I’ve decided to do some research on why don’t customers come back to restaurants and this is what I’ve found. I just come back to the fact that if you are willing to invest money in training your staff you will have more return customers. Just think… Word of mouth will do your advertising for you and you won’t have to spend so much money on advertising!
According to Bruce Gates from South Africa:
Why customers don’t come back?
Findings from the survey including the following diner dissatisfaction:
- Wait staff that disappears 23%
- Vain/Snotty wait staff 13%
- Wait staff that hovers 5%
- Long waits between courses 5%
- Specials given without prices 2%
I found this extract out of a book on the internet while I was researching why customers don’t go back to restaurants. It sums up all I can say to you…
“You know me. I’m a nice customer. I’m the person who never complains – no matter what type of service I get. I’ll go into a restaurant and stand there while the waitress gossips with her boyfriend, instead of checking to see if my food is ready. Sometimes the people who arrived after me get my food, but I don’t say a word. I don’t complain when the waitress tells me “oh, I’m so sorry. I’ll order another for you.”
I’ll just wait. I don’t throw my weight around. I try to consider the other person. If a snooty waiter looks down his nose at me for making the unforgivable faux pas of ordering a dessert wine with my main course, I’m just polite as can be. I don’t think that rudeness in return is the answer. I never kick, I never nag, I never criticize. And I wouldn’t dream of making a scene. I think that’s uncalled for, don’t you? No. I’m a nice customer. But I’m the customer who never comes back.
He who laughs last laughs the best. And boy, do I laugh when I see you frantically spending your money on expensive advertising to get me back! Don’t you realize you could have kept me in the first place for a few kind words, a smile and a thank you?
I don’t care what business you are in. maybe I’ve never heard of you and maybe you’ve never heard of me. But if you are going broke or if your business is bad, there are enough people like me who do know you.
We’re the customers who never come back!”
Train Your People and Whack the Competition
By Norrie Gilliland
According to David Scott Peters who is a restaurant expert, speaker, coach and trainer for independent restaurant owners – this is the reason why you don’t get customers to return to your restaurant!
I imagine this scenario is familiar: You spend thousands upon thousands of dollars a year driving customers through your doors. You’ve tried advertising on the radio, in the newspaper, in magazines, in Money Mailer, in directories, on the movie screen, couponing and more — with some success. But with all of this money being spent, sales aren’t moving up as fast as you would like or even worse, they are actually going down. Why?
Maybe one or more of these following reasons?
Reason No. 6
Let’s start things off with a bang, so to speak. It’s the one thing you can’t do anything about. It’s that 1 percent of your customers die. This is just the reality of it all.
Reason No. 5
3 percent of your customers will move out of the area. For many restaurant operators there’s not much you can do about this because when someone moves, they move literally hundreds of miles or more away from your restaurant. But for many restaurants in large metropolitan areas, moving may mean moving to a neighboring city that is still within an hour driving distance.
Reason No. 4
5 percent find new interests or friends. OK, I know you’re thinking, “that’s completely out of my control.” While this is true, if you follow the example given in Reason No. 5, you will again magnify the importance of building up your customer database and staying in constant contact. Just remember interests and friends change… and they may come back.
Reason No. 3
9 percent change for competitive reasons. This reason is the one most restaurant operators lose the most sleep over. A new restaurant is opening up next door or around the corner. The new restaurant is in direct competition with yours.
Reason No. 2
14 percent change because they are dissatisfied with the restaurant.
Reason No. 1
68 percent encounter an attitude of indifference or unconcern by one or more employees.
If you do nothing more than tackle Reason No. 1, “encounter an attitude of indifference,” your business will literally explode!
All in all... If you want repeat customers to your restaurant then you need to invest in the training of your staff. Many restaurant owners think that if they are going to invest in their staff.. they will take the training and leave for a better job.
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