I don’t know about you, but one thing that annoys me when eating out is having to wait an unreasonable amount of time for my meal.

This is exactly what happened recently when I decided to pop into a restaurant that’s located in a well-known department store.

The thing I liked most about the place was that it was a buffet style restaurant that provided fast service. At least it used to be. That had all changed on this occasion, as it was now waiter service.

I got seated quickly, the server was nice and friendly and took my order with a smile. My drink came right away, and I sat back and relaxed. So far so good. I was rather hungry and anticipated that my food would arrive shortly.

Thirty minutes later and I was still waiting. My relaxed mood had gone, and I had started to feel a bit stressed. The fact that the next table’s order had already come, and they were almost finishing their meal didn’t help.

I caught the server’s eye and politely asked when my food was expected. She said she would check and disappeared into the kitchen. A bit later she came back and said it would be a few minutes longer.

My meal finally arrived and I’m glad to say it was delicious. But the forty-five-minute wait had left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.

So, what had gone wrong? Why the delay? No-one could offer any explanation and I must say I felt disappointed.

To make matters worse, when I asked for the bill and said I would pay by bank card, the server said I would have to pay at the exit. I got up, went to the exit and yes, you’ve guessed it, there was a queue of people waiting to pay!

Overall, I’d spent longer waiting around in the restaurant than enjoying my meal. The changes the restaurant management had made had resulted in a poor customer experience.

How can restaurants avoid making changes that customers don’t like, like making them wait longer for their meal? Here are a few ideas.

1. Inform customers in advance about changes

If a restaurant is planning to make any changes to their service, they should inform their customers in advance. This could be through social media, email newsletters or by putting up notices in the restaurant itself. By giving customers a heads up, they can prepare themselves for any potential delays or disruptions.

2. Keep the menu simple

One of the reasons for long waiting times is a complicated menu. If a restaurant has a large and complex menu, it can be difficult for the kitchen to keep up with the orders. By simplifying their menu, restaurants can streamline their cooking process and reduce wait times for customers.

3. Value back-of-house staff

A lot of delays in restaurants are due to kitchen staff shortages. Finding and keeping good back-of-house staff is more challenging than ever today. Make sure you are compensating your chefs and kitchen staff well and creating a pleasant work environment. Even if you are not actively recruiting, keep a pipeline of potential candidates who you can call up when the inevitable chef shortage occurs.

4. Offer small bites or drinks while customers wait

While waiting for their meals, customers can get impatient and hungry. By offering complimentary small bites or drinks, restaurants can keep their customers satisfied and distracted from the wait. This can also give the kitchen some extra time to prepare orders without customers feeling frustrated.

5. Communicate with customers

If there are any delays or issues in the kitchen, it’s important for restaurants to communicate this with their customers. Honesty is the best policy here. Apologize and give the reason for the delay: “We are short-staffed today” or “we missed your order, but we are right on it now” This shows that the restaurant values its customers by being honest with them.

6. Give a discount

If a restaurant really has screwed up and the meal has taken an unreasonable amount of time to serve, a discount is in order. If you are in the restaurant business for the long haul, keeping customer goodwill is crucial if you want to create loyal customers that keep coming back.

Even though the long wait was enough to dampen my mood, I will be going back to this particular restaurant. Why? Because the food was great and despite the delay, the waitstaff were very friendly. Once again, super nice service staff saved the day!

About the Author

Ian Miller is Editor of Customer Service Manager Magazine – the leading resource and community for customer service professionals.

Advancements in technology have made a tremendous impact in every field. Quick-service restaurants, too, benefit from new tools, devices, and applications that improve their efficiency while keeping customer satisfaction high.

Today, you’ll find everything from parking lot self-service kiosks to scannable QR codes at quick-service restaurants. To keep pace in this industry, you’ll have to stay up to date and thoughtfully consider what technology your restaurant needs.

1. Mobile Ordering

Business Insider predicted that by 2020, mobile ordering will become a $38 billion industry and will account for 11 percent of total quick-service restaurant sales. Instead of customers making their way to your restaurant, they can make a phone call and have their food delivered.

Apart from calling, mobile apps also make it easier for customers to place orders and make payments online. An upgrade to mobile ordering will encourage customers to order from all around the city, which means more customers for you.

2. Scheduling Software

Scheduling software automates the management of employees’ schedules, events, and resources. For example, if an employee asks for sick leave, the software automatically appoints another employee to work in their place. This type of software eliminates human error and also removes any personal feelings from the processes of delegating hours to employees.

3. Headsets, Intercoms, and System Speaker

These hardware items are essential for communicating with staff and customers alike. While you may already have communication hardware, you may want to consider upgrading to newer models. Bluetooth headsets are wireless and retain a longer charge, while a high-quality drive-through speaker system lets employees hear customers’ orders more clearly.

4. Table Tops and Kiosks for Ordering

Tabletop kiosks are revolutionizing quick-service restaurants because they let customers create and customize orders in no time. Small kiosks set up on a tabletop with a stand and have a tablet attached where customers can access menus, add items, add-ons, customizations, and provide instructions for their orders. The kiosks also process payments.

This technology lets customers browse through menus and create customized orders on their own and frees up employees so they can focus solely on customer satisfaction.

5. Digital Point of Sale System

Over the years, POS systems have improved dramatically. New models aren’t only faster to use, but they have handheld hardware and allow customers to create orders and make payments. Older models had limited features, but newer models have unique features such as touch screens, cloud-based data storage, cash drawers, platforms for online ordering, and tools to process various payment types.

6. Artificial Intelligence

Restaurants now use AI to help their restaurants run smoothly and grow. For example, AI chatbots and apps answer customer queries while AI-integrated kiosks tend to customers for shorter waiting times. Apart from this, recommendation engines help customers make meal choices according to their preferences.

7. Digital Inventory Tracking

Software that keeps track of digital inventory isn’t just a time-saver, it also reduces waste and cuts costs. It keeps records of produce and ingredients whenever new stock comes in and informs you once stock nears depletion. The software also calculates what exact supply quantities you will require so that you don’t fall short or waste resources on overstocking.

Scaling Up Your Restaurant with New Technology

Any technology that improves customer service, efficiency, or scale of operations will help your business grow a wider customer base and bring in more profit. While investing in new tech software and hardware may seem like small changes, having the right technology can provide your restaurant the efficiency boost it needs to grow.

For restaurant vendors, online portals provide their customers an easy outlet to ask questions, voice disputes or simply pay invoices. The problem is vendors aren’t realizing the return on their investment because the restaurants they work with simply aren’t using the portals.

This has been confirmed by a new study of the restaurant industry ‘s payment habits by post-sale customer relationship management firm TermSync.

The study of the post sale relationship between restaurants and their vendors revealed that while most restaurant owners are aware of the portal option, they still are not using online portals to manage their invoices. However, if these portals were reconfigured to include multiple vendors in one place, those same restaurant owners would be much more likely to interact with vendors through them.

Small Businesses Owners Claim to Want Portals Yet They Do Not Use Them

According to the study, 70 percent of restaurant owners are aware that they have the ability to pay their invoices or ask questions online for certain vendors. But when these same owners have a question regarding an invoice, just 3 percent said they would log-in to their vendor’s online portal to contact the company. This is surprising considering a recent Forrester report that found 72 percent of people would prefer a self-service model (like a portal) to resolve a customer service issue rather than use phone or e-mail.

Put together, we find that many customers (72 percent) want to use a self-service model like a portal and most (70 percent) are aware their vendors offer a portal, yet very few (3 percent) are actually using them when an issue arises. This leaves many vendors wondering where the disconnect is? Why are restaurants not using the self-service models that studies show they prefer?

Why Traditional Portals Get Little Customer Adoption

The main issue with most current customer portals is that vendors fail to take into account that restaurants are purchasing products or services from many different sources. It’s just not realistic to think your customers are going to create a log-in and password for each vendor’s portal, then log-on to each one separately when it comes time to pay an invoice or ask a question. The portals themselves may be very user-friendly, but they are useless if the customer never signs up in the first place.

Instead, restaurant owners are depending on traditional communication methods. Calling the vendor was by far the most common way restaurant owners contact their vendors, with 79 percent of restaurant owners saying they pick up the phone when they have a question regarding an invoice.

The Importance of Good Customer Experience

Depending on your customers to call you with questions or concerns can be problematic as well. In addition to it being time consuming and disruptive to their day, many small business owners are paying bills at odd hours due to their busy schedules. When this happens, it’s unlikely they will be able to connect with a vendor employee via phone should they have a questions or concern.

Because of this, when a restaurant owner has a question or concern about an invoice, they often wait for the vendor to call them rather than proactively reaching out. The vendor is waiting for a payment while the customer is just sitting on the bill, waiting for a call so he or she can ask a question or voice a concern regarding the invoice. Both sides become frustrated and the relationship suffers.

Customers are increasingly likely to take this approach when they deal with multiple vendors as they don’t have time to proactively reach out to each one. In fact, 80% of restaurant owners that work with 16 or more vendors admitted to having delayed a payment just to ask a question when they receive a reminder phone call.

Customers will certainly call or contact you when there is a major issue, but many little things go undocumented, yet still leave a bad taste in the customer’s mouth. This can be very problematic because, as reported by Ruby Newell-Legner in “Understanding Customers”, a typical business only hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers and it usually takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for just one unresolved negative experience. However, when you hear from a dissatisfied customer and are able to resolve the issue, the customer is often more loyal than before the issue occurred. Basically, the key is providing an easier communication method so customers are more likely to reach out when an issue occurs.

Multi-Vendor Portals Benefit Customers & Vendors

Portals can give vendors the tools to provide the best customer experience but only if they are actually used. So how do you get customers to be more proactive with their questions or concerns so issues can be resolved quickly without hurting the relationship? The answer may simply be to make their lives easier by no longer forcing them to make separate calls or log-in to separate portals to manage each vendor’s bill.

When the restaurant owners were asked if they would use a standardized portal that allowed them to view all their invoice information, ask questions and make payments to several vendors from one location, 85% said they would. That’s a marked difference from the 3% who say they currently access individual vendor portals when they have a question.

At TermSync, CustomerConnect was built to revolutionize B2B post-sale interactions by including several vendors in one standardized portal that is free for any small business customer to use. This allows the customer to manage all their invoices from one location, which results in the business owners or managers being more proactive to submit questions to vendors. Disputes get resolved faster, payments made quicker, and relationships remain strong.

Restaurant owners will appreciate the customer-first approach and likely recommend vendors who utilize this type of technology to others in the business. That is important as, according to the study, 73 percent of surveyed restaurant owners said that other restaurant managers’ feedback was important when choosing a vendor. In today’s competitive B2B market, referrals and customer experience are key differentiators.

In summary, portals have been around for years but have never really taken off because vendors were ignoring one important fact – no matter how key of a vendor they are to their customer, they are not the customer’s only vendor. Once customers are able to manage several vendors in one location, adoption rates increase, customer satisfaction improves and both sides gain efficiencies.

About the Author

Article contributed by TermSync. TermSync connects thousands of B2B vendors and customers through our standardized, cloud-based platform. Leveraging the collective power of the TermSync network as well as intuitive, non-disruptive technology, clients are able to improve customer relations, reduce processing costs, and get paid faster.