30 Ways to Wow: Better Customer Touchpoints in Your Restaurant
Focusing on restaurant customer touchpoints is essential to improve the customer experience. These are small ‘micro-experiences’ that, together, add up to an overall impression – positive, negative or just average. Listing and going through them one by one is a great way to audit your business, very useful for staff training, and an excellent way to review the performance of managers.
When you talk to staff about customer service, their eyes often glaze over… but it’s more specific and practical when you talk about touchpoints. If a customer visit goes as it should, all these restaurant customer touchpoints add up to a significant positive experience – a great reason for people to tell friends and return. The concept applies to a simple cafe or food stand as much as it does to a fine dining restaurant.
Here are five headings that cover key areas of the customer experience:
Personal Interactions at the Restaurant
Digital Engagement via Social Media, Apps and Email
Telephone Communication
Ambience and Environment
Follow-up and Feedback
Let’s dive into examples of restaurant customer touchpoints under each of these headings:
Personal Interactions at the Restaurant
Greeting and Seating: How are people greeted and seated? If people choose their own seat, is it easy to find one available? TIP: Develop simple scripts for greeting and other conversations. Make sure staff use culturally appropriate terms eg a group of women don’t want to be referred to as ‘guys’. Scripts don’t have to be rigid but fit with local etiquette.
Conversations With Staff: Eye contact, a friendly face and personal connection. Appropriate level of interaction without being distant or over-familiar.
Menus & Signs Are Clear: easy to understand and don’t need further explanation.
Order Taking: Helpful order taking, with a focus on clarity and accuracy.
Suggestive Selling of add-ons or additional items – your Point of Sale will show whether this is working.
Online Ordering: Check that app menus and instructions are up-to-date, accurate and designed to promote upselling. TIP: Watch the sales data and work on constant improvements. Talk to your account manager for suggestions on optimising the menu as a sales driver.
Responding to Queries: Handling customer questions about menu items or services promptly and knowledgeably.
Handling Special Requests: Dietary requirements, seating preferences, or other special needs.
Farewell: Ensuring a pleasant departure with a thank you and an invitation to return. In many venues, customers leave unnoticed.
Digital Engagement via Social Media, Apps and Email
Prompt Responses: Quick same-day replies to customer messages, comments, or emails. TIP: Add an auto-response for emails (eg ‘Thanks for your email, we will be back to your shortly…’ and a similar automated response for social media messages.
Engaging Content: Sharing appealing and relevant content that reflects the café’s or restaurant’s personality. TIP: Most social media content is just ‘pretty pictures’ of food, coffee or announcements – the more you include real people in your posts, the better the engagement. Get your team to take photos for sharing.
Monthly Email Newsletters: It only needs three items, and keeps you top of mind with customers. Build your list from booking information and requests.
Special Offers: Providing special deals or information to digital followers, highlighting that this is the best way for them to find out the offers first.
Gather Feedback: Using digital platforms to gather customer opinions and suggestions. TIP: Have a QR code on each table or the account, linked to your Google Business Profile and asking for a review.
Accurate Information: opening hours and services are updated on Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Facebook and TripAdvisor. TIP: make sure these are modified for special opening or closing times eg public holidays. It’s annoying when people a map says you’re open but you are not.
Telephone Communication with the Restaurant
Friendly Greeting: Answering calls with a warm and professional greeting and within 3 rings. TIP: If you use voicemail for answering, is the message up to date? How quickly are calls returned, and would a live answering service make a difference?
Efficient Handling of Reservations: Taking bookings accurately and confirming details, ideally with an online booking system to help manage the process.
Addressing Queries: Providing clear and helpful answers to customer questions on the spot.
Handling Complaints: Dealing with any complaints or problems calmly and constructively. TIP: Have a detailed Frequently Asked Questions list with answers for all staff to learn and refer to.
Ending the Call: Finish calls politely, making sure all customer queries have been addressed. TIP: Ask a friend to do some ‘mystery customer calls’, asking common questions about service and the menu. This is a great way to identify strengths and weaknesses.
Cleanliness and Hygiene: Maintaining high standards of cleanliness throughout. TIP: Get the team to write an ‘Ick List’ – the things that customers notice but staff may be too busy to see eg sticky tables, full bins in the toilet, a view of mess in the kitchen etc.
Good Seating: Providing comfortable and well-arranged seating, with room for people to move around. Well-sprung seats if padded, with clean arms and legs.
Good Lighting and Music: Make sure they enhance the dining experience and match the taste of your customer demographic. TIP: Develop your own music playlist, with variations for different times of the day. Make this the standard to be used, with a set volume.
Decor and Theme: Keeping the decor updated and aligned with the café or restaurant theme. Look out for broken fittings or missing items.
Accessible Facilities: Ensuring the venue is accessible and convenient for all customers, not just the able-bodied. TIP: Use an Accessibility Checklist to review all customer areas – this is a good team-building project.
Follow-up and Feedback
Thank You Notes: Sending personalised messages after a visit with genuine thanks, not just a request for a rating. TIP: Activate this through your booking platform or the contact details you have for a customer.
Text Messaging: 95% of text messages are read, compared to the very small open rates for email. Sending thanks or acknowledgement via SMS can make a big impact.
Online Reviews Response: Responding to online reviews, both positive and negative. TIP: Encourage these by providing a QR code with links to the review system. Have standard replies ready for a rapid response.
Loyalty Programs: Implementing loyalty programs to encourage repeat visits with genuinely valuable benefits. This could be integrated with your booking system.
Handling Feedback Constructively: Using customer feedback to make improvements.
Improving restaurant customer touchpoints is essential for providing a great experience. With our personal interactions, we create a welcoming and attentive environment. Digital engagement through social media and email allows us to maintain an ongoing relationship with customers, and good telephone communication shows our commitment to customer care.
The ambience and environment of our venue set the right mood and make a visit memorable. Lastly, follow-up and feedback are vital for building a loyal customer base and for continuous improvement. Every visitor has a great experience, tells their friends and looks forward to returning.
Focusing on restaurant customer touchpoints is essential to improve the customer experience. These are small ‘micro-experiences’ that, together, add up to an overall impression – positive, negative or just average. Listing and going through them one by one is a great way to audit your business, very useful for staff training, and an excellent way to review the performance of managers.
When you talk to staff about customer service, their eyes often glaze over… but it’s more specific and practical when you talk about touchpoints. If a customer visit goes as it should, all these restaurant customer touchpoints add up to a significant positive experience – a great reason for people to tell friends and return. The concept applies to a simple cafe or food stand as much as it does to a fine dining restaurant.
Here are five headings that cover key areas of the customer experience:
Let’s dive into examples of restaurant customer touchpoints under each of these headings:
Personal Interactions at the Restaurant
TIP: Develop simple scripts for greeting and other conversations. Make sure staff use culturally appropriate terms eg a group of women don’t want to be referred to as ‘guys’. Scripts don’t have to be rigid but fit with local etiquette.
TIP: Watch the sales data and work on constant improvements. Talk to your account manager for suggestions on optimising the menu as a sales driver.
Digital Engagement via Social Media, Apps and Email
TIP: Add an auto-response for emails (eg ‘Thanks for your email, we will be back to your shortly…’ and a similar automated response for social media messages.
TIP: Most social media content is just ‘pretty pictures’ of food, coffee or announcements – the more you include real people in your posts, the better the engagement. Get your team to take photos for sharing.
TIP: Have a QR code on each table or the account, linked to your Google Business Profile and asking for a review.
TIP: make sure these are modified for special opening or closing times eg public holidays. It’s annoying when people a map says you’re open but you are not.
Telephone Communication with the Restaurant
TIP: If you use voicemail for answering, is the message up to date? How quickly are calls returned, and would a live answering service make a difference?
TIP: Have a detailed Frequently Asked Questions list with answers for all staff to learn and refer to.
TIP: Ask a friend to do some ‘mystery customer calls’, asking common questions about service and the menu. This is a great way to identify strengths and weaknesses.
Ambience and Environment
These touchpoints may need to be noticed by all staff but still make a strong impression. See also: Atmosphere and Experience Checklist for a Restaurant or Cafe.
TIP: Get the team to write an ‘Ick List’ – the things that customers notice but staff may be too busy to see eg sticky tables, full bins in the toilet, a view of mess in the kitchen etc.
TIP: Develop your own music playlist, with variations for different times of the day. Make this the standard to be used, with a set volume.
TIP: Use an Accessibility Checklist to review all customer areas – this is a good team-building project.
Follow-up and Feedback
TIP: Activate this through your booking platform or the contact details you have for a customer.
TIP: Encourage these by providing a QR code with links to the review system. Have standard replies ready for a rapid response.
Improving restaurant customer touchpoints is essential for providing a great experience. With our personal interactions, we create a welcoming and attentive environment. Digital engagement through social media and email allows us to maintain an ongoing relationship with customers, and good telephone communication shows our commitment to customer care.
The ambience and environment of our venue set the right mood and make a visit memorable. Lastly, follow-up and feedback are vital for building a loyal customer base and for continuous improvement. Every visitor has a great experience, tells their friends and looks forward to returning.
Check the other useful blog posts on the Foodie Coaches website…
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