During the last years we have heard from various sources that customer service is the determining factor to achieve their satisfaction and as a consequence a loyalty to our business, however when we talk about the restaurant sector, there is a debate between what is more important for the diner if in fact the service or the taste of the food that has been prepared in the establishment matters more.

 A recent study applied by the company National Soft® Consulting In the Mexican market, it reveals that indeed today the taste and quality of food is still more important for the customer, since 82% of those surveyed considered it the most important thing when they go to a restaurant. However, only one notch behind with 76% preference, the quality of service is what customers look for when they go to a restaurant.  

On average 96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain, however they will stop coming to your establishment, so if currently as a restaurant entrepreneur you do not take this factor into consideration and you think that only taking care of the quality of your food will be enough, we recommend taking Consider the following customer service tips to implement in your restaurant.

 Train your staff: Today it is no longer so difficult to get a good training focused on improving customer service, even today through the internet you can find multiple free courses available for the service, if you have the opportunity it is recommended that you can hire a consulting company that can offer you a tailor-made course. However, not only external training is required, as a restaurant owner you can also work on training your staff, a diner will always value the attention of a waiter who knows the menu perfectly, who can recommend dishes, describe them perfectly or even suggest a good wine that correctly accompanies your choice, this type of training should be generated from within your business and can help you sell more and generate happy customers.   Listen to your client: A very good practice that is carried out in restaurants is to listen to customers, it is the responsibility of the manager on duty normally to go randomly to the restaurant tables and ask customers if everything is okay with the service or food, this will denote in the Clients who are interested in them, you should take care that the approach is not intrusive, avoiding interrupting a conversation or taking care that it is not too insistent. Another factor to consider is that the manager must develop the ability to listen carefully to the customer and avoid taking personal complaints that may arise, thinking about solving them and avoiding dissatisfaction. 

You can also carry out surveys to your customers and give courtesies or promotions to customers that help you answer it, for this you can support yourself with free solutions such as forms Google. To invite your customers to respond you can place advertising on the napkin rings or use your POS system to print the invitation on the ticket, if you are a Soft Restaurant® user even on the same ticket you can print a short survey previously configured, see how to do it here. Once you have information about your clients, you can establish improvement actions to avoid dissatisfaction in them, remember that a dissatisfied client will not only stop coming to your establishment but will probably be able to extend it to their closest friends.   Treat your teams with respect: A customer will always appreciate that they receive a cordial greeting when arriving at the restaurant, education is one of the values ​​that you should always seek to promote within your business. For this it is very important to work with your staff and to the extent that they receive the same treatment from you and their bosses, they will be able to extend it to your clients. "Please" and "Thank you" are very powerful words that can help you keep your staff motivated and prevent them from feeling dissatisfied when they receive an order in a bad way, remember that they will go out to serve your customers and in case of that are upset it is very likely that their service is not the best.

Activate your equipment before starting: It is inevitable that people may have personal problems that are outside of your responsibility as the owner of the restaurant, however, you must ensure that these problems remain outside your business and avoid affecting the service in your establishment. A good practice that you can implement is to hold a daily meeting prior to the opening of the restaurant with the entire team in which you can activate people through a baton and positive words from someone who serves as a leader (you do not necessarily have to to be you) to the extent that your team can focus their energies on the business and forget all personal problems, their service can improve.   I hope that these tips that can help you take care of and improve the service in your establishment, remember that on average attracting a new customer will cost you 5 times more than keeping the ones you already have, so you should try to offer a good service and above all maintain the quality of your food.   Guillermo Mantilla Guzman Soft Restaurant® Product Owner