the time I went to ride mine and forgot to …”
Can you see the difference folks? Question Asker vs Person Teller?
In the second scenario there is not one shred of useable information from the Customer, and that is exactly whom you need the information from! Without it, there cannot be a service or product exchanged for remuneration.
No info, no dough.
Professionals are excellent questioners. They use the information provided them and ask qualifying questions that lead them to new information or confirmation of the information provided to devise a solution that leads to the exchange of service or product for remuneration and a feeling of satisfaction by the Customer.
Be Professional.
(Some of you might need a definition of the words “personal pleasure device” used in the scenarios above. It is a motorcycle.)
Hey, you! Yes, you there, on the other side of the screen. I’m talking to you! It’s time to do something about your Leadership, Management or Customer Service situation. You came here looking for solutions, didn’t you? Alright then. Just below is the contact information you will need for Leonard. See it? Now all you have to is contact him at his email or his telephone to get started with Targeted Specific Training. It’s really quite simple. And it’s time to take action. You didn’t read all of this for nothing, did you? The road to Success is paved with Action. This first step is yours. So, get busy and get in contact with Leonard as soon as possible!
Contact him here! leonard@bizprotraining.com
or call 760-529-5635.
Seminar Leader since 2006 providing Leadership, Management and Customer Service Solutions.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leonard_Buchholz
