You rely on advertising and promotion to bring customers through your door, but quality and excellent service is what brings them back again and again.  Providing a superior dining experience can mean the difference between a one-time or occasional customer and a steady patron of your establishment.  There are simple and cost effective means of ensuring that your restaurant makes a positive impression on your customers and keeps them coming back for more.

Food Quality

As a franchise owner, you are expected by your franchisor to uphold certain levels of quality and cleanliness.  However, any restaurant frequenter can tell you that all franchises are not created equally.  It is up to you, the owner, to make sure that your staff goes above and beyond the call of duty to provide a top-rate product every time.  Challenge your staff to excel at cleanliness and following proper procedure.  Make sure that first-in, first-out rotation is followed, that all food products are properly labeled, that expired food is discarded and that all possible cross-contamination with bacteria and allergens is avoided.  Emphasize the importance of employees maintaining personal and workspace sanitation standards.

Exceptional Service

The quality of service at your establishment can mean the difference between a happy customer and a disgruntled one.  Make sure that your employees know how to great and cater to your customer’s wishes.  Encourage respectful speech and cheerfulness.  A positive employee creates a positive customer experience.  Employees should be knowledgeable about the menu and services provided by the restaurant to facilitate quick and professional service.

Speed and precision are crucial to creating a positive experience for the customer.  Challenge your employees to get orders right the first time and to meet or exceed the standards you have set for speed of service.  Above all, maintain a respectful and courteous air to all transactions.
Providing an Enjoyable Atmosphere

The setting the you provide for your customer’s dining experience can make a marked difference in how they perceive your establishment.  Your restaurant should provide and atmosphere that is specifically tailored to appeal to your target demographic.  Know your customers and  be flexible.  Attempt to provide an environment that will be pleasurable for the widest range of customers possible.

Use lighting schemes that are soothing on the eye.  Bright fluorescent lighting is great for hospitals, but doesn’t really provide a calm and soothing dinner setting.  Lighting should complement the overall theme of your establishment, as should music (should you choose to provide it).  Any music should be audible, but not distracting – adding to the ambience of the restaurant rather than being a focal point.

Make sure that your restaurant provides a comfortable and clean environment.  You wouldn’t want to eat in a loud, stuffy, ill-lit and grimy establishment and neither do your customers.  However, with a little bit of effort  you can turn a run-of-the-mill fast food franchise into a superior dining establishment that has your customers coming back time and again for the consistently good food, excellent and courteous service, and highly enjoyable atmosphere.