The foodservice industry is expected to reach a whopping 4 Billion USD by the end of 2022. As in Dubai and all around the UAE a huge number of expats are living and the country also host millions of tourist annually, it means that the foodservice sector includes a variety of niches such as full service restaurants, quick service restaurants, home delivery services, cafes, foodservice chains, ethnic and traditional cuisine and many more. Here in UAE the businesses and tourism industry is thriving, which means that the market is expected to grow on a consistent rate for coming years.
In such markets where the demand is too high, more and more investors started investing which raise the competition. On top of that the customers’ demands are also increasing. In a competitive market it is extremely important for businesses to keep their customers happy and satisfied. Happy and satisfied customers are tend to be more loyal with the brand and the loyal customers always come back. A loyal customer base acts as a foundation at which the business can firmly stand and grow.
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The restaurants and other foodservice businesses in UAE abide the strict policies from the government to maintain the food quality and hygiene, however, there are a lot of other things that a customer considers when it comes to customer happiness and customer satisfaction. The customer who is coming to a restaurant or foodservice business is aiming to have a good and comforting experience which is affected by the food quality, serving methods, interiors, staff behavior and much more. That is why the restaurants are always eager to improve their services.
Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the restaurants can invest a huge chunk of their hard-earned profits into acquiring more employees, improving their service and improving the environment in their restaurants. However, it is crucial to understand if their investments are equally appreciated by their customers or not. The customer feedback help restaurants and foodservice businesses to get a deeper in-sight to their customers’ minds.
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However, here in Dubai and all around the UAE most of the restaurants don’t even collect customer feedback, and the ones who are collecting customer feedback are not utilizing it properly. In this blog we will list the most effective ways to collect customer feedback in a restaurant:
Face-to-Face Feedback Collection
There are several way of effectively collecting customer feedback at a restaurant. The most common method is face to face feedback. Once the customers are seated or had their meal, the waiter can approach them to request them to share their opinion about their today’s interaction. The waiters are the customer facing staff of the restaurants and they are also the ones who your customer might remember for a long time. Loyal customers would know your waiters and would be happy to share their opinion. It is not only the loyal customers, but new customers or first comers will also happily share their thoughts as it won’t take much time.
It is important that you give some training to your waiters first before sending them to collect the customer feedback. The questions that you should ask must be short and limited. Ideally 1 to 3 questions are best as they won’t waste much time and the customers also don’t mind answering them. If your waiters start asking them too many questions, while they are waiting for their meal or at the time when they finish it and are preparing to leave, they could get annoyed.
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That is why face to face customer feedback collection is an effective but delicate process and it can affect your relationship with your customers too. Once your waiters acquired the customer opinion on certain subjects, they should be able to make notes of it and should also be trained to effectively register it to the archives or database. The problem with the face to face feedback collection is always the nature of the process which is manual. The waiters can sometimes miss some information, they can misheard, and they can incorrectly interpret customer’s opinion while adding it into the record.
That is why you should train your waiters prior to conducting a customer feedback collection campaign. It is important to convert manual feedback into digital to be able to analyze it more effectively. This will help you to generate actionable reports which can be included in the decision making or strategy building processes to improve customer experience.
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Online Customer Feedback and Reviews
The online customer feedback and customer reviews can have huge influence on the customers’ decisions. As in Dubai and all around the UAE the internet is accessible to everyone, 99% of the population to be precise. This means people are heavily consuming information from the internet and social media. For any business the corporate website is a great channel to communicate with its customers. Studies have shown that a business can have up to 250% rise in conversions by simply adding a review section on their corporate website. Usually a restaurant website includes basic contact information, location map, online menu and attractive photos and multimedia to attract more customers.
Restaurants and foodservice businesses can easily add an online review and rating section at their website. Where people can come and right reviews or rate them as per their experience. The studies have shown that almost 90% of the consumers use online reviews to judge the quality of the product or service they are acquiring. Almost the same percentage of the consumers avoid the business if they see negative reviews.
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That is all because of the general consumer trends and behavior which is drastically changed during the past few years. People tend to rely more on the internet than ever before. The easy access to high-speed internet, smartphones and computers also played an important role in bringing such trends. The market have shifted on a very fast speed. That is why restaurants and foodservice businesses need a review form or mechanism to encourage online customer feedback and reviews.
These reviews will also help you to understand what customers really think about your brand. Sometimes in face-to-face reviews the customers might hesitate to say something that they feel could be perceived rude or harsh by the waiting staff. That is why sometimes either they try to say something nice or sometimes they just don’t fully express themselves at all. This gap can be filled by the online customer feedback and reviews on your restaurant website.
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Email and SMS Feedback Campaigns
Emails and SMS are two most common and very old channels to communicate with your customers. For restaurants and foodservice businesses the email and SMS can not only help in marketing campaigns but they can also be very helpful in collecting customer feedback. The SMS is a great tool for restaurants to push customer feedback surveys. All types and sizes of businesses are utilizing SMS for their marketing and communication purposes.
The modern customer feedback system allow restaurants to effectively utilize SMS as customer feedback collection tool by either sending online link via SMS or by pushing feedback SMS where the user can respond/reply by choosing their answer from a pre-defined list. Every business should start collecting email and phone number so they can use it for later communications. There are some digital customer feedback collection tools which allow businesses to push customer feedback surveys to the emails.
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Usually it is an online link and the customers can access the online survey page where they can submit their feedback. The emails are one of the most effective and inexpensive channel a restaurant or foodservice or any other business can have. It is one of the oldest form of digital marketing yet still the most effective and cost-efficient channel. The SMS and emails both can be utilized as per the need.
Mostly restaurants in Dubai and all around the UAE are also using WhatsApp for communication. Some businesses also offer customer care services via WhatsApp. The WhatsApp is not a substitute of the SMS but it is also a great tool to utilize for feedback collection. The customer Feedback form can be configured to both SMS and WhatsApp and the customer can respond by simply replying to the message.
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Collect Customer Feedback from Social Media Platforms
We daily interact with one or multiple social media. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE almost everyone is using one or another social media platform. The restaurant and foodservice businesses can leverage the public nature of social media platforms to gather customer feedback and to interact with them. The social media platforms and channels have huge impact on the business and brand image. It is important for the restaurants and foodservice businesses to have active social media profiles. People tend to be more honest, blunt and open-minded on social media.
There would be both positive and negative reviews and comments. It is crucial for the restaurants to carefully respond to each one of them. Although the negative comments and feedback can damage your reputation but its impact can be minimized easily. When a restaurant or foodservice respond to negative comments and try to address the problem the customer is mentioning, the readers gets a positive impression that the business is eager to resolve customers’ problems. This can minimize the impact of the negative feedback. The social media in general can provide a great source of customer feedback and user-generated content.
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Collect Customer Feedback with Physical Request Cards
Another great alternate of face-to-face customer feedback collection is the physical request cards. These are usually simple cards with a questionnaire printed on them. The restaurants and food services can ask multiple questions and the waiters can provide these feedback request cards to the customers while returning their credit cards or offering them the bills, etc. The feedback request cards usually have a check list kind of format with multiple questions with multiple answers each. The customers can check any appropriate answers they want.
The physical feedback request cards can also have a small area where the customer can express their thoughts in words too. The physical feedback request cards can capture more accurate data comparing to the face-to-face customer feedback collection. Restaurants and foodservices can also utilize technology to scan data/answers from those cards which help them easily digitalize the feedback answers. The customers tend to be more honest and straight forward when they are giving feedback on the physical request cards which significantly improves the feedback data quality.
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Use Interactive Screens, POS and Kiosks to Collect Customer Feedback
Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the interactive screens and self-service kiosks are very common. Everyone is familiar with the flashy screens that always attracts towards them. The restaurants and foodservice businesses can also utilize the interactive screens, POS and digital signage or kiosks to collect valuable customer feedback data. Small tablets, or interactive screens can be placed at or near the tables. These screens can be placed in multiple locations within the restaurants, so maximum people can reach it easily.
Furthermore the interactive screens or tablets can be placed at the POS or counters, where all customers will come for placing order or for billing or anything else. The aim is to gain maximum exposure for the interactive screens. These touch screens are a simple yet very effective way to collect feedback. Restaurants can place a quick survey or just a simple happiness meter to learn about customers’ experience. Furthermore these interactive screens are fully digital, it means all the data that you will be collecting from the interactive screens will be available through an intuitive user dashboard.
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Conclusion
Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the competition among businesses is very high, the customers’ are also very demanding and in such situation, it is crucial to learn what your customers think about your business as a brand, what they like or dislike and a what they are expecting from your business. Which make the customer feedback data extremely important for restaurants and foodservice businesses is. Mostly businesses doesn’t collect feedback at all, the ones who do also failed to utilize the full potential of the customer feedback data.
In this blog we have covered most popular and effective methods which restaurants and foodservice can implement to boost the quality and quantity of the feedback as well as their sales. Mostly people evaluate a business on the bases of their endorsements, reviews and rating. Good reviews and customer feedback help establishing the trust. The positive and negative both types of feedback are important. The negative feedbacks help understanding your flaws and the positive feedbacks help you understand your strengths.
If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you implementing a tailor-made customer feedback system at your restaurants, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in with you soon.
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