How to Improve Customer Experience in Restaurants 

What they don’t tell you about starting a restaurant is that serving excellent food is only half the battle. Slow service, overworked staff, lack of ambiance, poor hygiene practices and quality issues are customer experience killers to be on the lookout for. So whether you’re a well-established chain or just starting off, here are a few tips on how to improve customer experience in restaurants and really wow your guests. 

Start with Your Employees

If you want to know how to improve customer experience in restaurants, it all starts with your employees. Think of it this way: customer satisfaction begins with employee satisfaction since the customer experience is often directly impacted by how your employees perform. Here’s what you can do to create a happy, healthy environment for your employees:

• Redouble training efforts – Proper training ensures efficiency, low ticket times and a knowledge base for your employees to reference in situations that can make or break the customer’s dining experience.  


• Boost employee morale – By demonstrating you value your employees and what they do, you create a workspace based on respect where your employees will feel a sense of pride and a drive to do their best. 


• Create Staff incentive programs – This tip also ties into boosting employee morale. Staff incentive programs come in many shapes and sizes. However, some of the most popular include granting more time off, awarding bonuses, instating an employee referral program and gifts.

Create a Friendly, Personalized Experience

There’s a reason why the saying goes “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” A customer is more inclined to return to a restaurant with an inviting atmosphere. Indeed, according to a study conducted by the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, restaurant ambiance is more important than food quality.

Taking it a step further and personalizing the experience will really wow your guests. There are easy ways to do this, such as:

• Getting to know the guests at a table 


• Greeting regulars by name


• Suggesting your favorite menu items 


• Inquiring about dietary restrictions like gluten or peanut allergies 


• Remembering drink orders 

Offer Customer Perks

Whether they’re a new guest or a loyal customer, offering perks to your patrons not only generates buzz about your business but creates an incentive for guests to return. Ideas of customer perks could be:

• Offering free Wi-Fi to your guests


• Instating a loyalty program


• Offering a discount for new customers who follow your social media accounts. 

Whatever you decide to do, offering perks will create buy-in for the customers visiting your establishment, making them feel special and welcome in your restaurant.

Take Feedback Seriously

It may seem daunting to receive feedback of any kind, but being open to all kinds of suggestions and constructive criticism is one of the best ways to gauge how your customers are enjoying your restaurant. Feedback is important, as it indicates what is working and what isn’t. It allows you to take action to either encourage and reward the positive behavior of your staff, or resolve any issues that may be hindering productivity—or worse, driving customers away.

Additionally, it’s important to encourage—and even reward—positive feedback or suggestions. For example:

• A coupon code after a guest posts a positive review on your social media channels 


• Offering a free dessert or appetizer if your guests have informed you that the service was stellar


• Hosting a raffle based on customer suggestions

This demonstrates that the customer’s opinion matters, which builds a positive reputation for your business and creates an inviting, engaging environment for each customer.    

Maintain Your Restaurant 

A survey conducted by Cintas Corporation revealed that most customers will not return to a restaurant if it’s dirty. Improving customer experience could be as simple as spot-checking the dishes before they’re sent out or mopping the floor. 

On top of that, making updates when needed will keep the space fresh and exciting for customers. You can gain inspiration from current restaurant decorating trends. Here are some ideas on how to improve customer experience in restaurants:

• Incorporating modern technology


• Changing the paint color


• Updating your logo and branding

Touches like these keep your restaurant from seeming stale and outdated. Plus, it’s always nice to change things up every once in a while. 

Incorporate the Latest Technology

As stated in the previous point, incorporating new technology in your restaurant will provide modern convenience to your customers and make their experience in your restaurant a hassle-free one.

• Tablet usage and self-service options – more and more guests are expecting advancements like these, so it’s important to keep this in mind when updating your tech. 


• Improved Wi-Fi connection – Just upgrading your internet plan could boost your reputation amongst your customers, which greatly impacts the overall experience.


• Partner with mobile delivery services – Taking advantage of delivery services like GrubHub or UberEats will add an extra layer of convenience for patrons.

No matter how you enhance the customer experience, make sure that you establish a friendly, helpful, and safe space for your guests to dine in. Should you need to maintain your commercial restaurant, turn to Parts Town’s large inventory to keep your restaurant running smoothly.

Maximize Your Restaurant Seating Strategy 

You would think a restaurant seating strategy begins with showing a guest their seat and ends with them sitting in it, but there’s a lot of testing, recording and analyzing the results of different layouts and seating procedures. 

How do restaurants maximize seating? Let’s take a look at a couple of no-brainers that will increase the speed of service and overall customer satisfaction:

• Invest in restaurant table management software – Taking names on paper lists and tracking tables with sticky notes leaves room for error that could cost you loyalty. Using software can help you accurately track wait times, guest preferences and analytics.


• Test different layouts and table turn times – Rearrange your tables to optimize flow and track table turn times. The layout with the best times wins. 


• Let guests choose their seats – There’s nothing more frustrating to a guest that comes to a restaurant for the breathtaking view of the lake or vineyard than to be placed in the booth farthest from the window. 

Improve Restaurant Reservation Procedure 

One of the fastest ways to improve customer experience is rethinking your restaurant reservation procedure. A couple of ways you can do this are:

• Invest in a waitlist management system – A waitlist management system allows customers to see real-time availability and sends automated texts on the status of their table. This allows you to recover faster from no-shows, reduces the number of potential customers you have to turn away and increases table turnover.


• Avoid overbooking – It’s easy to do, but nothing will tank customer satisfaction faster than showing up for a reservation and waiting 15 minutes for a table. Late arrivals or guests who stay longer than anticipated could jeopardize your whole restaurant operation.


• Reserve tables for walk-ins – It’s good practice to set aside a few tables for walk-ins, but they’ll also work in a pinch if you accidentally overbook. Adopting a 50/50 policy allows you to get the best of both worlds and fill vacancies left by no-shows. 

No matter how you enhance the customer experience, make sure that you establish a friendly, helpful, and safe space for your guests to dine in. Should you need to maintain your commercial restaurant, turn to Parts Town’s large inventory to keep your restaurant running smoothly.