Love is in the air this time of year, but is it in your restaurant? It should be, at least when it comes to you and your guests. Guest relationships don’t have to be complicated. Check out these three simple steps you and your staff can take to have successful, mutually beneficial, and long-term guest relationships.
#1 – Make the Honeymoon Last Forever
The worst thing you and your staff can do is become lazy about guest relationships. For guests to remain committed to you, you have to treat every date like the first date. This means making sure your restaurant always looks its best from the parking lot to the dining room to the kitchen. Strictly enforce staff dress codes and never compromise on your brand standards.
#2 – Treat Guests as Your Top Priority
Your restaurant guests are your top priority, and if you and your staff don’t make them feel that way on every visit, you’ll lose them. Don’t make the mistake of thinking guests will stick around just out of habit. Competition for their dining dollars is just too fierce.
#3 – Customize Guest Experiences
Guests visit your restaurant for different reasons. Relationships need to proactively adapt to guests’ changing needs. You and your staff need to find out why guests are visiting. Are they celebrating something, on a date, in a hurry? Are they first time visitors or regulars? All guests – and even the same guest from visit to visit — have different sets of needs and should be treated accordingly. Deliver what guests want and need, not what’s easiest for you.
Restaurant Training to Strengthen Guest Relationships
To keep your guest relationships strong, train your staff on the complete guest experience. Our restaurant service training follows the Service That Sells! Cycle of Service, breaks down a guest’s visit into separate steps from the moment guests pull into the parking lot until that final moment when they walk out the door. Developed by restaurant owners for restaurant owners. Click here to learn more about our restaurant service and sales training program.
