Building Customer Loyalty at Your Restaurant

Do you already have loyal customers?

Build customer loyalty. You can enter their data directly into your software and it will be the basis of your sales statistics and warehouse supplies. Building customer loyalty is an efficient way to improve the performance of your restaurant.

To build customer loyalty, your restaurant needs not only good food but also the right atmosphere.
Designing an inviting space with comfortable seating and eye-catching decorations can help create a memorable experience for every customer who leaves satisfied or perhaps even eager to return soon!

Through the customer management function you can enter the data of your regular customers, so as to easily enter them during reservations and while placing orders through the express checkout. Customers can be entered directly from this window, or every time you make a reservation or order, enter the customer first and then associate him with the operation you are carrying out.

Customer management is an essential function of your company. It will help you track and analyze customer data for efficiency, so that the most profitable customers can be offered new offers on a regular basis
A restaurant needs to know its customers to make more than just a profit! You need a customer service software that allows you to enter all kinds of transactions made by different people who access it regularly through various ways like phone calls etc., but there are also other advantages like exportable information if ever required internationally with ease.

This operation allows you to build customer loyalty.

Are you wondering how to do if you don't have the right management software?

Download for free RISTOMANAGER .

Then predict and insert special discounts aimed at old customers, and make them perceive them in the right way. In fact, promotions cannot be improvised, but are part of a strategy designed for the medium term.

But what can we do for new customers?

Build customer loyalty

Here's how to build customer loyalty.

How to welcome and return the customer "passing through" to the restaurant?

As a business owner, one of our main goals should be repeat customers. Why? Well, because they are an indicator of how well we are doing overall and they also provide much needed word of mouth advertising! The best way (in my opinion) would be to make them feel welcomed during their visit, not just as soon as they enter, but throughout their entire stay - even if they don't order anything today or ever again. These steps could include giving extra attention during peak hours such as dinner time.

A loyal customer is a lover of good food, attentive to gastronomic trends and very active on social media. A loyal customer is someone who can be trusted with his money. They are picky about what they eat, have an eye for the latest cooking trends, and are always on social networks like Instagram or Twitter checking out reviews of new restaurants!

This is a type of customer who likes to experiment and find out more information. He may ask you about the origin of the ingredients, the recipes and other curiosities about your menu, therefore he requires a little more time and dedication which, if granted, will make this type of customer return to your restaurant. However, if he is satisfied, he is happy to share his experience both through word of mouth and online.

 The “eternally dissatisfied” customer: how to welcome and make them come back?

Not particularly interested in cooking or your restaurant, he is a difficult customer because he would like his experience to reflect impossible standards. Don't let this constant level of dissatisfaction get you down and simply try to respond to their needs politely without focusing on criticism. With this type of customer pays for the summary and it is better to guide him in the choice of dishes.If you manage to exceed his expectations and make him feel better than in other restaurants, you will have won his loyalty.

And what to do with the “protagonist” customer? Building customer loyalty

He wants to be the center of attention so place him on a more secluded table or where he has space. With this client it is always important to find answers that do not offend him and to maintain control of the situation. Remember that the protagonist of your restaurant…. it's your restaurant.

How to treat the customer “friend” ?

He is a customer who requires very personalized attention, he likes to chat, ask personal questions... With him the winning key is to understand that his satisfaction does not depend only on the food, but on how much he can feel at home. The only flaw: it risks wasting a lot of your time, so be complicit, but also find a polite way to cut it short where necessary.

Let's talk about the customer who is too slow and the one who is too fast.

These are two radically opposite types of customers: there are excessively slow customers who like to take as much time as possible to order and those who instead want to find the dish at the table immediately. To win them over you need to time it well so that the slowest one doesn't feel put under pressure and the fastest one doesn't want to leave. In any case, only if we follow the rhythm suitable for each of them will they return.

Finally, remember the 5 actions that work with each type of customer:

• Welcome with a smile
• Maintain an affable attitude and always maintain eye contact
• Answer questions quickly, honestly and firmly
• Show interest in people necessity
• Always dismiss customers in a courteous manner

Welcoming customers is an art that requires experience which you surely already have. We hope that this article has helped you strengthen your ideas on how to best welcome and therefore keep customers coming back to the restaurant regardless of the type they belong to. All customers are important and the effort you and your team put into following them will result in them coming back and becoming regular customers of your establishment.