According to a food service expert, "73% of the reason customers return to a restaurant is customer service." Not the food or the great atmosphere, the customer service. I experienced this firsthand as I once worked at a local coffee shop that served the best coffee frappes you have ever tasted. They also had these cheese Danishes that were just amazing. We had a fairly large base of steady customers that came in every day just for the frappes and pastries. However, the owner of the shop, my boss, was a jerk. He was a jerk to his workers and was always hiring because people quit after a while because they couldn't stand him. He was a jerk to customers, one time even making a lady cry for asking him to put six sugars into her latte. That coffee shop is no longer in business.

Whether you own a coffee shop or a five star restaurant, people expect to receive a certain standard of customer service and courtesy from staff when they choose to visit an establishment. Your staff should all have a clear understanding of the importance of customer service and how it can destroy your business and their job if their attitude is negative. The manager of a restaurant sets the tone for the atmosphere and attitude of the staff there. Remember you are in food customer service and that happy customers are repeat customers and free advertising.

Keeping your restaurant clean is a large part of good customer service. If your customer discovers your bathroom hasn't been touched in the last century, it is likely they will assume the food is just as neglected. It doesn't take a lot of effort to keep your restaurant clean and will help you pass the health inspector's test as well. "On average, a person will tell 10 or 11 people when they are not happy with their restaurant experience." The effect of word-of-mouth advertising can make or break a company; especially in a volatile market such as the food industry.

Good customer service means correcting a mistake when it has been made. The success of this will change people's opinions of the restaurant. For example, one time when my parents and I was at a restaurant, my mother found a bristle from a grill cleaning brush in her hamburger. The manager was extremely apologetic and compensated us my mother's entire meal as well as free desserts for our whole table. That restaurant continues to be one of our favorite places to eat. Another episode involved my husband, his parents, and I. For Christmas his parents took us out to a very fancy restaurant where a careless waiter dumped an entire glass of lemonade all over my mother-in-law. After waiting for over thirty minutes for anyone to even acknowledge the disaster, my mother-in-law went to the kitchen and demanded to see the manager. He brought her a towel and apologized. We have not returned to that establishment since.

Good customer service is incredibly vital to a restaurant's success. It is important for not only the manager, but the entire staff of a business to recognize and apply this attitude.