Restaurant owners know that it’s important to measure customer satisfaction with their dining experience, and surveys are one of the most effective methods for doing so. Learn how to design effective restaurant surveys and find out about the features you should include!
Understand Your Goals
Before creating your restaurant survey, it’s important to understand your goals and objectives for the survey. What kind of feedback do you want to obtain from customers? Do you want to gauge customer satisfaction with specific items on the menu or overall customer service? Are there specific areas you want to focus on, such as whether certain dishes were cooked correctly or if staff had the right attitude? All these factors should come into consideration when designing your survey.
Determine Who to Survey
Before creating the survey it’s important to figure out who your target audience is. Typically, restaurant surveys should focus on existing customers who previously dined at your establishment. You can either keep track of previous guests manually or use a guest database to capture their contact information. Knowing the demographics of those you’re surveying is vital in gathering meaningful insights, so make sure to define and segment your audience accordingly before sending out the survey. A segmentation of your customers would make the survey focused.
Ask the Right Questions
Once you have identified your target audience, it’s time to start constructing the survey. While it’s important to include questions that will give you insights into customer satisfaction, what they want out of a dining experience, and how they view your restaurant overall, pick questions that are directly relevant to their experience. An effective survey should focus on topics like menu items, staff service, restaurant atmosphere, pricing and other issues directly related to customers’ experiences. Avoid asking too many open-ended questions since this can cause complications with analyzing the results.
Utilize Different Types of Questions
When it comes to constructing your survey, make sure that you’re utilizing a variety of question types. This can include multiple-choice questions, open-ended questions, checkbox questions, and rating scales. Each question type has its advantages and disadvantages, so pick the ones that will help you best measure customers’ responses. Be aware that surveys with too many question types can be overwhelming and confusing for customers to answer. For example, if you have over six multiple-choice or rating scale questions in succession customers may start to feel fatigued and just stop responding.
Make Surveys Convenient and Relevant
Make sure your surveys are convenient and relevant. Consider the places that customers are likely to access your survey. For example, if you often communicate with customers using emails, ensure that your survey is included in an email chain or sent as an attachment so they can easily click on it right away. Make the questions relevant to how customers interact with your restaurant and what their needs may be. This will help ensure that they’re giving you the most accurate answers and the most insight possible.
The Question Bank for constructing your survey:
| Feedback Question | Type of Question |
|---|---|
| 1.How often do you visit this restaurant | Frequency to be mentioned (open ended) |
| 2. How did you hear about our restaurant | Source to be mentioned (open ended) |
| 3. Was the menu easy to understand | Yes or No |
| 4. Do you find enough varieties on the menu | Yes or No |
| 5. Were there enough vegetarian / vegan options | Yes or No |
| 6. Did you find any specific dietary menu? | Yes or No |
| 7. How do you rate the noise level in the restaurant | Fine / Bearable / Unbearable (choice answer) |
| 8. Did you face any parking issue? | Yes or No |
| 9. Was valet parking available? | Yes or No |
| 10.Did you feel comfortable with the Covid-19 safety protocols? | Yes or No |
| 11.How did you rate the ambience? | Star rating 1 – 5 |
| 12.How was the cleanliness of the restaurant | Star rating 1 – 5 |
| 13. How was the attentiveness of the staff? | Attentive / Indifferent |
| 14. Was your food orders served quickly | Yes / Slight delay / very much delayed |
| 15. Rate the cleanliness of cutleries, plates, and glasses | Sparkling clean / clean / needs improvement |
| 16. Were the foods served in right temperature? | Yes / No |
| 17. How would you rate the food quality? | V.Good / Good / Average / No comment |
| 18. How would you rate the service quality? | V.Good / Good / Average / No comment |
| 19. Would you like to mention any staff member whose impressed you with his/her service? | Name: |
| 20. Did you feel that the staff members were friendly and courteous? | Yes / No |
| 21. Did the staff accommodate any special requests you made? | Yes / No |
| 22. Would you like to mention any staff member who impressed you with his/her service? | Name: |
| 23. Was the restaurant a good value for money? | Yes / No |
| 24. Did the restaurant meet your dietary needs? | Yes / No |
| 25 Did the restaurant meet your expectations? | Yes / No |
| 26.Any issues about food, service, or experience? | Yes / No (If yes, ask the respondent to elaborate) |
| 27.How likely are you to return to this restaurant | Certain / Uncertain / Not in near future |
| 28. Would you recommend this restaurant to your friends? | Yes / No/ May be |
| 29. Based on your experience, you consider this restaurant more suitable for | Family gathering/ business meeting/Both |
| 30. Would you like to participate in our referral programme? | Yes / No |
Conclusion
Overall, customer surveys are a great tool for restaurants to help them improve their services, gain valuable customer insight, and ultimately grow their business. Surveys enable restaurants to focus on what matters most to their customers and ensure they provide the best possible experience. By utilizing customer surveys, restaurants can better understand their customers, identify areas of improvement, and make changes to serve their customers better.
FAQ:
a) How do you do a restaurant customer survey?
To conduct a restaurant survey, first define the survey’s purpose and the part of the service for which feedback is needed. Use the model questionnaire given above, with both closed and open-ended questions that address specific aspects of the restaurant experience. Administer the survey through an online customer survey platform or by distributing paper surveys to customers. Analyze and use the feedback to make changes and improve customer satisfaction. Finally, communicate the survey results and actions taken to customers to demonstrate a commitment to quality and continuous improvement.
b) How do you ask customers for food feedback?
Taking customer feedback on food quality just before they leave can be a good idea because it allows you to capture their experience while it’s still fresh in their mind. When customers are about to leave, they may be more likely to give feedback because they have finished their meal and have more time to provide their thoughts. Regardless of the method you choose, make sure that the feedback process is quick and easy so that customers don’t feel inconvenienced.
Our Belief
Reviewfy.io is dedicated to the cause of creating a Feedback Ecosystem that encourages customers to share their experience with restaurant services, which in turn improves the brands’ value offerings besides helping other customers choose the right restaurant. Reviewfy.io is a quick survey platform with a 5 Questions cap, that makes making and doing surveys a pleasurable experience for everyone involved.
