By Virginia Bridges
vbridges@newsobserver.comOctober 20, 2014
Recently, some friends and I decided to check out a new restaurant near our
Durham neighborhood. I was a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to get in
on a Saturday night. That worry turned to concern when we arrived, and the
place was almost empty.
While the evening started out with a friendly bartender introducing us to
new beers and a sparkling cider, the service and general experience declined
after we moved to a table, had a closer look at the menu and related portions,
and waited for what felt like hours to get more drinks and our check.
The night got me thinking about best practices new restaurateurs should use
to build a customer base in the competitive Triangle restaurant market, before
those start-up struggles spiral out of control.
Scott Howell owns Nana’s and Nanotaco in Durham, has two new concepts in
the works and has been involved in about six other eateries. He said that some
of these younger, “hipper” restaurateurs don’t focus on basics, such as
customer service.
“They are arrogant in opening a restaurant, thinking it is a privilege (for
customer to be able to eat and get a drink there), but they are lacking in
attentive, nice congenial service,” Howell said. “If you don’t have that, you
might as well not open a restaurant.”
Howard Cannon, founder of Birmingham, Ala.-based Restaurant Consultants of
America, said the complacency of the owners is often the source in failing to
give customers what they have wanted for years: hospitality, quality, service,
cleanliness and accuracy.
“If you look at restaurants that fail, usually what they are missing is the
intensity by the person who’s in charge to drive speed of services, to drive
product quality higher, to drive customer and employee satisfaction higher,”
Cannon said.
To start, Howell said, in foodie markets such as Durham, good food has to
be given, but it also needs to be priced right. With all the options in Durham,
making entrees a couple of dollars more than they should be raises the
expectations of diners and pits those newer spaces against chefs and owners
with established reputations.
He’s right. After we paid for dinner and drinks, our thinking was that we
could have eaten at a number of better, more established places for that same
price.
Jason Smith, owner of three Raleigh eateries including 18 Seaboard, Cantina
18 and Harvest 18, said owners should seek out customers who are coming back
again and again, and ask why and what they are enjoying.
Smith also said owners should avoid making significant knee-jerk changes,
but should apply a “constant, gentle pressure” to build and improve the
business subtly.
Wendy Dimitri, owner of the Charlotte-based restaurant consultancy The CRB
Group and executive director for the American Culinary Federation North
Carolina Chapter, said one way to build trust is by going table to table and
asking for sincere feedback.
By seeking feedback, owners can make guests feel a part of a space’s
success, she said
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/20/4245898/customers-service-is-still-key.html#storylink=cpy
