Finding ways to improve restaurant service quality can be difficult. Providing a dynamic and fresh menu can contribute to enticing diners to return, but for them, it is about more than just the food. When a customer walks into your establishment, they are hopeful in finding a few key items. It is being greeted by the rolling din of conversation, punctuated by periodic laughter. It is also the scene of your restaurant, outlined by subtle lighting and inviting table placements. Also, it is observing the attentive, friendly nature of the servers, who themselves walk the floor exuding confidence and a “how can I help you” attitude.
The development of your dining atmosphere represents a unique blend of the various elements running behind the scenes and those built around customer interactions. Presenting this to the customer in a way that hides the general chaos of peak dining times is a nuance that must draw your attention and efforts. This is important in the presentation of a relaxing atmosphere to your diners and can be done by simplifying processes across the board while providing new enticements to your clientele.
Blending Technology Into the Customer Service Experience
There is a wide disconnect in the tech space between restaurant owners and diners. While 80% of diners take to the internet to find menus or make online reservations via apps like OpenTable and Yelp, 95% of independent restaurants are without a website and only 16% of restaurants have an app-based presence. This wide disconnect is translating into increased consumer pressure on restaurateurs to modernize.
Based on the numbers above, introducing these features as part of a technology upgrade throughout your restaurant will give you a decisive edge. Doing so requires you to make an important initial decision. Should you implement software in a piecemeal fashion, adding functionalities and features as you grow? Or do you try to save time and money by introducing an all-inclusive software solution, such as a modern POS software platform?
When it comes to introducing service quality upgrades, leaning on technology is not only beneficial to all of your restaurant operations, it is exactly what the customer expects from you. Introducing customer-facing tech, though, requires that you examine their expectations and implement a POS solution that integrates everything together seamlessly. That means that you must travel the all-inclusive path for your technology upgrades to have a positive impact on the quality of service you offer.
Using Your POS Solution to Improve Staff Communications
We have all sat at the table with friends in a favorite restaurant, watching our friends eat while we sit plate-less. While waiting, we start to silently wonder if maybe we shouldn’t have mentioned the mishandled order that was placed in front of us. Eliminating instances such as this should be easy. However, miscommunications between server and customer, server penmanship and kitchen supervisor or bartender, happen with alarming frequency.
Moving to an innovative POS software platform can give you the tools you need to eliminate miscommunication episodes such as this one. Not limited to tableside ordering, this can be expanded to include reservation handling, bar and kitchen order management, and staff scheduling. Staff will stroll through the paths between tables instead of the “calm sprint” observed in many restaurant operations. And, your bartenders and cooks will not need the Rosetta Stone in order to decipher the hurried pad scribbles made by a hurried member of the wait staff.
The wide range of features available in a modern POS solution kicks open the door of opportunity to vastly improve your quality of service while providing technology features that customers are craving in today’s dining experience. Some of these great features include:
- Using tablets for tableside menu, ordering, and payment acceptance.
- Online reservations match up to staff schedules to ensure staffing needs are always perfectly met.
- Integrating a kitchen display system (KDS) into your POS solution to give you a near error-free kitchen and bar order fulfillment level.
Innovative functionalities, when properly integrated into the flow of your restaurant, serve to improve staff communications and order accuracy, giving you near-immediate returns in your quest to improve the service quality in your restaurant.
Improve Restaurant Service Quality Through the Dining Experience
One of the most effective ways to improve the service quality of your restaurant is to give your customers more control over their experience. Engaging your customers with a personalized customer service approach will help them to feel as if they were invited to a friend’s for dinner. The higher levels of comfort they will experience reduce stress, increase their patience on busy nights, and leave them satisfied and more likely to return.
The technology is out there to allow you almost limitless options to empower your customers. Tablets give you tableside ordering, payment, and in some cases, entertainment while they wait for their food to arrive. A cloud-based POS solution can provide you with app-based reservations, or the ability to pre-order drinks and food. This presents the customer with the opportunity to control their experience from start to finish. Should they desire, they can simply arrive at a time of their choosing, sit down, eat, pay, and leave at their leisure.
Staying Engaged with Diners While They Are Away
Building relationships with your customers should not stop when the dining experience ends. Seeking their feedback, whether it is through an email survey, a social media outlet, or a POS-based app, presents you with options to improve their experience when they dine with you. This shows them that their opinions are valued, giving you a higher rate of customer satisfaction and retention.
Outside engagement with your customers also provides you with some valuable marketing options. You can tap into their previous dining experiences to promote specials that are geared for each individual, promoting the feeling of a personal touch in all that you do for them. To further drive traffic, you can offer frequent diners discounts after “x” amount of visits or a free meal if they bring a friend. The options here are as endless as your imagination, and in many cases or a few finger taps away from becoming reality.
Improve Restaurant Service Quality With Added Help
As trends in the restaurant industry continue to introduce technology as a foundation for presenting an enticing dining experience, the pressure is building to update. If you’re going to improve restaurant service quality, it requires process improvements on the backend through automations in communications and inventory controls. Sometimes, the best way to improve restaurant service quality is by seeking outside help.
Engaging talech gives you more than just a POS solution provider. We take the time to learn your business inside and out so that the solution we recommend and implement for you represents exactly where you are and where you want to be down the road. Reach out to us today to sign up for a free demo and find out how we can help you to create the perfect fine dining experience for your customers.
