Restaurant Service Goals. (Which can be used in any business).

One of the first steps in creating consistency in your restaurant or brand is to establish a service goal. A customer orientated mission that you and all of your team work towards every day. Most restaurants have them in place, but how many actually achieve them? Or more importantly, how many of your guests feel the benefit of that goal. Here’s our simple guide to setting, and more importantly, achieving service goals. 

So first up, how do we choose our goal? Well, we work backwards from exactly how you want your guests to feel. Let me repeat that, how you want them to feel. It’s all about emotions. Eating out is a sensory experience, we want to feel good, right? In a new spending survey it’s been revealed the under 25's are choosing to spend their money on experiences (gigs, events, holidays etc) over products. Consumerism isn’t that cool any more. Experience is the future. So start here. How do you want your guests feel. Happy, welcomed, at ease, excited, blown away…the list goes on. The big pitfall here, (restaurant owners take note) is to set the bar to high. Perhaps you want your guests to feel like they are royalty for the day. Ok, but is this achievable for every single guest that comes into your restaurant?  Do you have a big enough labour budget to achieve this service goal? Does the goal work with your style of food and the design of your restaurant? If you make your goal too big, your staff will quickly switch off from it.  So don’t make it too big, make it achievable, for every single guest.  

“Consumerism isn’t that cool any more. Experience is the future.”

Next, make it specific, really specific. I could go on about the benefits of Working with Intention for days, but essentially the more specific we make an Intention the more likely we are to achieve it. Or, in service terms, the more specific you are with your goal, the less your teams will deviate from it, and the more consistent your brand will be. 

Try writing down a list of emotions you want your guests to feel. For example, safe, at ease, valued, uplifted. Next think of a scenario that induces all of these emotions. From this list you might create a service goal that makes your guests feel like they have just returned from a long, hard day at work. Get creative, but be specific. 

So let’s say you now have a very specific goal about how you want make your customers feel. You now need to make sure your staff are achieving this. Mystery diners are one way, feedback surveys are another (Nando’s use these now). But you also need to be on the floor seeing for yourself; looking at the emotional responses as your guests interact with your staff, and you need to be talking about these goals with your staff. Are they working? Are they achievable? Are they fun to use?  

“You need to be on the floor seeing for yourself; looking at the emotional responses as your guests interact with your staff.”

However, the surest way to ensure your service goals are being followed is to use a similar goal with your staff. Treat them in the same way you would treat your guests. Listen to them, welcome them, look after them. If you can make them feel special and valued they will in turn do the same for your guests. There’s a real joy in making people feel good, and that joy becomes infectious. Simple. 

Our courses are all about developing the emotional skills that lead to great service and cohesive teams. If you need any help on creating and delivering service goals give us a shout. Good luck.