How Restaurants Should Virtually Connect with their Customers

How Restaurants Should Virtually Connect with their Customers. After dessert is served, the bill is paid, and the table is empty, you feel anxious that your restaurant may not have impressed your customers. Sure, they didn’t complain or ask for a manager. They said the food was excellent and left with a smile, but how do you know what they thought about your establishment? The truth is, you don’t know and won’t know unless you connect with them long after they have left. How can you do that? We’re happy to tell you!

Help from Yelp

When it comes to virtually connecting with your restaurant’s customers, it’s crucial that you first know what they think of your establishment. They may have left calm, cool, and collected, but perhaps they don’t want to seem troublesome, cranky, or picky. As unbelievable as it may seem, some people choose to keep their opinions to themselves, at least until they’re behind a screen. It would be best if you began your virtual connection by understanding your customers’ experience, and the best way businesses can do this is through Yelp. 

Yelp is an online platform that can be used to search, read about, or submit reviews for businesses. It can be highly beneficial to the company and the consumer, allowing patrons to publish critiques of the establishment they bought from. Yelp is extremely helpful to restaurant owners because they can finally understand how their customers feel about their experience. Whether it is a negative or positive rating, businesses can respond to the criticism by offering a solution, asking for a second chance, or extending an invitation. This virtual connection is vital to understanding your business’ success, or lack thereof. 

How Should My Restaurant Staff Engage with Guests? Restaurants.

You should already have the apparent strategies put into practice. Kind and courteous, friendly and patient, and the list goes on.

However, these are already anticipated characteristics. Your guests expect immaculate service, so how can your restaurant memorably engage with its customers?

The secret is to treat them as if they are already your best friends. While maintaining professionalism, converse with customers comfortably and entertain them with your conversation.

Ask subtle questions about themselves that make them feel cared for. These small snippets of small talk can go a long way!

Endless Apps, Restaurants.

We’re not precisely implying the first course of ceaseless starters here but think of it as the many possibilities to start your connection with customers! Social media offers many routes you can take to engage with your guests.

Various platforms allow you to present updates, images, and events to current and future followers, which can further your connection with your patrons.

It’s essential to consider platforms that allow personal engagement, such as responding to comments or providing a survey. You might choose which media to use based on your restaurant’s customer demographics.

If your guests range in their mid-twenties, you may wish to stick with what’s current, such as Instagram. Being in touch with who your customers are will make all the difference. 

How Can I Improve my Restaurant’s Facebook Page? Restaurants.

Facebook, like many other platforms, can be where your customers turn for information about your restaurant.

Your restaurant’s Facebook page can be what encourages a new or repeated visit to your establishment. You must keep your page up to date. It should accurately display your restaurant’s current data, such as location and schedule.

Add in other helpful info, such as a happy-hour schedule, acceptable forms of payment, and whether or not your menu accommodates vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free diets. You want to ensure that any social media page for your business presents a wow factor. Your page should thoroughly inform and equally convince anyone and everyone. 

Inbox Invites

Restaurants. Email is as prominent as it was when it first began. It allows businesses to connect with their customers days, weeks, months, and even years after they first dined at your restaurant.

Your business emails should not be spamming your customers every day. Make each email count. Make them invite, helpful, and persuasive.

You will not want to send emails your patrons don’t want to open. Many excellent email marketing strategies can be taken to boost your connection with customers further.

Offer discount rewards, showcase your newest appetiser or entrée, and advertise the perks of your happy hour. Encourage email sign-up before your guests leave. It’s a clever way to stay connected without formally reaching out.

What is a Customer Outreach Strategy I can use for My Restaurant? 

Restaurants. Any customer outreach strategy should encompass flexibility and your willingness to meet the needs of the customer.

While many virtual strategies have been proven successful, your restaurant’s outreach can begin at

the restaurant itself. These ideas can often stack upon each other, leading from one to the next in an attempt to reach an ultimate goal. Advertising your restaurant’s socials both inside and outside your restaurant will be sure to, at the very least, pique a passerby’s interest. While many of your social media followers will be current customers, paid advertisements often reel in new ones.

Outreach strategies can come in all shapes and sizes. 

Are you in need of some help to connect with your restaurant’s customers virtually? 

Connecting with your customers outside your business is not always black and white. There are many routes and strategies to consider, as each restaurant’s pool of customers is different.

You don’t want to overthink the steps you take, and you want to see successful results! We understand the frustration you may be feeling, and that’s why we’re here to help you along the way.

If you decide you need our assistance for virtually connecting with your customers, we would like to offer you a free consultation with us! It’s just a short, casual conversation to see if we’d be a good fit.

Yes, I’d like to access my free consultation!