Do you really know how your customers feel about your food, your service, and your restaurant?
If not, it’s nearly impossible to know where you can improve. This is why customer feedback is the right path to your future growth.
The only way you really know what your customers think is to ask, so in this article, we look at the seven best questions to ask diners about their experience.
#1: Did Your Meal Meet Your Expectations?
Your food is the pivotal reason people visit your restaurant, so this is one of the most important questions you can ask.
If your menu doesn’t entice customers, then they won’t come back or recommend you to others.
You can give them choices with regards to the taste of the meal and portion size if you choose, or just pick the taste of the meal.
With this question, you can learn whether or not you should change or add items to your menu.
#2: How was Your Overall Service Experience?
This question lets you know if your wait staff was attentive, friendly, and timely. You’ll learn what kind of experience your diners had while at your restaurant.
With this question, you’ll learn from the negative responses. This would show you that you might need to change your training programs, provide additional customer service training, or on-the-job support.
Consider an open-ended question for this as well as a question with multiple choice responses.
#3: How Likely are You to Dine at Our Restaurant Again?
A really key question is learning whether or not your diners will return to your restaurant.
One study shows if you increase your customer retention rates by 5%, you’ll increase your profits by 25% to 95%. This illustrates why customer retention is vital to your growth.
If you get responses from diners saying they aren’t likely to return, it’s time to really assess not only your menu, but your restaurant’s atmosphere, and your service.
#4: How Likely are You to Recommend Our Restaurant to Family and Friends?
This is another vital question for your customers. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) lets you know if you just acquired a brand ambassador.
If your customer is willing to recommend you, that’s great, and you’re doing everything right. But if your NPS score is low, you’ll need to do some work to build your base of brand advocates.
A low score is a sign that your business isn’t going to grow, and it’s time to fix the problems.
When getting low scores, you can always reach back out to respondents to see what their concerns are.
#5: Is There Anything You’d Like to See on Our Menu?
This is a great open-ended question and helps you learn something you might not have even thought of.
Your customers might have some great suggestions for you.
This question also lets your diners know you value their opinions and really
want to know what they think.
#6: What Was the Best Part About Your Visit?
This question is great for helping you learn where you’re doing something right. You can then capitalize on it and expand it into other areas.
#7: What Was the Worst Part About Your Visit?
This is a tough question for you, but it can really shine a light on where you need to improve.
Final Thoughts
One of the most important things you can do when surveying your diners about their experience is to ask the right questions.
By asking the right questions, you’ll get the data you need to improve and stand out from the competition. (tweet this) You’ll learn what you can change with regard to your menu, your customer service, your restaurant, and your guests’ overall satisfaction.
Once you get the data from your survey, you want to act on it quickly and with a methodical plan. Communicate this not only with your restaurant team but with all the people who took your survey.
This lets your customers know you value their opinion and are taking action on it.
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Image: Nick Cooper on Unsplash