How to Engage Your Customers:  If Your Business Has a Story to Tell… Tell it!

I ate at the Wolseley on Thursday night. My very great friend Meghan Ridsdale booked us in. She knows every eatery in London and is a reliable source of recommendation for anyone’s budget, taste, styling, and expectations. 

 

 

A fabulous building, incredibly busy, great service, and with a modestly priced ‘something for everyone’s taste’ menu. 

Anyway, the building was designed as a car showroom for Wolseley in 1921 and is very ‘Agatha Christie’. It then became a Chinese restaurant, then Barclays Bank. There is much history in its walls and it has a story to tell. When I asked the team member if he knew its history, he bought over a well-thumbed, plastic pocket binder of photocopied A4 pages showing photos and articles throughout its transformations. This was both kind and informative, but its thrown togetherness was somewhat incongruent to our surroundings.

I always wonder why restaurants and venues, that have a story to tell, don’t do so unsolicited, and with some flair: A little commentary on the menu, a QR code, or a table talker? In a time when the industry is struggling to pull in enough trade to cover its rising costs, anything that can engage your customers in a way that is a little less transactional can make a difference.           

The other notable difference was their takeaway boxes. Sturdy and branded, not only do they look great, but isn’t it about time we encouraged a reduction in food wastage? I’m not suggesting soup or oysters should be encouraged as travel companions but there is much that would be better eaten than thrown.

 

If you would like to find out more about how we can help you increase customer satisfaction and grow your business, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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Reputation Management

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Free Training Tools

Free Training Tools

Intercepting Complaints

Check-backs and complaint handling go hand in hand. Intercepting a problem before a customer tells you, or Google, not only prevents negative word-of-mouth but can increase revenue through loyalty and positive PR.

Use our fun PEP talk sheets to support your front-line teams in learning how to avoid complaints.

Engaging Conversations

Building a natural and genuine rapport with guests can be the most positive and memorable part of their dining experience. Whilst the food and the environment can be remarkable by itself, making a customer feel that they are more than just a table number, has a far wider reach in terms of spreading positive word-of-mouth.

Use our fun PEP talk sheet to support your front-line teams in learning how to have engaging conversations.

Positive Body Language

Being able to communicate positivity, and with enthusiasm, encourages customers to reciprocate in the same manner. However, most of us are unaware of how we are perceived by others and, whilst we may think we are coming across as welcoming and friendly, our body language could be telling a different story.

Use our fun PEP talk sheet to support your front-line teams in understand the importance of self-awareness.

Relevant Recommendations

Team members need good product knowledge to be able to describe and enthuse, but often don’t know what many of the dishes taste like. A lack of upselling is also often due to a lack of confidence in knowing where to start a conversation that leads to a recommendation.

Use our fun PEP talk sheet to support your front-line teams in learning how to upsell.