Feedback Importance for High Performing Restaurants - Restaurant Reservation System

Written by Tablein Team | Feb 4, 2020 3:50:21 PM

Client reviews are crucial for every business these days but getting customers to leave feedback can be difficult as once they leave your restaurant, you have often lost their attention.

Customer Story

Kimchi, CA, United States

We were faced with shady and anonymous comments from the very beginning and these unreliable reviews were not helping at all. We were keen to find out our strengths and weaknesses (as a new restaurant), but unfortunately we were unable to evaluate our service properly.

The Problem

Lack of Real Reviews from Actual Guests

Since the very first day we opened we put the maximum effort in creating only the best quality experience for our restaurant guests. We understand that client’s reviews are crucial, especially at the very beginning. However, when receiving these anonymous comments, we were unable to evaluate the real quality of our work and weren’t even sure if we were going in the right direction.
We found that reviews on websites like TripAdvisor were not detailed enough in order to get real feedback that we could use.
We were constantly facing a risk of using our positive online comments to attract new clients, while also having the negative ones push them away. These problems have the power to determine a business’s success or failure, especially at the very beginning!
Anonymous reviews are not reliable or useful to us. You are left not knowing who wrote them, when the guests visited the restaurant, what they ate, or who served them. We couldn’t even be sure if the person really was visiting Kimchi and not somewhere else. To receive trusted feedback, we didn’t find these general reviews to be effective.

The Solution

Internal Reviews with Tablein Reservation and Feedback Function

After we started using the Tablein reservation system, we were happy to finally be receiving real feedback from real guests. The day after each reservation happens, the Tablein system automatically sends an email to our guests with a request to review our food, service, ambience, and cleanliness, plus add an optional comment. Sharing their experience in our restaurant takes only a single click and few moments of their time and the vast majority of our guests agree to leave a review.

The Result

Learning about our Weaknesses Helps us to Improve our Services to our Best Abilities which Has Resulted in Increased Business

Real client reviews are game-changing tools which we set as our highest priority. Finding out about our weaknesses grant us with a possibility to constantly improve our service and food quality, as well as optimize teamwork.
We immediately reacted to our client’s needs and expectations which resulted in a sudden flood of great reviews! These great reviews in turn led to a massive increase in the number of guests we accommodated at our restaurant last year.
Our restaurant is quite big as well so our overall workload in one evening can be huge. After finding out more about our client’s needs we’ve also got the chance to optimise our resources and teamwork.
Each review allows us to evaluate each situation more specifically. By knowing what time the guest was visiting our restaurant, what dishes they ordered, who served them, as well as who prepared the meal in the kitchen.
A polite request to leave a review for us is sent immediately by the email provided by the guest. This step is completely automatic so we receive the feedback without any extra work.
By using the Tablein reservation system we can receive not only the valuable feedback, but also collect information about the guest (under the guest’s agreement, of course). The most important tool remains the email, which we can use for e-marketing. We also implemented some clever steps that ask for a further review on TripAdvisor when our guest leaves us five stars.

Advices

Top Tips by Kimchi

Analyse all of your reviews carefully. Discuss them with your team and try your best to react immediately.
Implement changes in your food and service quality according to your client’s needs.
Share the reviews with all your staff members by automatically forwarding them. Never trust anonymous reviews.
Remind your guests that they can make a reservation in your restaurant online. This will not only give you a chance to get their real reviews, but also their email addresses!
We’ve applied one more clever step and recommend that you do too! If the review is very high, the guest is now automatically invited to leave one more review on Google, Tripadvisor or Facebook.

Kimchi experience sounds familiar? Receive feedback only from the real diners by implementing advanced Tablein system in your reservation management.

View full post