How Restaurants Lose Customers

In today’s world, customer service plays an important role in helping a business gain success; be it a small coffee shop at the corner of a street or a five star hotel. Good customer Service is what a customer wants; as this is an age where the customer is the king. You could be an entrepreneur with the biggest and best chain of restaurants in town but if you can’t provide good customer service then be sure to lose customers in no time.

The success of any business, since it first opens till the present time can be credited to the very strong tradition that it follows. The main accomplishment of a business is people; right from the brand ambassador, the employees up to the customers themselves. Certain factors that may require alteration or customization are culture, the history, religion etc. Hence one should be considerate in identifying if specific customs or traditions are acceptable in providing customer service for customers in a specific state or country.  

Food Service Products

A friend of mine once mentioned “Food service products are things that the customer can’t buy themselves”. I was confused at first but later I understood what he meant. At times restaurants serve frozen or ready to eat food products which are available at your local stores for a much lower price; but the restaurant may charge you a bomb for the same. Most of the time customer may identify this and when the server is questioned he might just blush beet red and answer, ““Uh, we don't always make all things from scratch but add stuff like vegetables, etc to it.” No customer would ever want to go to a restaurant like this as they are not looking to eat frozen or ready to eat food products and that too for a much higher price. Hence Food Service Product plays an important part in the restaurant business.

There are many ways that a restaurant may loose its customers. Below is the graph that shows the top 6 reasons why restaurants lose customers.

An attitude of Indifference
There may be infinite ways to lose customers but the most common, fastest and simplest way is the attitude of indifference portrayed by the staffs of a restaurant. Customers don’t like ‘No’ for an answer. There are better ways to say ‘No’ but the restaurant staffs might just say the word without even realizing that they just lost a customer because of this attitude.  The customer does not want an indifferent attitude or ‘No’ for an answer especially for the service that he is paying for. Hence, this caters to 68%; the biggest reason when it comes to losing customers by restaurants.

Dissatisfaction of the product

In today’s world customer satisfaction plays an important role. If your customer is happy with what you serve then your restaurant will touch the skies but if he is dissatisfied with the product then be sure that are to going to lose another customer as this reason caters to 14% for the loss of customers by restaurants.

Competition in the market and change in price

In today’s highly competitive market the customer is likely to get carried away by the offers that are available; as he is looking for product that suits his pocket. The change is pricing also make a big difference. This reason caters to 10% when losing customers. For example, a student will be lured by another restaurant that offers the same meal for a better price

Customer has moved to another place or destination

Approximately 3% of the time restaurants lose customers because they have moved to another place which is located quiet far away from their favorite restaurants. Hence a customer may adjust to restaurants that are close to his vicinity rather than travel miles to eat.  

 

Word of mouth

Word of mouth is an important tool and causes loss of 3% to the restaurant business if good service is not provided. It plays an important role as we humans get influenced faster by listening and acting according to what people have to say. For instance; if a customer has experienced a bad behavior with a restaurant; the neighbors, relatives or friends of this customer are likely not to go to that restaurant just for fear that similar instance might happen with them.

Influence of culture, traditions and the circle of friends’
Influence of culture, tradition and friends play an important part when losing customers. This reason accounts for 2% of the loss of customers by restaurants. At times a culture or tradition might hurt the sentiments of the customer. One’s tradition or culture can be another’s taboo. For example, a friend of yours might have a bad experience with a restaurant and may advice you not to go there. You will readily listen to him because he is your friend. Hence these influential factors play a part in losing customer.

These lists for restaurants to lose customers are never ending and can go on and on but for now these are the 6 top rated reasons. As customers we all want the best for every penny that we spend and as restaurant owners we should not to take customers for granted but can consider everyday as the first day of business by providing the best service keeping in mind that one customer with a bad experience can damage the name and the reputation of the restaurant.