How to eliminate pain points in the restaurant customer journey when reopening post lockdown

Restaurant service. Photo by Adrien Olichon on Unsplash

With the re-opening of hospitality in the UK on the 4th of July, the restaurant owners have a lot to do between now and then.

Using service design principles of empathy and customer journey mapping, I have considered the new customer pain points that will arise in the “new normal” and provided suggestions on how to prepare for them.

This checklist helps restaurants to prepare, address, and eliminates the new customer pain points.

The customer journey has five stages, which I will introduce, to begin with.

The customer journey

Pre-arrival

This starts when the customer is thinking, dreaming and researching their visit. They would learn about the hotel, restaurants, amenities etc. and imagine themselves there, followed by making the reservation. This is a stage that is essential in attracting customers to your business vs the competition.

Arrival

We know that first impressions matter, so upon arrival, the customer is anticipating a welcome and now certain cleaning and distancing processes. This also includes the moment approaching the restaurant and observing any potential queues, through to being seated.

Visit

Time-wise the largest part of the customer journey and is the essence of the visit. From being seated at the table, to placing the order, having drinks and so on, this is the goal of the visit and is critical to a successful journey.

Departure

While first impressions matter and the reason we go to restaurants is the food experience, a bad departure could ruin it all. Getting the bill right, in reasonable time and ending the whole experience on a positive emotional note, will leave the customer in a positive mindset, even if there were issues in arrival and visit.

Post-visit

This is a crucial stage in ensuring customer return and retention. If you are able, via email or another communication tool, follow up with the customer on their experience, ask for feedback and take another opportunity to thank them for their business.

The next section will dive into each of these journey stages and identity touchpoints that will be critical in interacting with the customers in the “new normal”.

The pain point checklist

Pre-arrival

Where and how the customer interacts with your restaurant before they show up for dinner. This is everything marketing and communications.

To ensure that you set customer expectations about their experience in your restaurant early on, you need to update all of your communication channels with the same message.

The customer is likely to need to know:

• If you are open and what your opening hours are
• If they need a reservation
• If there is a new menu
• If there are new processes in place
• If they need to know anything else in advance of the visit

They need to feel reassured beforehand that they will have a pleasant and safe visit.

Here is a checklist for what online communication channels you may need to update and what to include:

All channels:

• Update your opening hours if needed.
• Do people need to reserve in advance, if so how?

Website

• What are the new processes they should know about before arriving? (e.g. are you closing the restroom? Can you accommodate a stroller?)
• What are you doing to keep the distance and ensure measures are followed? (masks, gloves, cleaning tables etc.)
• Google business
• Consider uploading a picture with the new menu and any new processes.
• Update services offered. For example:

Google business services available example

Instagram

• Once you know the opening date for your restaurant, let your followers know.
• Share how excited you are to re-open.
• Share behind the scenes of reopening, document it.
• To build trust, film the preparation in the kitchen.
• If you are updating or shortening your menu, let your followers know.
• Update the “About” and “Contact us” sections.
• Once open, encourage visitors to share their experience and tag you.
• Re-share their posts.

Facebook

• Make sure your Facebook and Instagram pages are synced so that everything you post on Instagram automatically gets posted on Facebook too.

LinkedIn

• Once you know the opening date for your restaurant, let your followers know.
• Share how excited you are to re-open.
• Share some behind the scenes of the reopening and your team.
• Once open, after the first day/weekend/week, share your biggest challenges, learnings and success stories, your new ideas for improvement.

Email

• If you have a customer email list, make sure to communicate with them.
• Once you know the opening date for your restaurant, let them know.
• Closer to the opening date, send another email encouraging reservation (if that’s the case) and share what’s different.
• If fully booked in the first few days, send out a notice with first available dates.
• Make sure to link to your website for more information and include the best contact method before opening.

Other third-party sites and apps

• Make sure to update your opening hours and other details on tools like OpenTable, CodeApp, etc.

Making sure that your communication channels are consistent with a clear message is essential in not only reassuring your customers about dining with you but also to drive customers to your business.

In this time, overcommunication is essential in addressing the new customer pain points.

Arrival

On arrival, it is all about the perception. The customers don’t yet know what the new experience is like, but they have expectations based on what they read online in advance.

Here the customers need to be able to see:

• That you have implemented the required distancing processes.
• The restaurant’s cleanliness.
• That takeaway and delivery orders are not interfering with dine-in service.

What to consider upon arrival:

• A clear sign that shows some of the new processes such as:
  - Wait to be seated.
  - Sanitise your hands with a gel or tissue.
  - Follow a certain pathway.
  - The restroom is not available or if available what the process is.
• A designated host/ess to seat visitors.
• Make sure to regularly sanitise commonly touched areas such as door handles.
• Collect personal details of all customers as per requirement, which is likely to be via the app being developed right now.

While this is a short part of the whole experience it is really important, as first impressions matter. If on arrival, the customer perceives the restaurant to not be clean enough or not respecting the distancing guidelines, they could turn around and leave.

Visit

Throughout the visit, the customer is going to observe the implementation of the new processes so it’s important that they are visible. What you do when communicating with other customers as well as employees is critical.

The pain points during the visit are all key transactional moments (touchpoints) that typically require an exchange of something like the menu or the card machine. Cleanliness and reduction of these touchpoints being essential in addressing the customer pain points.

Keep this in mind during the service to ensure customer confidence:

• Should you be wearing masks? Government advisory does not mandate this.
• Should you be using gloves? Government advisory does not mandate this.
• Keeping the tables empty when not seated.
• How are you presenting the menu to reduce physical touch? Some suggestions:
  - iPad — as it is easy to wipe off with sanitiser after every guest.
  - Single-use printed menu.
  - Wall-mounted.
  - Movable board.
  - Available on the website for mobile access.
  - Pre-order before arrival upon reservation.
• Serving cutlery individually wrapped in tissue after the customer is seated.
• Serve glasses fresh, make sure they are visibly clean.
• Review the usage of table cloths.
  - Make sure to change after each visitor.
  - Place the new table cloth in front of the visitor.
  - Remove the paper table coverings, better to have a bare table to ensure cleanliness visibility.
• Handling one table at a time.
  - Use different marked trays for collecting dirty glasses and for delivering the clean ones.
  - Do not mix collecting dirty plates from different tables.
  - Only deliver food to one table at a time.
• Washing or sanitising hands in between each table service.
• Be visible when performing cleaning routines.
• Clean vacant tables regularly.
• Make food delivery as quick as possible once ready to reduce dwell time.
• Seek immediate feedback from diners on what they think about the new processes and what they feel comfortable with.
• Adapt to any individual needs of your customers.

These procedures add additional time to the regular operations and service. The regular process is likely to be slower than usual so make sure to set expectations with your customers.

Communication and visibility are essential in alleviating those pain points. This is a time where seeing is believing so it is essential to show everything you do.

Departure

Arguably the most important part of the whole journey. Simply because if everything went well until now but the bill is incorrect or slow to arrive, it leaves the customer with a negative feeling at the end.

So to make sure customers leave restaurants with a positive feeling, especially with the new ways of operating.

Consider having the following processes:

• Contactless payment.
  - Don’t want to take cash? Let the customers know on reservation or arrival, so they are not inconvenienced at the end.
  - If you take cash, inform the customers that they should pay as evenly as possible, as you do not give change in coins (for example).
• Digital receipt emailed to the customer, so there is no need to hand over the paper.
• Clear the table off everything left as soon as possible and clean with disinfectant.

Of course, do ensure that the customers that are leaving do not interact with incoming customers, to reduce the risk of contact.

Post-stay

Finally, keep in contact with your customers, make sure to send them an email or text follow up to thank them for their custom and ask what they thought of their experience — good and bad.

The follow-up checklist is:

• Follow-up with your customers and ask for feedback.
  - Does not need to be a formal survey.
  - Send a short personal email.
  - Call them the day after.
  - Thank them for sharing their experience on social media — direct message and ask if they would improve anything.
• Invite them back with a thank you message.

Considering that this is new for all of us, feedback is more valuable than ever. People might be keener to share feedback with you now, as they also want to make sure everyone has a safe and tasty experience, as no one wants to go back to lockdown.

This is the beginning of the so-called “new normal”.

Every restaurant, team, location, and operational needs are unique.

Spend time over the next 10 days to really focus on those touchpoints that will make the most impact for a better and safer experience for all. Your customers, your employees, and your suppliers.

There are many more behind the scenes processes that would need to be evaluated in the bar, kitchen, back office, and others. This article’s aim is to highlight the pain points that are going to be front and centre for the customers.