Best Practices
Survival Tip #6: The Most Important Position in Your Restaurant
Hospitality is an important part of every guest experience. At this time though, online ordering, delivery, masks, distancing, all make creating a personal, human connection and showing genuine hospitality MUCH more challenging.
However, if your restaurant takes phone orders, you still have a great opportunity to show hospitality and connect with your guests in a meaningful, personal way.
The people answering your phone and taking orders now have the power to shape your guests' impression of your entire restaurant and how you do business AND whether they decide to order from your restaurant again.
Here are a few phone order best practices that will make your restaurant stand out as a friendly, caring and professional place to do business.
- Only put your BEST people on the phone. The ones who are naturally friendly, thoughtful, diligent and will SMILE when they take orders.
- Smiling DOES make a person sound more personable and friendly so train and remind people to SMILE whenever they're talking to a guest.
- Use language that communicates competence, appreciation and respect -- words like "May I" have your name and address, "yes sir or ma'am", "my pleasure", "thank you SO much", "absolutely".
- The order MUST be accurate, so ask questions to clarify anything that's not clear and repeat the entire order back to the guest to make sure.
- For non-regulars, explain the delivery or pickup.
- End with a personalized, sincere thank you -- "Thank you so much for your order, Mr. Anderson, We REALLY appreciate your support. Be safe."
- OWNERS -- Call your restaurant frequently to see how your phones are being answered. Follow up by praising or coaching.
Hospitality is simply an opportunity to show love and care.
- Author Unknown
Unfortunately, many restaurants are NOT doing this well. BUT, this gives your restaurant the opportunity to create a meaningful point of difference by providing hospitality with the friendliest, most professional phone ordering experience in your area. Your guests WILL notice and it will create better guest experiences and more repeat orders.
Have your managers and order takers watch the short training video below and see what a difference it makes!
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Training Video
Phone Order Best Practices for ANY Restaurant
Delivering a superior guest experience is the key to creating loyal, repeat guests. And this applies to ALL your guests, whether they're being served in your dining room or ordering delivery or take-out online or on the phone. Every type of guest should experience competent service and genuine hospi...
