Restaurant Satisfaction Management
That's why the tactics and tools behind satisfaction management connect so powerfully with the restaurant industry. According to the article "Guest satisfaction and restaurant performance" published in the Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, the three principal factors associated with restaurant performance are:
1. Food quality
2. Appropriate Cost
3. Attentive Service
Gustometria’s satisfaction management system is a comprehensive solution for measuring, tracking and improving all three of these factors.
Obviously food quality depends on many factors. Execution and the effective supply chain management play important roles. Ultimately, the most important factor is the customer's perception of food quality. Do meals meet his or hers expectations? Gustometria will provide in depth information about this perception.
The second factor is cost and refers to the need to provide a perception of adequate price-quality ratio. This ratio is independent of the actual price of the food. Both a low cost fast food restaurant and a high end full service eatery can excel in the same area. If the customer enters expecting a certain level of quality and the company meets or exceeds this level then the evaluation of the price-quality ratio will be favorable.
Finally, the level of personal and attentive service must also meet or exceed the customer´s expectations. Was he greeted upon entering? Was the wait time adequate? Did staff show an interest in making the experience enjoyable?
All of these factors are easily and affordably measured using the Gustometria system. The customers are presented with a handheld gustometer at their table at the end of their meal. They are then invited to answer a short survey while waiting for their final receipt.
The Gustometria system enables the company to measure a large variety of variables without obligating any one customer to answer too many questions. Extremely high participation levels provides management with statistically significant amounts of data without being an inconvenience to customers.
Most importantly, Gustometria permits management to modify the surveys on the fly so to delve deeper into detected problems. For example, is a perceived problem with beverages is highlighted, we can dig deeper adding questions about variety, temperature, quantity until the exact root of the problem is discovered. Mangment can then introduce improvements on a tentative basis and observe whether or not they are translated into higher satisfaction scores. After proving the solution, improvements can be communicated to the entire organization.
It has always been difficult to measure customer satisfaction in restaurants due to the fact that customers are only present for a short amount of time. This means that either the survey is done immediately, or the quality of the data collected will deteriorate rapidly. Sending the customer home to fill out an online survey practically eliminates participation and almost certainly skews the opinion. After all, how well do you really remember what you had for lunch the day before yesterday?
Gustometria solves this problem by measuring customer satisfaction continuously and as part of the normal customer interaction. By putting in place a specific system for measuring satisfaction, the company makes a clear statement that "your opinion is important to us."
Also, by integrating Gustometria data with traditional customer loyalty data, we can build very powerful marketing tools. A clearer picture of the different customer profiles being served empowers the company to design specific promotions to enhance the most profitable objectives.
If you would like to find out more about implementing Gustometria in your restaurant give us a call toll free at 1-877-448-7865. In less than a week your system can be up and running.
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