Ushering in that forgotten era of customer appreciation marketing for restaurants
In a 2013 Forbes article, entrepreneur and angel investor Amy Rees Anderson quoted an anonymous adage: “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” She went on to say the most powerful tool you have in creating success is to appreciate other people.
It's time for restaurants to start acting like they care about their customers again. Never has there been a better moment to start, because today’s consumers are living in the experience economy and a key component of the restaurant experience is the interaction with staff. What’s required is to resurrect the old solution we refer to as Customer Appreciation Marketing (CAM).
CAM is most effective when waiters and managers understand the importance of the table visit, (otherwise known as table touching). Remember the time a restaurant owner or manager wandered from table to table attentively checking in on the diners? That’s long gone because most restaurant managers seem to gradually go into solitary confinement within the office – preferring instead to delegate the task of visiting and checking in on tables to the serving staff or to some low-energy supervisor who shuffles along in an listless manner.
A key component of the restaurant experience is the interaction with staff. In addition to beautiful decor and ambiance, diners expect restaurants to engage and know them in a personalized way. That’s proving difficult as restaurant staffs are not sticking around long enough to get to know patrons.
A survey done in 2022 in the US revealed that the average restaurant employee switches jobs every 56 days with lower ranking employees leaving in larger numbers than those in leadership positions. What this tells us is that the person sticking around the longest in the restaurant brigade is the manager…who alas, usually goes MIA (missing-in-action) during service times.
The Vanishing Ritual
Consider if you were standing at your door and a customer left your restaurant telling you what a great meal he or she had, you’d certainly thank them for their visit and compliments. If someone wanted to give you feedback on a dish or tell you their experience wasn’t ideal, you’d want to listen. Although it may not be the same as table touching, where one can correct a problem while guests are still at the table, it’s never too late to discuss solutions. Because once the diners leave the restaurant, it’s too late. In our world of instant gratification via social media, a seemingly tiny slip can turn into a PR incident that thousands read if gone unchecked.
Guests pay not only for dinner but for the feeling of being seen. Yet managers hide in offices or chase operating metrics instead of greeting tables. That absence is a wound in hospitality that must be healed. Treat diners as if they were guests in your home, because that’s what they are.
In the end a restaurant lives (or shuts down) not by its menu but by the moments it creates around the table.
Shafeek Wahab - Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Mystery Guest Auditor, Ex-Hotelier
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