Article
The Crucial Finishing Touches that Create Guest Loyalty
The meal has been served. The guests are winding down their visit. Your servers are hopeful for a nice tip. The pressure is off, right?
In fact, the guests' most recent impression will be the end of the meal. And as good a job as your concept, kitchen and service staff make upon first impressions, to insure guests return again and again, they need to leave with a good taste in their mouth - both literally and figuratively.
Endings are really beginnings. And the satisfactory end of a meal can mean the beginning of a long relationship with your guests. The dining experience must always end on a high note.
Moreover, if the beginning of the dining process hits a sour note, well, a restaurant has the rest of the meal to win back a guest's heart. But fail him on the way out and you can say good bye - often for good.
"Delivering the check and bidding farewell can simply be a transaction to collect what's owed or, if properly executed, a positive set up for the guest's next visit," says Chris Tripoli, FCSI, principal of A'La Carte Foodservice Consulting Group in Houston, Texas. "Wise restaurant operators teach their servers about what guests typically think while dining out."
Learning Objectives:
By the time you've finished reading this article, you should be able to:
- Explain how to offer the check in a way that does not put off guests.
- Describe the importance of offering dessert earlier in the meal.
- List several mistakes that can end the meal on a down note.
For example, it is human nature to anticipate what comes next, Tripoli continues, "Which is why the guest may be thinking about their entree while dining on their salad course." Knowing this helps the server become more sensitive to the importance of ending the guest's meal experience properly.
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