You’ve poured all your time and money into your restaurant, created all the necessary changes you can think of to start creating a profitable restaurant. However, you’re still asking, “why is my restaurant failing?”. If you are, you might be overlooking one of the most influential reasons why your restaurant is failing- your customers.
Operating a restaurant is a lot of hard work and the success rate of new restaurants is low. The risk of opening a new restaurant can be huge….but so can the payoff. There is no magic formula for success in the restaurant business but when examining what is going right or wrong with your business you need to start with your customers. We will examine how focusing on your customers will help change your restaurant’s trajectory and lead you down the path of success.
Location, location, location
While still in the planning section of your business, you probably spent a lot of time determining the location of your restaurant. You were probably concerned with the answers to certain questions such as: “What is the neighbourhood like?”, “What will my customer profile look like if I build my restaurant here?”, “Will people come to eat here?”.
After your restaurant is open, location becomes an entirely new matter. Decisions that work for one area may not work for another. A great article on Business Week’s website follows restaurateur Jonathon Rapp as he examines what went wrong when he moved his restaurant business from New York to Connecticut. Instead of learning to connect with his customers in Connecticut, he continued to run the business as though he was still in New York. Needless to say, his restaurant quickly began to fail. It only began to turn around once he started to focus on the customers that he has, not the customers he once had.
Listen to your customers!
It has to be said more than it should, but listen to your customers! We’ve previously looked at the impact of negative reviews and more than ever those reviews are crucial in establishing a successful business. Stop making decisions based on what you want. Listening to your customers is only step one, you need to truly connect with them in order to making lasting changes. You need to work with your customers to solidify your space in the community. While you can’t be all things to all people, but you help create something tangible for some.
By failing to listen to customer suggestions and feedback, you are effectively saying that you do not care about the customer. You are much more concerned with running the restaurant how you would run it. The big problem with that is, unless you plan on booking out the restaurant every evening with only you, you’ll never make any lasting profit.
How to use your customer reviews
Don’t shy away from getting negative feedback! It is a great way to improve upon things that you didn’t realize were problems in the first place. Customers let you know about issues that you may not notice from uncomfortable seating, unoriginal menu options, inappropriate music choice and volume, to dirty facilities. All of these small details can be overlooked by you and your staff.
Take your reviews, both positive and negative and see where adjustments can be made. Not every change will be possible, but you will be able to find solutions for both your restaurant and your customers. You need to exceed your customer’s expectations- at the very minimum you should have great food and service.
See through your customer’s eyes
Braymark Niagara mystery shopping gives you the chance to see your business through your customer’s eyes. Our Niagara mystery shoppers provide an unparalleled hands-on approach to provide guest experience feedback. Braymark understands that It is much harder to obtain a new customer than it is to keep one. With repeat customers, you are always guaranteed business and they are more likely to let others know how wonderful your restaurant is. However, with poor customer service skills, you are not likely to obtain any repeat customers.
Let us know: How has focusing on your clients changed your restaurant?
