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Build Repeat Business by 'Mapping' and Improving Your Guests' Journey from Start to Finish

This article is based on an online course offered on RestaurantOwner.com. We invite you to enjoy the video learning program. For now, we want you to consider how you might make 2023 a stellar year, whether it is your first or 10th year of operation. This article is the basis for your team to implement a program of quality improvement by looking at every step of your guests' experience, and improving them in ways they might not even consciously be aware, but leaving them with a positive emotional state. From Chick-fil-A to The French Laundry, that is what drives guests to return and to tell their friends and family about the experience.

Many industries have "mapped" their customer's journey as a way to visualize the various points at which the customer interacts with the business. Our experiences buying a product or service have a beginning, an end, and a number of points along the way.

You consciously or subconsciously experience this in every transaction, from putting gas in your car, to visiting your bank, to your dental appointment.

Our restaurant guests also experience a journey, and it is often more complex than we might consider. We have analyzed that journey, and have broken it down into five distinct stages. Within each stage of the journey, we have what we call a "touchpoint". It's important to note that every touchpoint in each stage has the potential to produce an emotional response from the guest.

For example, when guests arrive, the parking lot, the signs, the condition of the exterior, each of those are touchpoints that have the potential to produce an emotional response, either positive or negative. As the guest enters the building, the host greeting, the reservations, the wait process and seating are all touchpoints. (See "Sample Stages and Touchpoints" below.)

During the meal stage there can be numerous touchpoints beginning with the server greeting, order taking, delivery, check back and so on. During payment, there might be three or four touch points, and then as the guest leaves there's at least one touchpoint as well.

An Unintentional Guest Journey

Using a full-service restaurant as an example, let's map an "unintentional" guest journey. The restaurant staff has been trained and they have a sound basic understanding of their job and duties. That said, the restaurant has never consciously analyzed and designed their guest experience, in detail, from the guest point of view. The owner hopes that employees consistently perform correctly.

What can go wrong? Well, let's walk through the five stages of the journey, and examine how at each touchpoint the staff can elicit a positive, negative, or neutral emotional response from the guests.

Imagine we have two first-time guests. They pull into the parking lot. The driver has to navigate some potholes, and as they walk up they notice some trash near the front door. They walk in and the hostess has her head down and doesn't notice them right away, so they just stand there for a moment because they're not exactly sure what to do. That's not a great start.

They eventually find their way up to the hostess stand, to get the host ess's attention. Even though the restaurant is busy, they feel fortunate because they get seated almost immediately into a comfortable four-top booth. That is positive. They're handed the menu. It's well-designed, and your guests see several inviting dishes listed as specials. Again, that is positive.

Then, in what seemed like an eternity, they sit and wait for their server to show up.

Finally, their server arrives and they put in their drink order. The beverages are promptly delivered and hit the spot, very refreshing. One of them gets up to use the restroom. It's clean, but there are no hand towels. The server returns and takes their food order, but one of the entrees was overlooked, so only one is delivered to the table. The second entree shows up in about five minutes. Even though one entree was late, both of them agree the food is absolutely delicious. Finally, the server approaches the table to apologize for the late entree. However, it really wasn't much of an apology. In fact, he really just blamed it all on the kitchen.

So now it's time for the check, but the server seems to have disappeared. After a seemingly endless wait, the server shows up with the check as if nothing happened. The server picks up on their frustration and makes a point of turning the payment around quickly, and they receive a sincere thank you from the server and the hostess as they leave.

Consider this couple's guest journey. It was a proverbial roller coaster ride at the restaurant. They started out in a good mood with positive expectations for the evening, but it ended up on a down note. Even though the food was fabulous, the big question is are they going to come back? Are they going to return?

There's a good chance they won't, at least not anytime soon.

Let's go through the likely emotions the couple experienced at each of these touch points. They showed up at your door because they were interested in trying your restaurant. Perhaps they read a positive review, or perhaps your concept intrigued them. If they made their way to your restaurant with the intention of dining with you, we can assume they have positive emotions, including hopefulness of a nice evening out.

What happened next? They got a bit distracted because of the potholes and the trash near the front door. Then they became unsure when they weren't noticed or welcomed when they walked through the front door.

They grew hopeful after they were seated promptly into a comfortable booth. The menu was appealing but they grew impatient having to wait for their server. They were relieved when they got the refreshing drinks. But the husband was irritated in the restroom because there were no towels to dry his hands. When the entree was lost they were annoyed. And then they became quite pleased with the hot, delicious food. They were disappointed by the apology they received for the lost entree and the long wait for the check. That caused them to become angry. They were appeased when the payment got turned around quickly.

And after the sincere "thank you", they left feeling ambivalent. Ambivalent guests do not return quickly or provide the kind of glowing word-of-mouth marketing that every operation requires to stay in business.

The point of this illustration is twofold. First, we want you to consider every detail along the guest journey from beginning to end. They are numerous, and each is important. Second, we want you to consider how a failure at any of these so-called "touch-points" can drag down the guest experience.

The most successful operations provide an outstanding experience at every stage. This does not happen by chance.

The Intentional Guest Journey

So what's an "intentional" guest journey? By intentional, we mean going through a process of considering and designing every key aspect or touchpoint of the guest journey.

It starts by putting yourself in the guest shoes and thinking deeply about what are the desired emotional responses that the guest wants to feel at each individual touchpoint. The next step is to intentionally design the experience to, as much as possible, produce that emotional outcome.

It's coming up with a plan to do that through the service, quality and hospitality delivered by the staff. Being intentional means going beyond the mechanical to get the desired emotional responses from the guests. Very soon we're going to show you exactly how to do this, but first we will demonstrate the goal and show what's possible when you are intentional and focused on improving every aspect of your guest journey.

Let's look at what an intentionally designed and supported guest experience might look like. We'll assume again we have a couple who have never been to the restaurant and they drive up and there's a clean well-lit parking lot. A hostess opens the door for them with a friendly smile, eye contact, and a warm greeting.

They smell the delicious aromas coming out of the kitchen. As they're being seated, a busser passing by makes eye contact and smiles. Before she leaves, the hostess mentions two of the specials and lets them know the desserts are made from scratch every day. Their server is at their table in less than a minute.

Like the hostess, the server is smiling and is very per- sonable. She asks if this is their first visit. After the drink order, the server notices the lady getting out of her seat and walks over to escort her to the restroom. The couple orders the meal. It arrives well-presented, at a perfect temperature, and inviting. It's looks and tastes delicious. The server checks back within two minutes to make sure the food isn't just okay but, as she put it "perfect". After the main course they choose to split a dessert. Like everything else, it's amazing.

Shortly after dessert, their check appears and the server assures them, whenever they're ready, and there is no rush. When the server returns with the receipt, the cardholder is addressed formally, in other words, Mr. Anderson. They're told what a pleasure it was to serve them and they're invited to return again soon. On the way out the couple receives a friendly farewell and thank you from the hostess.

Now, let's look at the likely emotional state or the mood of this couple. Perhaps this couple arrived in a less-than-good mood. They both had had a long, busy day, so they arrive a little tired.

In this case, the warm and friendly greeting makes them feel welcome and at ease. Add to that the delicious aromas and they're feeling pretty optimistic about what's in store for them. They quickly connect with their server and their being escorted to the restroom made them feel appreciated and happy to be there (cheerful). The incredible food and personal attention elevates the mood even more (joyful).

After the meal, they were totally contented, and they leave the restaurant feeling enriched by the entire, delightful experience.

Is this realistic? Certainly, not for every guest experience, as there are always problems that arise and are unavoidable. However, in many operations, this is a consistent experience. And it doesn't happen by accident. The owners and managers manage every touchpoint of the restaurant, and train their staff to monitor them and uphold high standards.

Think about what a difference it could make if your staff was trained and prepared to deliver an intentionally designed guest journey and they understood the emotional impact they have on the guest experience and why it matters. And this is something any restaurant can do. It's what every restaurant should do.

Plan for 'Guests at Risk'

Let's assume something goes wrong during the guest journey. It is a fair assumption. This is simply facing reality. There are so many moving parts in a restaurant, guest satisfaction problems arise even in the best operations.

Regardless, when there is a mistake, the first thing the server should do is apologize. They don't wait to apologize; they immediately apologize and take responsibility for it, regardless of whose fault it is. Depending on the situation, another step might be to notify a manager so a manager also goes to the table, apologizes again, and maybe even does something special for the party or the person or couple.

Let's assume, using the example of our unintentional guest journey, that payment was not timely. For some reason the server gets distracted and the couple ended up waiting way too long to get their check. Can a long wait spoil the mood? Indeed it can. A person's mood and emotional state can change drastically, very quickly; particularly if the dining experience was to celebrate an important occasion, was expensive, or if the guests really needed a nice time out.

It's important to consider which touchpoints are more critical than others. While you might not consider timely payment to fall under that category, consider that it comes at the end of the journey. There is very little time to recover from mistakes during the payment process, and it is the last part of the experience. You might be familiar with the so-called "recency and primacy effects". Our impressions are often formed by what happens to us first and most recently.

If a problem happens here, guess what, now you're trying to play catch up and there's little time left to recover, and the guest leaves disappointed at best. So, the couple leaves and may never give the restaurant a second chance.

In this case, you have what we call a "guest at risk". That is, at risk of never returning. Let's look at another failure during the unintentional guest journey - when the entrée order was lost. You have one guest waiting for his or her food, while others are being served. This is a big problem. You have two or more guests at risk. No one wants to eat before their companions. It is awkward and there is a good chance this guest will never return.

The best operators have systems to respond to these mistakes. Like commercial pilots, they are trained in procedures to deal with problems midflight. They have checklists to follow. While your restaurant won't physically crash if you are unable to recover from problems, over time it will figuratively crash if you do not use recovery protocols, that is, the standard course of action.

The steps might vary depending on the restaurant, and the lengths management will go to correct problems. Some mistakes are inevitable. You can create checklists and training for them simply because you expect them to happen. Some mistakes are surprising. You didn't expect them, but you appreciate that they could happen again. You create checklists and training in hindsight, so that you and your staff can respond better the next time.

Regardless, when there is a mistake, the first thing the server should do is apologize. They don't wait to apologize; they immediately apologize and take responsibility for it, regardless of whose fault it is. Depending on the situation, another step might be to notify a manager so a manager also goes to the table, apologizes again, and maybe even does something special for the party or the person or couple.

The manager can free the server to work on solving the problem with the kitchen staff. Again, using flying as an analogy, someone always has to be flying the plane. While one of the crew is figuring out how to fix the problem, someone has to be at the controls.

Turning Problems Into Loyalty

Returning to the situation involving the long wait time for the check, if the server is trained on the importance of correcting a "guest at risk" situation, that long wait for the check will not happen to that table. If that table experienced a problem, such as a missed order, the server will be trained to treat this table as "high alert" for the remainder of the meal. The advantage of this problem is that you have the rest of the meal to turn around a negative guest experience. The risk is that the experience can go down the tubes quickly if efforts aren't made to correct it.

In this case, if the check had arrived on time, guess what? Even though there were some issues with this couple's experience initially, look at the way the restaurant recovered from that. And what matters most is how the guest feels about their experience, at the end, when they leave.

The beauty of a successful recovery is that it, in itself, can create a loyal guest. People are often impressed at efforts to correct mistakes when they feel the restaurant is doing everything to "make it right".

That makes guests feel special. Do that every day and you will be in business for a long time.

CHECKLIST

Sample Stages and Touchpoints

Delivering the ultimate guest experience begins with identifying the stages of your guest journey and your key guest touchpoints from beginning to end. Your restaurant could have a dining room journey and also a catering, take-out, and a delivery journey too. There are five distinct stages in a table service guest journey: Arrival, Entry, Meal, Payment and Departure. In a fast casual or QSR operation there would typically be these six stages, Arrival, Ordering, Payment, Seating, Service and Departure. A drive-thru concept has five stages, Arrival, Ordering, Payment, Service and Departure.

Once you identify your stages, the next step is to identify your key guest touchpoints within each stage. Let's define a touchpoint as any guest activity or staff interaction at any stage of the guest journey that has the potential to cause an emotional response.

Here are some of the key touchpoints in various types of concepts. Once you've identified your guest journey stages and key touchpoints, you're ready to begin the improvement process, one touchpoint at a time.