March 23, 2020
As a savvy restaurateur, it’s essential to gauge your customer experience. Having your patrons fill out a quick survey will help you address their needs and grow your business.
Crafting a Dynamic Survey
For new and established restaurants alike, customer surveys provide valuable insight into your business practices. If you have never compiled a survey, we share the best questions to ask. If you have a survey in place, now’s the time to see if you are asking the right questions and adjust if needed.
Practical Tips for Your Restaurant Survey
How you ask survey questions is just as important as the questions themselves. When developing your survey, keep these tips in mind:
Avoid yes/no questions: A survey that only offers yes or no questions doesn’t provide the most intricate data. Instead ask open ended questions. For example, "Do you like our happy hour menu?" vs. "What happy hour menu items do you like best and why?"
Avoid biased questions: Allow you patrons to communicate their honest feedback. Steer away from phrases like: How well did our bartender do? Instead, think of a more objective question like: What did your bartender do to take care of your beverage needs?
Simplify your questions: Don’t ask double-barreled questions. Stick to one question per survey item. If you want answers to multiple questions, make them their own survey item.
Once you have your survey strategy in place, these are some of the most effective questions to ask.
1. How Often Do You Dine Here?
Repeat customers are the bread and butter of any great restaurant. Do you know how often your patrons frequent your establishment? This simple question is a great way to determine how much repeat business you are getting. Structure this question by:
- First-time customer
- Infrequent diner
- Frequent guest
Take it one step further and ask follow-up questions so they can elaborate on their answers. For example:
- What keeps you coming back?
- Why or why not would you return?
- What brought you to the restaurant today?
2. What Do You Enjoy Most About Dining Here?
This open-ended question allows your guests to communicate what they love most about your restaurant. This will help you identify where your establishment truly excels. You can break this question down into more specific components for even more feedback:
- Favorite menu items and why
- Service team strengths
- Ambiance and atmosphere
3. Areas for Improvement?
While it’s not always easy to hear criticism of your restaurant, it’s necessary to identify potential problems. Receiving constructive feedback will only help you grow your restaurant. Figuring out any hiccups in your service, menu, or atmosphere allows you to address problem areas. From a customer perspective, if your guests feel their voices are being heard, they might be more likely to return in the future.
4. Does the Menu Offer Sufficient Options for Your Dietary Needs or Preferences?
In recent years, customers are becoming more interested in healthy dining options. Does your menu take dietary restrictions (like gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan) into consideration? This section of the survey can help you determine if you need to revamp portions of your menu.
5. How Would You Rate the Staff’s Ability to Meet Your Dining Needs?
Professional and courteous service is a huge factor in the guest experience. Invite your customers to rate the service staff’s ability to meet their needs. If any issues are identified in the survey, plan to modify staffing and improve training.
6. Rate Our Restaurant's Health Standards
Restaurant cleanliness is a major concern for owners and patrons. It’s possible you think your restaurant is clean and hygienic, but how do your customers perceive your health standards? Finding out the answers to these questions will help you gauge your establishment's cleanliness standards. If you need to improve on food safety, there are systems you can easily put into practice.
7. How Likely Are You to Recommend This Restaurant to Friends and Family?
This is one of the most important questions to ask your customers. Restaurants can be built on word of mouth. In fact, most potential customers will consider visiting a restaurant based on recommendations. If this question reveals a negative response, you can work on practical solutions to ensure more recommendations in the future.
Surveying your customers supplies you a wealth of necessary information about your menu, customer service, and overall experience. Use your customer feedback to create positive change and make sure your best practices remain in place.
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