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How Independent Restaurant Managers Can Improve the On-Premises Guest Experience

Demand for full-service dining has returned in the wake of Covid. And along with it, less tolerance for a lackluster experience. Dining out is as expensive as ever, even at fast-casual concepts. As we have advised in this magazine and website, a poor to-go or delivery experience can hurt your on-premises dining business. Well, as you might imagine, the reverse is also true.

Managers manage all facets of the operation. And nothing is more important than guest satisfaction that results in positive word-of-mouth marketing and repeat patronage. The best managers not only try to fix problems when they arise, but they also make every effort to prevent them.

We will say it again, one more time with feeling: The success of any shift begins and ends with management. And to be a successful independent restaurant manager, you must view the restaurant through your customer's eyes.

Before we even address what goes on within the four walls, ask yourself what do guests see when they first arrive at your restaurant. Do they see a well-manicured landscape and a clean parking lot? Or do they see missing lights in your sign or smudged prints on the entrance door glass? Are changes warranted to the opening checklist or to your repairs and maintenance systems?

What happens when guests first enter your restaurant? Do they clearly understand the seating or ordering expectations? Are they properly greeted? Are the dining room and restrooms clean? Tables bussed?

How about when they approach the service line or get seated at a table? Do you have detailed steps of service that are documented with time expectations for getting beverage orders, delivery of appetizers or length of time it should take between placing an entrée order and delivering it to the guest? If so, is it universally understood by both the front of the house and back of the house?

Does your kitchen have written recipes for every menu item? Does staff have the proper portioning tools or equipment for keeping hot food hot and cold food cold until service? All these things and more need to be systematized to ensure the expected guest experience. Even when you do have systems, there are still times when mistakes are made. Maybe the cook dropped the steak while transferring it to the plate. You need systems for dealing with mistakes.

Addressing Problems

No matter how good your systems or how attentive your staff, mistakes still happen and guests will become disgruntled. This is the law of averages at work. There is no good reason to panic. You work with the public, and at some point, hopefully, you can cite customer service as your superpower. View complaints as merely an opportunity for improvement.

According to a study by Lee Resources International, a coaching and consulting organization, if you resolve a complaint in the customer's favor, they will do business with you again 70 percent of the time. Complaints let you know where your operation needs improvement. If you resolve a complaint, and make improvements to prevent similar complaints, the complaining guest may end up being one of your most loyal followers.

Keep it simple. When you get a complaint, realize that two things need to happen.

First, you need to resolve it quickly with minimal discomfort or embarrassment to your guests. Next, once the matter is addressed, you and your crew need to engage in a little business-practices soul searching. This is when you revisit your systems and training to find ways to prevent future complaints.

Do not make resolving immediate problems more taxing by allowing your ego to take over. "It's natural to become defensive when receiving guest criticism,", says Mark Moeller, owner of restaurant consultancy The Recipe of Success. "If you have an ego about it, you are going to cause a disruption in the restaurant." Ego escalates conflict. If other guests are aware of the issue, it could ruin their experience, as well.

Listen intently and politely before you speak, advises Moeller. "Usually, guests will tell you outright exactly what has gone wrong. In other cases, you will have to ask follow-up questions to better understand what has gone wrong and have an opportunity to fix it." Moeller adds, "Can you give me an example?" is a helpful question to ask if the guest's concerns are unclear."

When you understand the problem, seek a solution that best addresses it. Moeller believes the best resolutions acknowledge the guest's emotions as much as solve the problem.

For a minor or easily resolved problem, thank the guest for letting you know. That might be all they are seeking, without any more disruption of their meal.

If the meal was not to their liking and they left it untouched, you might offer to refire it. If their meal was just okay, but could have been better, you could offer to buy them a dessert or a drink, Moeller says.

Avoid knee-jerk responses. For example, says Moeller, "so many people run to 'let me take it off your bill' as a go-to solution." They might not be what the guest is looking for, particularly if it seems dismissive. They might just want to be heard and sincerely acknowledged.

Policy and Training Matters

An important restaurant policy is to clearly specify staff authority to correct guest satisfaction on the spot. In other words, a list of acceptable ways for staff to resolve a complaint without summoning management. When is it acceptable to offer a free drink or dessert? When can a server offer a gift certificate, and for how much value?

Ideally, service staff members will have tools and training to act quickly and confidently to smooth over a service blunder, rather than summon a manager for resolution of a complaint. Bear in mind, even a seriously disgruntled guest might feel uncomfortable if they feel they are "making a fuss".

All managers should request staff record complaints daily. The system can be as simple as a notebook in which staff jot notes during the shift. This information can be vital to stemming future problems. Daniel Bendas, a managing partner at Synergy Consultants recommends that managers use this information to train staff on how common issues are handled at their restaurant.

So many people run to 'let me take it off your bill' and we do not want that necessarily." Moreover, that might not be what the guest is looking for, particularly if it seems dismissive.

Of course, in addition to recording problems, staff should inform the manager of issues in real-time, if possible, after they have followed restaurant policy to address them, says Bendas. The manager can check in with the table to make sure everything is to their liking without delay. It shows the restaurant is concerned about guest satisfaction as all levels of the organization.

Role-playing is an excellent way to build staff confidence in handling complaints and problems. "The more experience the individual has through role-playing, the more comfortable they will be interacting with the guests," Bendas says.

Ideally, the scenarios are drawn from incidents that occurred in the restaurant. The point is not to criticize staff members on how they responded, but to use the event as a teaching moment. Encourage staff to offer opinions on how they might have handled a problem. The optimal goal is for the crew to leave with a shared view on best practices.

The Role of Culture

Restaurant Culture is critical to fostering guest satisfaction. Moeller believes that managers should cultivate a sense of 'we're all in it together.' Effective managers praise employees for stepping in and lending a hand or give incentives to employees who did a good job of modeling teamwork.

"Core values are who you are as a person, they almost never change," says David Scott Peters, creator of Restaurant Prosperity Formula. These values are a great place to start when it comes to training employees and managers alike. Values show what guest satisfaction looks like to us, based on what matters most to us. There are lots of ways to keep guests satisfied, but certain methods, practices, word choices, and decisions will reflect a concept's values and others will not.

Once operators have identified their core values, they can write them down and train employees in what it means to embody these values. When an operator's core values are second nature for employees, they will naturally respond to any situation that arises, good or bad, in ways that reflect those values.

As a next step, Peters encourages managers to remind employees that everything they do is for the guest. Regardless of an employee's role, all tasks play into a guest's satisfaction: preparing and cooking food, maintaining a clean environment, setting tables with attention to detail, and the like. A bartender who is setting his station with attention to detail because she knows these little things matter is more likely to notice a chipped glass than one who is chatting with friends while setting the station. She will throw away the chipped glass before it is ever served to a guest.

Managers and staff know they should be doing these basics daily. However, these sorts of things are easy to overlook if something unexpected pops up, or if the restaurant is short-staffed. Checklists are a time-honored tool to set standards, remind employees, and create a consistent experience that is in line with values.

As Peters sees it, "Great hospitality is not delivering jazz hands, it's doing our very best to never let our guests have an interruption in their interaction." He illustrates with an example: a party walks in the restaurant and is greeted immediately. The host shows them to a table walking at their pace, so they do not have to rush. There is conversation and flow. They are given menus. As they are perusing them, a server arrives. There is a flow to the interaction. The table's needs are anticipated and met in time. "I want to be acknowledged. If I am not acknowledged, I feel ignored. I am no longer thinking about the person I am with; I am thinking about what is around me," Peters says.

In contrast, are all the times when guests do not receive timely service that anticipates their needs: guests must ask for menus, they flag down a busser and ask to put in a drink order, they go to the bar and try to catch the bartender's eye because no one greeted them when they walked in.

A single delay can be overlooked. The more delays multiply, the higher the odds the guest will walk out of the restaurant unhappy with their experience. If a manager is lucky, they will find out about it when the guest complains to their servers, and they are given a chance to fix it. If a manager is unlucky, they will find out when that guest posts a bad review online and it becomes a matter of reputation management.

Ideally a staff member can act quickly and confidently, rather than summon a manager for advice on addressing a guest complaint. Even a seriously disgruntled guest is likely to feel uncomfortable if they feel they are 'making a fuss'.

"The goal is making sure our guests' needs are anticipated and met for them instead of waiting for them to ask. Ask if I want another beer before I am at the end," Peters says. If this level of attentive service happens throughout the course of the night, by the time the night is over, the guest had a great time.

"What made the experience the best was my connection with who I was with was never interrupted," Peters says.

In other words, when there is a strong culture, staff are trained to be attentive, and checklists and role playing reinforce desired behavior, managers will not have to step in and resolve issues as often as they do now.

Touching Tables

For a manager, "touching tables" – visiting and checking in on tables throughout service – is necessary. It is also tricky to find the balance between being friendly and conversational and interrupting guests in a way that could compromise the guest experience. Guests are familiar with the drive-by style of table touching where a manager moves from one table to the next, asking "Is everything okay?" This style of table touching feels impersonal because it is impersonal. It can backfire.

Peters recommends managers start by hanging back and reading the room. Notice which tables are deep in conversation. Those diners should not be interrupted with a table touch. Look for tables where interruption might be welcome, such as one where conversation has wound down or where entrees were just dropped. If a guest is looking around the dining room and waves down the nearest employee, it is a clear sign they have been ignored. A table touch might help smooth ruffled feathers.

When approaching a table, Peters recommends managers start a conversation about what they see. They might ask about a dish or drink. If it is a special occasion, like a birthday, congratulations are in order. If it is a brand-new guest, there is an opportunity to turn them into a future regular. Managers can ask if it is their first visit or say, "What brought you here?" While industry staffing shortages mean managers are often filling in for servers or runners, Moeller sees opportunity in this. When managers are on the floor more, there are natural opportunities to interact with tables.

Managers are running food and drinks, busing tables, and on the floor more than they would be if the restaurant were fully staffed. On every trip to the dining room, Moeller says they can take the opportunity to stop by nearby tables and check in with guests. "You have the managers in that dining room a lot more often, listening and observing everything that happens without being stuck in a corner," he says. Greater presence means more opportunities to make sure those core values are upheld and that guests are delighted.

From the Front Line:
When a Manager Made it Right

Mark Moeller, owner of restaurant consultancy The Recipe of Success, recalls an underwhelming lunch experience in Orlando, Florida that a server made right by bringing out the chef. Moeller ordered a chimichurri steak with a side of tostones (fried green plantains). The steak did not taste like chimichurri and the tostones were too hard. By the time the server came back to the table, he had finished eating.

He told her his honest opinion and she brought out the chef. The chef explained how the meat was marinated in chimichurri and grilled, without sauce served alongside, as one might expect. The vendor they used to rely on for tostones no longer had them available. They had switched vendors and the new product was inferior. The chef said they would stop serving them immediately. Moeller received a 25-percent discount on his meal. He was satisfied with this response. "They listened to what my complaints were and tried. The server did exactly what she should, went to the person in charge of the food and told that individual. They did what was right, they gave me a chance to want to come back," he says.

Kam Talebi, CEO of the Minneapolis, Minnesota steakhouse The Butcher's Tale, recalls a Saturday night when a party of 10 showed up at 7:30 with no reservation. The restaurant had a 90-minute wait. One of the guests mentioned having come from a funeral and asked if it would be possible to sit outside. "I got them seated and got them drinks until their server could get to them. The next day, someone else from the party sent us an email complaining about having to sit outside. The food took too long. So on and so forth. Rather than being reactive, and explaining the situation that had been created, I invited them to make a reservation for a weeknight and said that I would make it up to them," he explains.

When the guest came in, he delivered a few extra items to the table and comped them. "Having a bad time on a busy Saturday after a funeral is totally understandable, and I was happy to make it up to them," he says.

Paul Kushner is CEO of MyBartender and owner of a pub in Southampton, Pennsylvania. He recalls a patron scolding a server for the kitchen's mistake. The order was made incorrectly, and the server sent him in to fix it.

"I was called away from finishing up the weekly schedule because patrons tend to feel better if they are talking to an owner or manager and it takes the heat off the server so they can continue with their other tables. I calmly listened to their complaint, and used the magic words: 'I believe you.' When you say something like 'I understand,' patrons can get defensive. 'No, you don't!' is usually the response. Whereas 'I believe you' doesn't impose any sense of your own interpretation."

Kushner adds, "Most of the time, patrons who complain just want to be right, so stating 'I believe you' before proceeding with options to move forward works almost every time. 'I believe you, let's get that refired right away' or 'I believe you, dessert is on us, thank you for bringing this to our attention' acknowledges the customer, addresses the problem, and most importantly gets them out of your hair."

Charlene Young, co-owner of The Fattened Caf., a Filipino barbecue restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri, recalls a problem that arose during their busiest service of 300 plates in two hours. An elderly guest insisted on ordering a Filipino-style bacon dish, Tocino, but used a name for the chicken dish instead. Young was not sure where the confusion arose from – perhaps there was a similarly named dish on another Filipino island – but she was pretty sure the guest would not be happy when her plate arrived.

She had the kitchen fire the Tocino just in case. "Sure enough, the look of disappointment soon came when she got her plate and she hurriedly complained at the register. She was still so certain that she ordered the right thing. I ran to the back to get a to-go container and the plate she wanted. I called her Lola which means grandma and is a term of endearment when calling elderly in the Philippines. This calmed her down a bit," she recalls