Customer satisfaction in restaurants: what you need to know
You’d like to know if your customers are satisfied with your restaurant: we’re sharing the best methods to measure customer satisfaction.
How to improve customer satisfaction in your restaurant
Here at sunday, we know restaurant owners: we know you always go above and beyond to satisfy your customers. And you love it. That’s the reason you do what you do: you wouldn’t have got into the hospitality industry without, well, a great sense of hospitality.
So we’ll spare you the big marketing speech: you instinctively know the importance of customer satisfaction. You’re proud every time you see a customer walk out the door with a smile on their face. You do everything you can to give them a great experience.
You’re welcoming, warm, but never intrusive. You’ve worked hard on the atmosphere of your front of house: music, background noises, temperature. And of course, you’re very serious about your cuisine.
But there’s a catch: the more your business grows, the harder it gets to know if things are running smoothly. Your teams are bigger, you have more clients and you can’t interact with each of them individually.
And if you run a franchise, it’s even worse: you can’t have eyes everywhere. So you’d like a tried and tested way to measure customer satisfaction.
But is it really so important? How do you maximise satisfaction? And can you really measure it without forcing your customers to fill long and boring forms? sunday’s here to help.
Customer satisfaction is key in your restaurant. But how do you improve it?
What’s customer satisfaction, really?
What customers want
How do you know if your customers are satisfied? You have to listen to what they say. Satisfaction is an individual evaluation of each person’s own experience. It depends on their expectations, habits, and personal dispositions.
It was long thought that customer satisfaction depended on an objective set of criteria: value for money or ease of access (we were told customers were rational beings). But the experts of customer satisfaction now know that emotions play an equally important role.
Why measure customer satisfaction?
Customer satisfaction is a good predictor of how well your restaurant will do in the long run. Before trying to gain new clients, you first have to make sure that the ones you already have are happy with you.
If you measure customer satisfaction regularly, you can act fast if your average rate drops and you can pinpoint and fix problems.
Happy Customers will spread the word
Satisfying your existing customers is the best way to gain new ones. What’s the sign of a happy client? They’ll talk about you to their friends. This is particularly true of the hospitality sector: who doesn’t like to recommend the best up-and-coming places in town?
Happy Customers will come back
On top of bringing you new customers, satisfied customers will return. It’s a fact: satisfaction brings loyalty. We tell you everything you need to know about customer loyalty right here.
Happy Customers will spend more
Not only will they come back more often, but they will spend more during each of their visits and it will be more profitable for you. If your customers are happy, they won’t hesitate to try new items on your menu or to order more.
What questions to ask?
You know the email you get after a store visit, an online purchase, or a flight: “Did you enjoy your visit?” “Help us get better!” or the more casual: “So, how did you do?”
You’re asked to provide a qualitative (a comment) or quantitative (a mark from 0 to 5) evaluation of your experience by filling a form.
Restaurants can also ask their customers to rate each and every aspect of their visit: the booking process, the atmosphere, the service, the hygiene, the food…
Cheers to a nice meal in a restaurant.
Watch out for indirect cues of customer satisfaction
Forms are the best way to know if your customers are happy with you. But convincing them to spend a few minutes answering questions is no easy task.
Even if you make it simple for them (and we’ll tell you how to do that further in the article), some of them might still not be willing to take the time. This is why you need to monitor these indicators of customer satisfaction.
Keep an eye on your average order value
Your customers on table 4 are having the time of their life. They’re getting along with their waiter, they’re enjoying the atmosphere, and they love the food. You can bet they won’t be leaving your restaurant any time soon.
They’ll be ordering another drink, a dessert, and a coffee for the road. On the contrary, if they’re not satisfied, they’ll leave quickly and they won’t order extra drinks or dessert. The average basket size is a good way to tell if your clients are happy.
Keep count of your visitors
We’ve already said it: happy customers will not only come back, they’ll recommend you to their loved ones.
If your restaurant is always full, then your clients must be happy with you. If, on the other hand, you’ve been getting fewer and fewer customers, then you might have a satisfaction problem.
Watch the tips
There’s one sure-fire way for customers to let you know if they’ve liked their experience: tips! If they leave more tips than the customary 10 to 15%, it means they’re happy with their experience! If, on the other hand, you never receive tips, then there might be a problem.
Always read your online reviews!
Some customers will share their opinion of you even if you don’t explicitly ask them: this is particularly true for those who are especially happy or unhappy with their experience in your restaurant.
This is why you should always keep an eye on the main reviewing platforms: Google My Business, Tripadvisor, TheFork… This will allow you to monitor your e-reputation, thank those who leave you good reviews and handle detractors.
But there’s a catch: the comments customers leave online are always public. This can be a problem for you if they’re not always 100% positive. It’s in your best interest to give your customers the opportunity to express themselves on a platform that you can control.
A diner advised by a dedicated waiter.
Ask them if they like you
Just ask them already! Their answers can allow you to get better and help you spot and act on potential problems. OK, you’re ready to hear it! But how do you go about it? And how to make sure your customers answer?
The Guest book
It’s the low-tech version of customer reviews: just leave an empty book at the entrance of your restaurants so people can sign it. Guest books have a symbolic value, but they will not allow you to evaluate customer satisfaction very precisely.
Printed satisfaction forms
Way more precise than the guest book, but still as low tech. You can print questions on a cardboard paper that you’ll bring to the table with the bill. You’ll be able to ask precise questions, sure, but you’ll have the following problems:
You’ll need to print out new forms regularly.
Someone in your team will eventually need to manually enter the answers into a computer… Which is a bit of a shame in the age of digital-everything. But digitising this data is the only way you’ll make something useful out of the answers on these forms.
“Shoot, I don’t have a pen…”: yes, it’s very likely that your customers won’t have a pen just conveniently waiting in their pocket and will ask your writers for something to write with. And having pens circulating from person to person is not great in Covid times…
Online forms
You know where we’re going with this: the best way to measure customer satisfaction is through online forms. But don’t worry: the forms you use shouldn’t have anything to do with those long questionnaires you have to fill out for your admin: you’ll find many options to create fun, easy and intuitive forms (Typeform, is one of them). But here’s the thing: the customers walking through your front door might not be connected to your digital ecosystem. You need to find a smooth way to redirect them to the form. And spelling out a link for them is out of the question…
Your first option: emails
If your customers have made a booking on your website, you can send them the form via email. Otherwise, it might be hard to ask them for their email address as they’re paying the bill. People are less and less likely to share their email addresses unless it’s strictly necessary and we can’t blame them: no one wants to be flooded with spam…
Your second option: QR codes
It’s no secret that we, at sunday, swear by QR codes. Whether it is to share PDF menus or to pay the bill, QR codes are an amazing way to bridge the gap between the physical and online worlds. And to top it off, you don’t have to make any technical investment (no code generator, no scanner). Your customers can use their smartphone without having to download any dedicated app.
Measuring customer satisfaction with sunday
If your QR codes only allow them to fill a satisfaction form, they might be less likely to use them. If you also allow them to access another service through the QR code (paying their bill, for instance), they’ll be more willing to scan the code. This is what we’ve noticed with our sunday codes.
When a customer scans a sunday code to pay the bill, we automatically ask them to leave a review of your restaurants. They’ll be able to express their opinion (or to voice their complaints) without going through a public platform.
This will allow you to get better without hurting your e-reputation. But we have reasons to believe that your clients will be so pleased by this smooth payment method that they’ll leave higher scores… You’ll also have the opportunity to hear from customers who have really eaten in your restaurant, which is not always the case on the internet. Would you like to try it out?
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