Isn’t it frustrating to go out to a restaurant and find that they’re closed?
Or, worse, that you got there too early?
It’s never a good customer experience to expect to have a positive interaction with the restaurant that you’re going to and you have a negative interaction.
This can be said for bad service, for bad food, for a bad music show. All these things, as a business owner, are within your control.
And there are tools out there to help you have a better experience with your customers!
For example, the day before this past Thanksgiving my wife and I decided to go out to eat.
How To Serve Your Customers A Poor Experience
We decided to go to one of our favorite local restaurants that we frequent a lot. We expected them to be open, at least through an early dinner on the day before Thanksgiving.
Why? Because their listing on Yelp didn’t show any holiday hours or special closing times for the day.
What I’m about to say is not negative or positive about the business, it’s the lack of what the business did that made a bad experience for my wife and I.
The restaurant was closed.
And this was one of our favorite restaurants! Immediately we feel let down.
The experience was not what we planned, and we really wanted to have a good night.
So, this is a lack of communication from the restaurant to it’s customers. One of our favorite restaurants could have let us know, via the email list that we’re on that they were closing early for Thanksgiving to let their employees go home early and be with their families…
…and that they were going to be closed all of Thanksgiving day for the same reason.
That makes sense, and we can empathize with that.
That’s not a negative, that’s actually a positive… right? Of course it is!
When one of your favorite places does something good for it’s employees, it makes you feel good too!
BUT, by not letting 2 of it’s regular customers know we… my wife and I… had a bad experience. We’re now more likely to choose a different restaurant to visit because of this one bad experience.
You might say, “Hold on! It’s not the restaurants fault that you had a bad night…” and I would mostly agree with you. However, one small act by the restaurant could have saved the whole evening.
Maybe it was only a single couple that had a bad evening, or maybe it was 10’s of couples. Playing the odds with misinforming your customers doesn’t sound like the motto of “service” that you take on as a restauranteur to me… does it to you?
How To Turn A Bad Customer Experience Into A Great One
Sometimes, as business owners, we need to take the positive and evaluate it for negative consequences before we take action.
You see, on the positive side, for this restaurant’s employees, it was an amazing thing that they did. They got to go home early. They got to spend time with their family. They didn’t have to work on Thanksgiving day.
That’s pretty great, right?
But, from the other side of things, the customers, the people who actually make your business money, it wasn’t so great.
The communication was lacking. And my wife and I subsequently had a bad experience.
So, why don’t you learn how to update your hours for the upcoming holiday season?
Look at platforms like Google, Yelp, and Facebook.
Understand that a little work up front can save a lot of headache in the long run.
What Can I Do To Improve My Customer Experience?
And it can keep your customers coming back and remaining in that positive experience. Download our short guide, 7 Simple Ways to Grow Your Restaurant Business Online and get started serving your customers more effectively today.
