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When a person decides to go out for a drink or meal, whether it be with a friend, coworker, or group, there are three fundamental things that will shape their night into a positive experience:
- Timing
- Service
- Atmosphere
Each of these elements plays an essential role in the customer experience and, when balanced properly, can foster an outing that will bring customers back for more.
Timing
Timing is everything for a customer, including how busy an establishment is and frequency of service. To ensure a positive customer experience, plan ahead for times that you know will be busy. For example, on a Saturday night, you may want to schedule additional servers and try to accommodate more seating to ensure that patrons are not waiting too long for service.
Establishments can also provide customers with a realistic timeline for when they can expect their order. Sometimes, informing a customer that an order may experience a 10-20 minute delay can help manage their expectations and make all the difference.
Service
Customer service is undoubtedly the most important factor when creating a unique customer experience. The good news is, this is the factor that an establishment has the most influence over.
Good service is easy to achieve when you know what your customer is looking for and, the majority of the time, customers aren’t looking for much.
At the end of the day, customers are looking for their server to check up on them somewhat frequently, and are looking for seamless accommodations whether that be for food allergies or accessibility.
That said, there are aspects of good service that require training, especially when serving alcohol. Understanding things like blood alcohol concentration and the proportionality of drinks to the body weight and height of a customer are concepts that a responsible beverage service training program will cover.
To ensure your alcohol service is safe, efficient, and enjoyable, enroll in an RBS training program today!
Atmosphere
Now, the final piece of the puzzle of an ideal customer experience is an establishment’s atmosphere.
When we think about the atmosphere of a restaurant, we often only consider surface-level attributes. The décor, the type of crowds attracted to the restaurant, how big it is, the layout of where the tables are placed in relation to where the alcohol is served, where foot traffic travels, and the genre of music being played.
While important to the aesthetic of an establishment, atmosphere goes beyond that. What matters to the customer and can influence their night is the atmosphere of the staff. How a staff team interacts and functions together, and how that dynamic is portrayed when serving alcoholic beverages.
What it all means
Ultimately, a customer’s night out is heavily determined by their personal attitude. Nonetheless, purveyors of alcoholic beverages, especially within the food-service industry, can do their part in fostering a safe and positive experience.