If you own a restaurant, you’re no doubt constantly looking for ways to improve and streamline. There are many ways to do this, but persistent customer satisfaction myths could trip you up if you don’t know how and why to avoid them.
Generating cash flow and satisfying your customers while holding yourself to a standard of quality food and quality execution isn’t easy, but it is possible. However, for your restaurant to become the best version of what you know it could be, there are three main myths you need to avoid. Follow this guide to avoid these myths and improve your restaurant in ways you may have never considered.
Wider Target Audiences Translate to More Customers
This is one of the predominant and most hurtful myths in the restaurant industry and many industries across the country and the world. It’s an enticing and hopeful myth that leads many business owners to shoot for the stars and attempt to cater to the largest audience possible. Usually, an audience that is too large, cumbersome for them to handle, and sometimes too large to be practical. The modern age is revolving around specialisation and the formation of niches.
It can be tempting to cater to everyone and open your doors to the world. Still, many people aren’t interested in a one-stop shop that has a little of everything. Instead, they’re interested in a restaurant that makes what they like in a way that no other restaurant can. By spreading yourself too thin and catering to a broader demographic, you’re placing unnecessary and unmanageable strain on your cooking staff and waiting staff.
Rather than placing this strain, you should focus on making unique dishes in a way that only your restaurant and your kitchen can make them. Concentrating on your customers’ specialised tastes and the surrounding localities around you will garner a larger sense of quality and trust in your community. This will naturally and inevitably lead to a greater and more productive business.
Successful Restaurants Know Their Target Audiences Front to Back
This myth is also hurtful and is incredibly counterintuitive. While it can be fun to think of restaurant owners as mythic and all-knowing figures who welcome every one of their customers in the door, this is often not the case. On a general basis, restaurant owners should encourage and admire a sense of surprise in each one of their guests.
If guests know exactly what’s coming and what they’re in for, they may feel bored or dulled by the experience. Of course, this is not to say that your kitchen should be wildly inconsistent or offer a different set of foods each day of the week and every day of the year. Instead, your kitchen should use a genuine level of spontaneity when constructing and executing its menu items. This spontaneity will allow customers to look forward to a slightly different experience each time they visit your restaurant and ultimately result in greater satisfaction.
Again, this concept can be counterintuitive because most restaurant owners think in terms of consistency and rigidness. Rather than putting your customer first regarding the food you’re serving, you should perfect your food and serve whoever desires what you cook. If you find your best efforts failing, you should switch up your recipe and try something different.
A Customer Report Must Have 200+ Pages of Content.
In tandem with the above point, your customer profiles don’t need to be so aggressively dense and full of detail. Customer reports give you a better understanding of your clients and who you’re serving within your neighbourhood and beyond. Still, there’s no need to build a psychological profile of every customer who walks through your door.
This is another myth that has been perpetuated in films and other forms of entertainment media. Customers are not just statistics or a collection of traits; they’re human beings and, as such, will have differing opinions and circumstances every time they enter your shop. Building a detailed psychological profile is ultimately worthless and serves only to alienate your customers from your staff and cooks.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and serve your customers dishes that they may not “get” at first glance. The restaurant business is less about understanding every customer front to back and more about the passion, experience, and expertise of every dish. These elements will guide you and help your restaurant become successful and popular far more than any customer profile could, even detailed ones.
What’s Customer Satisfaction Like In Your Restaurant?
Now that you know the myths, I’d like to invite you to further discover the truth about increasing your customer satisfaction. If you’re a restaurant owner who wants to upgrade your restaurant in a way that suits your target customers, without becoming a mediocre restaurant with negative reviews. Our POS system will help you. We’ll help you understand who your customers are and increase customer satisfaction at the same time.
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