Customer Satisfaction Surveys

In today's competitive world of restaurants to eat as a treat, special occasion, birthday or anniversary it's never been so important to ensure that customers are entirely satisfied to show you care, value their custom, are truly committed to delighting customers and ultimately want them to tell their friends, family and colleagues about how good the experience was and how they were treated.

WAS IT REALLY WORTH IT?

The big question Any customer is thinking even though they often don't tell you in your restaurant is 'did they think it was worth it?'

Actually when a couple or group of people leave a restaurant so often just as they get outside it's one of the 2 following statements they use - it wasn't worth it and I'm not going back or wow that was really nice we must definitely go back and eat there again, it was lovely. So customer satisfaction surveys and feedback is like 'free consultancy' and so easy to implement (also giving you the leading edge over competitors) and having this invaluable information, what your customers think is crucial, what they want, how well they think you are doing and where if any they think you need to improve. The best way to get this is customer survey.

Surveys can be sent out by email, SMS or both - it's ultimately the aim to get back accurate and un-biased responses.

As a general rule it's better to set ratings of 'A' to 'F' where 'A' is excellent and the highest score and 'F' been the worst and ultimately a fail, just like the results we used to get at school.

If a customer says they are unhappy, it's reasonable to think they are thinking about going elsewhere - a situation where giving them special attention may make them happy again.

The responses can instantly be followed up without any delay and to give an unhappy customer special attention and make them happy again.

"RESPONSE RATES AND HOW TO INCREASE THEM"

It's nice to think that most of your customers will happily take your restaurant survey, after all the information will help benefit them.

10% to 15% is a typical response that many restaurants get on customer satisfaction surveys

Offering an incentive also helps, and of course many customers will fill out the survey just to get your incentive.

Adding the aggregate information and scores is always a great benchmark and if carried out by email this is the least expensive and saves phone interviewer wages and of course saves the cost of data entry, also it eliminates the delays in mailing.

Lastly, keep your surveys short, easily understandable and to the point - your customers will appreciate it and with the information you gather so will your restaurant bottom line.