Are you trying to come up with creative ways to improve your restaurant? Are you out of ideas on how to attract more customers to your eatery? Go directly to the source: your existing customers.
We show you how to gather restaurant customer feedback that will help you improve the customer experience, boost loyalty, and attract a new crowd.
What is Customer Feedback in a Restaurant?
Customer feedback is valuable information that your restaurant can collect from its customers regarding your food, services, and their overall experience.
Did they enjoy their time at the restaurant? Were the food choices what they were hoping for? Was their server attentive and helpful?
Answers to these questions constitute feedback that every restaurant needs if it hopes to be successful long term.
Naturally, you’ll hope to get good feedback for your restaurant, but negative feedback can be just as effective, if not more, at helping you better your business.
Why is Feedback Important in a Restaurant?
Restaurant customer feedback helps you improve your products and services. No matter how much you try to do everything right, there will always be areas worth improving, and your customers won’t hesitate to tell you about them.
Quality feedback can impact business decisions such as keeping a favorite on the menu or adding new technology to improve the customer experience.
Implementing the feedback you receive will increase customer satisfaction because people will feel heard and see that you value their opinions. Plus, if you give them what they need, they have no reason to switch over to the competition.
In turn, this will also strengthen customer loyalty, and increase the chances of those people bringing in new business.
Speaking of new business, public customer feedback also answers many questions that potential customers might have. People trust other people’s reviews of restaurants, so if you get stellar reviews online, other people will give your restaurant a chance.
How to Collect Restaurant Customer Feedback
Create a feedback form for your restaurant
A restaurant feedback form for customers can help you collect feedback while your restaurant is still fresh in the customer’s mind.
How? One option is to have a QR code displayed on every table encouraging customers to scan it to provide you with their feedback at the end of the meal.
This is an easy, hassle-free way for customers to share their thoughts while they’re sipping their after-meal coffee without feeling pressured to do it or having to jump through too many hoops to find the form.
Keep your feedback form short to increase the chances of getting more responses. You can even display the completion time next to the QR code: It will only take a minute!
Consider incentivizing customers with a small discount for their next visit if they take the time to fill in the feedback form. You can generate a personalized coupon code such as THANKYOU10 for a 10% discount.
Take a look at the video below to learn how to create a restaurant coupon code in minutes:
Send out a restaurant customer survey
A survey gives you the opportunity to expand on the questions you want to ask your customers. As opposed to a feedback form, that is geared more toward the immediate dining experience, a survey allows you to get a closer look at multiple aspects of your restaurant.
If you have a list of customer emails and permission to send them marketing communications, create a survey based on your immediate goals.
Are you thinking of updating your menu? Ask survey questions about food choices. Are you considering bringing in new technology? Ask questions about online ordering, table reservations, contactless menus, and so on.
If you’re wondering what kind of questions to ask in a restaurant survey, check out our detailed guide for examples covering a wide variety of topics.
Monitor your online reviews
Learning how to get customer feedback in a restaurant doesn’t mean you have to constantly ask people for it. Sometimes, you just have to look for it online.
Customers are probably already leaving feedback about your restaurant on review platforms like Google Business, TripAdvisor, or Yelp. Checking and replying to those reviews regularly can be as effective as a direct feedback form.
Don’t forget to reply to both positive and negative reviews. Ignoring negative feedback (when it’s actually constructive and not just hateful) can be detrimental to your business because it usually highlights things you need to improve.
Not to mention that customers will feel ignored, thus not bothering to give your restaurant another chance, Plus, other potential customers will see that you don’t seem to care about the feedback and complaints you get.
Brainstorm a few restaurant comment card questions
You might think restaurant comment cards are a thing of the past and that restaurant customer feedback is better gathered online. What if the two could co-exist?
Even if you send out regular surveys or feedback forms, a comment card can help you get more immediate feedback.
For one, comment cards are typically very short and make it easy for customers to fill them in by circling a number between 1 and 5. Second, not everyone might have the option, capabilities, or desire to scan a QR code to fill in an online form. Sometimes, a simple pen and paper card can be enough.
Here are some examples of comment card questions you can ask:
- How frequently do you dine with us? (Several times a week, several times a month, less)
- Would you recommend us to a friend? (YES/NO)
- How likely are you to visit us again? (1 to 5)
- How was the food quality? (1 to 5)
- How was the service? (1 to 5)
- How was the cleanliness? (1 to 5)
- How was the atmosphere? (1 to 5)
- How was your overall experience? (1 to 5)
Ask the customer directly
Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the most effective, and this applies to restaurant customer feedback too. While for extensive feedback that informs big business decisions, you can use a survey or feedback form, if you’re looking to see what customers think, you can just ask.
Among the chief questions to ask a customer in the restaurant, “Did you enjoy your meal?” or a variation of that stands out.
This can be an introductory question that can help you ascertain how satisfied the customer was and whether or not they’d be open to answering more questions, leaving you a review, or sharing their feedback in other ways.
When approaching the customer personally, it helps if you address them by their name. If the customer is a regular, they will be more open to talk to you anyway, and even fill in a feedback form.
Final Thoughts
As a restaurateur, collecting restaurant customer feedback should be one of your main priorities, especially when you’re just starting out or are planning on making big changes to your business.
There are multiple ways to collect valuable feedback, and a combination of the methods outlined above is advisable long-term. No matter how you choose to gather feedback, remember to always be respectful of the customer’s time and don’t insist if they don’t seem open to the idea.
