Filed under: Uncategorized
Although no customer really enjoys waiting to be seated at a restaurant, the length of the wait list and the customer’s willingness to wait for a table at your restaurant can indicate that your restaurant is of such high value to the customer that he or she is willing to wait for it, or reserve a spot, rather than choose a quicker and more convenient alternative. However, this does not mean you should keep customers waiting, and there are a number of ways to reduce wait times, including staff coaching, call-ahead lists, and implementing reservations systems. At the same time, it can also indicate that there are operational inefficiencies which can be fixed to improve the flow of customers in your restaurant.
How Much is Too Much?
No matter how busy you are or how unexpected the rush is, there needs be some sort of limit in how long of a wait time you give to your customers, as well as how far in advance you require reservations. This timeframe is sometimes balanced with the popularity of the restaurant as well as other amenities you have – for example, you can probably get away with a slightly longer wait time if you have a large bar customers can wait in. This also depends on your clientele, if you run a restaurant catering to families and children, a wait in the bar may not be a reasonable alternative. You can determine how much is “too much” by surveying customers about the wait time.
Ways to Reduce Wait Times
Staff Coaching
A long wait time can often be prevented with faster service and more staff members. The quicker that dining customers receive have their orders taken, receive their meals, and are delivered their checks, often the quicker they will leave and create room for more customers. Wait times may also be reduced by encouraging all staff members to help out in every department of the restaurant. For example, hosts and hostesses can help clear off tables to prepare them quicker, and so on.
Call-Ahead Lists
Less formal than a reservation system, a call-ahead just ensures that the customers name will be put on the list and does not necessarily guarantee a table as soon as they arrive. This is a quick yet effective fix to cure long wait times.
Reservation Systems
No customer should be kept waiting too long, and implementing a reservations system can take care of this issue. With a reservation, customers can expect to have their tables prepared for them at the exact time of the reservation. Implementing reservations are not a quick fix, however, as it can entirely change the revenue flow of your business. Depending on the nature of your restaurant, reservations need to be balanced carefully with keeping enough open tables to accept walk-ins.
Dealing With Impatient Customers
Long wait times and hungry customers can be an incendiary combination that often leads to customer complaints. One of the best ways you can deal with impatient customers is by calmly explaining to them why the wait time is what it is. Customers have a tendency to immediately assume that an extended wait time is a result of slow service, improper planning, inattentiveness of the hosts, and other factors that are within the control of the staff. Implementing a feedback system also gives you information about how the customers feel about the wait time, and can help remedy the problem at the same time – by demonstrating that you care about their feedback, you may be able to keep them calm. Regardless, when impatient customers come to you with complaints, make sure to emphasize that you are doing all you can to get them seated.
One of the most important features of a restaurant actually has little to do with the menu, and may often go overlooked to the detriment of the business’s success. Restaurant patrons notice the restrooms, and their opinion of the facilities affects their perception of the restaurant as a whole.
A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 88% of people feel that a dirty bathroom reflects poorly on the cleanliness of the overall establishment, and 29% of these people said they would not return to a restaurant with a filthy bathroom. Even if the kitchen and dining areas are spotless, customers will question the overall management and hygiene of a restaurant if its restrooms are subpar. A dirty, neglected bathroom can sour an otherwise tasty meal, ruining the overall dining experience. With at least 29% of your customers at stake, restroom upkeep is a must.
Restrooms should be comfortable and hospitable to patrons. After a mid-meal bathroom break, your patrons should return to their seat and their meal with a positive feeling. First and foremost, it is vital that the facilities are as clean and orderly as possible, with all materials well-stocked and hardware fully functioning. Don’t settle for the bare necessities, however; add a special touch by offering free toiletries, mints, perfume, or fresh hand towels. Put in the extra effort to show your customers that you really care about their comfort.
You might also consider going the extra mile to make your restroom facilities memorable – in a good way. Bathrooms don’t need to be boring; a little creativity can go a long way to create a lasting impression. Interesting and memorable décor will add a talking point that can help set your restaurant apart from competitors and create buzz. Decorate the restrooms with a theme to match the mood of the restaurant, whether it is beautiful and elegant or quirky and unusual.
Regardless of how you choose to arrange or decorate your restaurant’s restrooms, keep in mind your patrons’ opinions. Their perception of your facilities matters: it will affect their overall opinion of your restaurant and, in turn, the success of your business. Be aware of how well (or poorly) customers perceive the facilities, and respond accordingly.
Filed under: Uncategorized
According to a July 2009 study by Econsultancy, 90 percent of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trust the opinions of unknown users. These statistics suggest that positive social networking reviews and positive reviews on sites like Yelp can result in a surplus of new customers.
Put in perspective, consider the hypothetical situation of one of your customers posting a positive review on both Yelp and Facebook. If that customer has 100 Facebook friends, this post alone could result in an adopted positive opinion from approximately 90 of those friends according to the statistic above. Added with the expected increase of just 100 consumers from the Yelp review, these two reviews alone could result in a collective increase of perhaps 160 prospective customers. If those customers just spent $10 per person at your business, this results in a revenue increase of $1,600. On the other hand, a negative review could result in total loss of $1,600, plus the future business of the reviewer.
Mobile surveys give businesses the opportunity to rectify negative experiences quickly, which helps the likelihood of positive reviews. Failure to act on a negative experience directly after it occurs can often be detrimental to the company’s reputation, since many consumers have constant access to share their experiences with the public. Since your best consumers already understand and support the company, they are the most valuable group for offering insight into how to fix problems and ultimately improve the consumer experience.
Filed under: Running a better business
Feedback from current loyal customers should be treated just as importantly as feedback from new visitors. Make it easy for customers to take your surveys and connect with you on social media, remedy problems in a timely manner, and track improvements with ongoing surveys.
Make it easy
Customers can share their experiences with any given business through multiple mediums and in a quick and convenient manner. Using a mobile survey system allows customers to give real-time feedback in a medium which they are comfortable with. Here you can also encourage customers to connect with you on social media or sign up for your email marketing list.
Encourage customers to connect
Companies should encourage new and regular customers who had positive experiences to join an email list, become a Facebook and Twitter fan, write a review on Yelp, and tell their friends about their experiences. One of the most effective ways your company can encourage these acts is by offering incentives such as discounts, freebies, coupons, and/or sweepstakes entries.
One good example of how businesses can get surveys responses from current customers is by asking for feedback from their Facebook fans and Twitter followers. These groups of consumers have already shown interest in the company, which indicates that they have had several experiences with the company.
Make sure they are happy – in a timely manner
Customers are much more likely to share a negative experience as opposed to a positive one, and it is crucial that business owners rectify negative experiences as quickly and as effectively as possible. Since many survey systems rely on service evaluation cards left behind or surveys completed at home on the web, it can be difficult for businesses to compensate for a negative experience in an effective and timely manner. If you use these methods, make sure you ask your customers the best way to contact them for followup. With the use of mobile surveys, businesses can enjoy faster organization of customer feedback and quicker responses to any issues that arise.
Encourage your regular customers to take your surveys with relative frequency
By consistently encouraging members of these groups to fill out mobile surveys after a popular sale or promotion, your business can have a better understanding of which business practices are effective and which are not by basing the information off of people who are already interested. By encouraging customers to take your surveys regularly, you can track improvements and help maintain your loyal following.
Filed under: Events
When choosing a venue for your conference, trade show, or other event, there are several key factors that you should keep in mind to ensure that the venue meets your needs and that your event runs smoothly. Get to know your target audience and what they want from the event, then evaluate your potential locations from the below essential criteria.
Location
Make sure the venue is conveniently located for your attendees. If many will be flying in, choose a venue close to the airport and hotels. You might also want to choose a location based on whether or not the event will be appealing to those working close by. In that case, you will want the venue to be easily accessible by public transportation and with plenty of parking available.
Appearance
The venue you choose will project the image of your company, aim to find a venue that will be aesthetically appealing to attendees and will leave a favorable impression. It must be clean and in good condition, free of distractions, and with plenty of accessible restrooms. The size is also important; estimate the number of attendees and make sure you have just enough space, as a venue too small will feel cramped and a venue too large will make your event appear underwhelming.
Staff Service
Pay close attention to the venue staff when you visit to evaluate a potential venue. How is the staff’s performance? Are they attentive, diligent, receptive, and experienced? Much of the success of your event depends on the venue staff and their ability to provide quality arrangements and speedy problem solving when needed. An ipad survey app can help you gain more feedback on the service and guest satisfaction.
Food
Keeping your attendees’ appetites satisfied is essential to ensuring a positive experience. Provide quality food and beverages that fit the mood of the event and accommodate potential dietary restrictions. If the venue itself does not provide on-site catering, make sure that they will allow external caterers and that they have appropriate facilities for food preparation, storage, and serving.
Equipment
The best venues are well prepared with the equipment you will need to run your event: tables, chairs, and other furniture; advanced audio visual equipment, complimented by good acoustics; and wireless internet and other technology.
Keep a running checklist as you visit potential venues, and the one that best matches the above criteria will likely be your best bet. Once the conference is underway, you can collect feedback from attendees on your choice of venue and other aspects of the event by asking them to complete a real-time survey. Attendees can access the survey on their iPhones or on iPad kiosks set up in designated areas. Results are recorded instantly, and management is immediately notified of any negative responses or red flags in order for the issues to be promptly addressed. You can also use a variety of analysis tools to conduct an in-depth review of attendees’ responses after the event has ended, using their feedback to improve your future events.
Filed under: News | Tags: funding, investment, press release, venture capital
We have some very exciting news to announce! Survey on the Spot has just closed a round of seed investment funding for $750,000 shared by Kepha Partners, a Waltham venture capital firm; Angel Street Capital of Providence; and Mike Sheehan, a strategic investor. While, of course, this is very exciting for us, you probably want to know what this means for the future of Survey on the Spot.
The funding will enable us to not only expand Survey on the Spot’s market presence in food service, but also to address emerging opportunities for mobile data collection in industries ranging from retail to healthcare and service organizations. We’re very excited to continue to explore and expand the different and meaningful ways that our technology can be used.
In addition, we’re also thrilled to announce that we’ve added Scott Savitz, founder and former CEO of footwear retailer ShoeBuy, as an advisor to our leadership team. With the funding, we hope to grow our team even more, by investing in engineering and sales and marketing and enhancing customer support.
Of course, we’ll keep you updated as Survey on the Spot continues to expand!
For more, check out the full press release.
Filed under: Healthcare | Tags: Healthcare surveys, Hospital survey app, hospital surveys, patient satisfaction, Surveys
Last month, we wrote a blog post about an upcoming rule mandated by the Affordable Care Act that will result in hospitals with the highest patient satisfaction ratings receiving the largest reimbursements from Medicare. In essence, the hospitals with the happiest patients will become the most profitable hospitals. Of course, we recommended that hospitals use Survey on the Spot’s real time surveys to gain insight into what their patients are thinking, so they can be proactive in improving patient service. Now, we’re thrilled to report in a recent press release that Survey on the Spot is receiving record-high responses from surveys in the healthcare sector.
One hospital has reported that 15% of patients surveyed give feedback when hospital administrators use Survey on the Spot, versus the less than 1% of patients who give feedback using the traditional survey methods. And in some cases, since hospitals using Survey on the Spot are receiving more data, they can stop making time-consuming follow-up phone calls.
According to Survey on the Spot President Ken Kimmel, “Although we originally created Survey On The Spot with restaurants in mind, we’re finding that healthcare has been an easy, natural fit… Doctors and nurses are valuing the real-time results and we’re embracing the growth in the sector. We’re excited to see what insights hospitals will be able to gain from using the survey and how it will continue to help doctors deliver the best care possible.”
To read more about how hospitals are using Survey on the Spot to improve patient care, check out the latest press release on Survey on the Spot and the healthcare industry.
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: instant review alerts, mobiel survey results, Mobile review alerts
Customers notice problems with your service or restaurant environment much more intimately than your staff, especially with problems arising from sub-par service or issues with the environment, such as bathroom cleanliness. If a customer is bothered by something which may have gone overlooked by staff and management they may log on to a review website to vent and leave a negative review or fill out a complaint form. Once you catch the review you can respond by taking certain measures to improve the situation in order to prevent future issues, but the damage has already been done: the negative review has been posted, potential future customers may be discouraged from visiting your restaurant, and the customer has already left without giving you a chance to hear their concerns in person.
Rather than waiting to respond until after the incident has occurred, how can you catch the problem before it’s too late and resolve the issue with the customer in person? Using a feedback system, you can provide them the opportunity to give feedback about their dining experience before they leave the restaurant. Results can be delivered to management instantly, allowing you to take immediate action to recover from service problems if necessary. Giving customers the opportunity to provide feedback quickly and easily also demonstrates your commitment to providing quality customer service, therefore building loyalty and trust.
With instant alerts in a mobile survey system, you are able to send a management representative to speak with the displeased customer and make amends for the poor service. You need to be careful about how to approach the customer as it can be intimidating if you make them feel that the survey isn’t anonymous. Best practices are to simply stop by the table and ask how their experience has been, without referencing the survey at all. Frequently, a customer that has had an issue effectively resolved will leave with a positive impression based on the personal efforts you made to improve their experience. The end result is increased customer loyalty, trust in your business, and gives you the power to remediate problems before they escalate.
Using a real-time survey also allows you to gather results and spot positive or negative trends over a period of time. If you notice that one of your locations experiences a sudden uptick in customer complaints on a given day, you can investigate and respond to any regularly-occurring issues accordingly, before they grow into larger problems. You can also view reports over a longer period of time for a higher-level view of your business.
A customizable survey allows you to analyze certain aspects of the customer’s experience depending on your needs. For example, you can use the survey to test the success of new menu items and get specific customer feedback. You can also track the performance of individual employees, using the results to adjust training methods as necessary and to provide employee rewards as incentives for positive performance.
Using a real-time survey with instant alerts will allow you to more quickly and effectively respond to customer service issues, improve restaurant operations, and boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Filed under: Email Marketing | Tags: Constant Contact, CustCon, Email Marketing, MailChimp
You have successfully attracted a prospect to your website or a customer to your restaurant. How do you retain their interest and keep them coming back? Your best bet to develop a long term relationship with your customers is to obtain their email address and include them in your electronic marketing campaigns. Here are a few reasons why email marketing works:
Email marketing is cost effective.
Email marketing software, email template design, and the time to create the content is far less than many other marketing methods. Not only are they cheap, but they are worthwhile: the Direct Marketing Association reported that, for this year, every $1 invested in email marketing earned back $40.56 in revenue. While this is a broad figure applied to a variety of small businesses, with a few measurement initiatives in place you can determine what that number is for your business.
You will create more sales opportunities.
Every email you send is another chance to make a sale. If someone briefly visits your website, you may never hear from them again; but, if you were able to collect their email address, you could then continue to contact them and thus remain on their radar. Emails are a great way to generate new or repeat business by drawing people to your business with announcements of new items and special promotions or coupons.
Emails can be targeted to a specific audience.
Once you’ve built up a substantial email list, you’ll have enough information about your customers to segment the list and customize the message accordingly. Targeted emails make your message more relevant to your particular audience, which means that they will be more likely to pay attention and your marketing will be more effective.
You will build relationships with your customers.
One of the best ways to keep a customer returning is to earn their loyalty and trust. Using your email list to contact customers on a regular basis will keep your brand top of mind, and customizing content to be relevant to their interests will inspire their trust. Further, when you request customers’ email addresses, you can offer them the option to opt in or out of your communications. This ensures that you’ll be contacting only those who are genuinely interested, making them more likely to pay attention and respond positively. In short: you’ll have a whole list of loyal customers at your fingertips.
You can easily track results.
There is a wide variety of software available that allows you to instantly track the results of your email marketing campaigns. Unlike other marketing methods, you can analyze in real-time the effectiveness of your efforts by viewing open rates, and what links were the most or least popular in the email. You can then use these results to determine the impact on your business and continue to update your marketing campaigns accordingly.
Survey on the Spot integrates seamlessly and adds opt-in email addresses to several email marketing systems including Constant Contact, Fishbowl and The Customer Connection.
Here are a few easy to use email marketing systems:
Constant Contact
Fishbowl
MailChimp
The Customer Connection
Filed under: Restaurants | Tags: instant surveys, mobile surveys, survey app
When was the last time you heard a friend or colleague complain about service at a business? How often do you find yourself listing off what you disliked about your last hotel stay or lunch meeting? What many businesses don’t realize is that an unhappy customer is more than just one bad experience. Statistics show that 91% of dissatisfied customers will never again purchase goods or services from your business.
According to studies, news travels fast and far. The average unhappy customer will tell between 8 and 16 people about his or her negative experience at your business. Your existing customers may forgive a little bad news about your business, but don’t expect to attract new customers with complaints flying around town. Even the smallest customer can impact your bottom line when he or she starts talking.
Sharing negative experiences is quick and painless in the online age, where language travels beyond your personal social circle. From message boards to review sites, Twitter accounts to facebook pages, anyone with an Internet connection and an opinion can bring your business to its knees before millions of readers. While unhappy customers are likely to tell their story to friends and family, they may never mention it to you unless there is an easy way to do it. This puts an added burden on you to maintain the highest level of service and also to continue to encourage customer feedback.
So think about it. If your average customer visits your business once a month and spends $40, you lose $480/year in revenue. If you have a loyal customer base where you keep customers for several years – say 5 years on average, this has now cost you $2400 in revenue. And finally, if they tell 10 friends who never have a chance to become loyal customers, it has cost you and additional $24,000 in revenue. That’s a lot to pay for a single bad experience that you might have been able to avoid.
The Bottom Line: Each customer you lose or fail to attract will take a toll on your business’s success. Each unhappy customer may mean a domino effect of failed potential new customers. With each person who hears a bad review, you risk losing one sale – or more. With businesses spending considerable money on advertising and marketing, it would be a waste to allow negative word-of-mouth to undercut all paid efforts.
There are dozens of ways to lose business – don’t allow dissatisfaction to be a cause for lost customers, both existing and potential.
