Posts Tagged ‘service’
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Our software is designed to help our customers provide the highest levels of service by giving them the tools to collect valuable guest preferences and dining histories. Our customers can greet their guests by name, seat them at their preferred table, present them with their favorite bottle of wine and wish them heartfelt congratulations on their wedding anniversary. Why? Those details are captured in the software and made accessible to the host and wait staff.
But, it’s up to the staff to continue on past those details and carry customer service throughout the entire dining experience so that guests keep coming back for more.
Consider some of the following tips to carry out your high levels of customer service:
Customer Service Training – from the hostess stand to the kitchen, make sure everyone has been trained on your company’s customer service guidelines. If you don’t have set guidelines, consider putting some in place and then conduct orientation meetings to get everyone on the same page. Just one unsavory interaction with any member of your staff can impact a guest’s experience and send them straight for the door.
The Customer is Always Right – when a guest complains, take it seriously. It’s an opportunity to make improvements and show your guests you care. If refunding the cost of a meal results in a satisfied, and more importantly, a return guest, then it’s worth it. Better to have a guest share how you positively dealt with his complaint rather than have him share a failure on your part. Negative word-of-mouth advertising is very hard to repair.
Do More Than Just Your Job – find ways to go above and beyond in servicing your guests. Pull out a chair, comp an appetizer, top off their wine. Doing that little something extra can change a guest’s perspective and turn them into one of your biggest cheerleaders.
Be Enthusiastic – nothing puts a damper on a guest experience than service with a scowl. Whether you’ve been on your feet all day or you’ve been dealing with a long line of crabby clientele, giving your guests a genuine smile shows them that you care about them and their dining experience. And, we all know, smiles are contagious so you’re sure to get a smile in return.
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
We have some exciting things planned this year. Initiatives that are going to impact all areas of our organization and the way our customers do business. We’re focusing on customer relations and service, employee loyalty (because we happen to think our employees are some of the best out there!), and sharing more of our story with the industry.
Through this blog and other industry-related activities, you’ll be learning more about the people that make up our organization and the experience and skill they bring to the table. You’ll hear more about new services and industry partnerships that will enhance our product and service offering. And, finally, you read about the ways we’re making a difference to our customers, their guests and their bottom lines.
Keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks for a major announcement regarding our product training and support. We’re getting ready to launch a new program that is going to change the way our customers experience their ReServe Interactive software, as well as help them take their user skills to the next level.
At ReServe Interactive, change is a good thing. Especially when that change has a positive impact on the way we do business for our customers. We look forward to sharing our plans for 2010 with you, so keep tuning in!
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
I Googled the word ‘partnership’ and found this definition: ‘a relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal’.
I love this definition. It says what we feel about our customers and our technology associates.
We’ve been committed, from day one, to being more than a vendor/supplier to a group of nameless, faceless individuals. We work hand-in-hand with our customers to make sure they have the right solutions they need and get the results they expect. We are intimately aware of our customers’ daily operations, ensuring that the product we provide is more than just a disk they install on their hard drive.
The key to this commitment is partnership. We need to work together with our customers to further develop our software in such a way that it continues to meet their changing needs. Partnership helps us to achieve this goal.
Two-way communication is an important part of the partnership. Not only do we need to hear from our customers, but we need to listen to their input. We need to share with our customers and keep them aware of our plans as we move forward. This mutual sharing of information makes all the difference.
When we choose to work with a technology partner, like Meeting Matrix or Club Soft, we keep the same ideas in mind – communication, openness to share and a willingness to listen. We want our technology associates to share similar philosophies and business practices so that the products and services we provide are consistent on all levels.
We believe in partnership. It impacts how we conduct business and how our long-term relationships are established.
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
In any business, a good first impression is critical to growth. You want to keep customers coming back so you can build a repeat customer base and generate recurring revenue. But what about second, third and fourth impressions? What about building a long-term relationship with loyalty built into the equation?
Does your restaurant offer a meal or an experience? Are your customers treated as if their mere presence is an event worth celebrating? What do you really know about your customers, besides their name? After their first visit, have you gathered enough information to make their next visit something special?
Have you asked yourselves these questions?
- Does my customer request the same table for every visit?
- Does my customer request the same reservation time on the same day of every week?
- Do they always order a specific entrée or bottle of wine?
- Does my customer routinely request the same server?
- Does my customer celebrate special events like birthdays and anniversaries at my establishment? What special requests are made for those events?
We know that excellent customer service is the cornerstone for the success of many of our customers. In addition to the standards they have set for themselves, they utilize the features of our software to gather the right guest information at each visit. Then they use that data to provide the level of service that only they can – the service they’re customers have come to expect.
Each guest visit is an opportunity to make another good impression, and while it may be the second, third or tenth impression, it’s just as important and can have just as much, if not more, impact as the first.
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
As Chief Customer Relations Officer, it’s my responsibility to measure and manage our customers’ satisfaction from both a product and service perspective. We do this through a variety of channels including one-to-one conversations, customer user groups and monthly survey campaigns. We also distribute an automatic survey to customers upon resolution of every support case.
In September and early October, we surveyed on service and support experiences, focusing on our customers’ opinions regarding the knowledge and courteousness of our product support staff; the timeliness of the response they received from us; as well as how likely they were to recommend us to someone else.
We randomly selected 500 customers for this survey and received a very encouraging 10 percent response rate.
Out of a ranking structure of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score we could receive, 98 percent of respondents found us very helpful and 95 percent found our staff extremely knowledgeable. 93 percent of our customers rated our responsiveness to their support inquiries extremely timely. Most importantly, out of the respondent pool, 92 percent of individuals said they would recommend us to one of their peers.
Respondents also had the opportunity to leave comments regarding their answers. With their input, we can continue to enhance our product and support services to ensure our customers are not only working with a good product, but with a company that responds to their needs and exceeds their expectations.
Customer surveys represent just one method of gathering information to build long-term relationships with our customers. Their input is a powerful driver for our organization and continues to impact how we expand our product and service offering.
