Everyone knows that failure rates for the restaurant industry are high.  Some say 60% will fail within three years, some say that rate is higher.  It’s enough to keep any restaurateur awake at night and worrying if they have paid enough attention to the most important things that will keep their business open.   The problem is that most who manage restaurants do not understand their most important business metric.

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“No way!” you’re saying to yourself right now.  “I am on top of every detail and my menu is the highest quality in the area.  I know what I am doing!  My restaurant concept is awesome!”.  Maybe, but remember all those failed restaurants who thought the same thing.  Sure you are probably doing a lot of things right, following industry expert recommendations and using the freshest ingredients and a lot more - so what could you be missing?

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What you need is an education in the science of customer satisfaction.  No I’m not just talking about front line customer service skills of your wait staff (that’s a small part of it).  I’m talking about the science of human behavior that makes your customers RETURN to buy again and RECOMMEND your restaurant to others.  Yes it’s a science, and something you had better know about and apply before your competitor down the street does, because guess what?  It’s powerful.

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Let me just get your skepticism out of the way right here.  This human behavioral science has been validated by more than two million people and continues to demonstrate its effectiveness in many different industries – not only restaurants. As quality and satisfaction experts, our firm has administered hundreds of studies in the development of these findings and can tell you that this research based knowledge is a fresh model and perspective you probably haven’t seen –but you really need to.

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If you are running a restaurant, Return and Recommend Rate (R&R%) is your single most important business metric.  Forget your P&Ls, Inventory and portion controls and work force management calculations.  If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business.

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What our research has revealed are the ten factors that impact R&R Behavior and how well you have to score in each of these ten areas across the entire customer experience to get your customers to come back.  And guess what?  The quality of your food is only one of the ten categories you need to be paying attention to.  In fact the category of Quality has several other sub-characteristics like getting things right the first time, error free processes, and staff knowledge & expertise.

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The other nine categories included in this customer satisfaction behavior model are: Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Environment, Ease of Access, Commitment to the Customer, Service Behaviors, Interdepartmental Teamwork and Innovation.  Each of the ten categories are included in our forty question organizational audit of excellence.

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What has also been revealed by our research is that these ten satisfaction categories are inter-related and interdependent, and combine together for an overall ‘score’ of the customer experience that correlates with Customer Return and Recommend Rate.  Basically that means that by measuring these factors in your restaurant operation, you’ll be able to predict the extent to which, your customers will return – or perhaps not return – or worse, not return and spread negative word of mouth about your restaurant.  We call that a Negative Return and Recommend Rate (-R&R%).   You certainly don’t want to be there. 

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There is also a zone of customer behavior called ‘Customer Indifference’.  With scores in this area there is no actual customer loyalty.  Customers might come in because of a convenient location or promotion, but this restaurant by no means has a loyal customer base. That’s right; you don’t want to be in that zone either.

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Throughout this research the Term ‘Excellence’ and ‘World Class’ are continually referenced.  That’s because we have statistically determined that customers define ‘Excellence’ as scoring a 9.24 or higher on a 1 to 10 scale of their complete customer experience with your restaurant.  That means every factor is scoring very high. ‘Becoming Excellent’ in the eyes of customers has the incredible benefit of Return & Recommend rates as high as 1600% !  That means customers are telling customers who are telling customers who are telling customers.  Your name becomes synonymous with excellence.  This is where every restaurant would love to be, and the goal every restaurant should be striving for.  Becoming World Class is hard work, but first you have to know what you should be working on – in the eyes of your customers.

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