I’ve noticed recently that the manager of the restaurant we are eating out at makes his or her rounds visiting tables asking their customers how things are going. I’m assuming this is a relatively new trend in the industry since it is something I’ve just noticed in the past year. Most managers I’ve seen are very awkward and uncomfortable doing this which tells me they are required to do it as a directive from Corporate. It also tells me that these managers are not trained how to do these visits effectively. It makes me uncomfortable when they visit my table as I can sense their discomfort and that they really don’t like doing it.
It reminds me of when my previous employer required their store managers to talk to and survey customers as we were touring the sales floor throughout the day. It was a very awkward exercise walking up to a customer and asking them how their experience in the store was so far. I usually got strange looks and one word answers. I was frustrated because we were given the directive but no training how to do it effectively. The “training” consisted of a sheet telling us to do this and how effective it will be. There was no instruction of how to do it effectively. I was uncomfortable and not happy that I had to do this. I quickly discovered that it was much easier if you were actually working with and helping the customer with a sale. Approaching a customer cold is difficult if not impossible because there is not rapport or trust.
The other day, I witnessed a restaurant manager who figured out how to do it well. It was at a Red Robin in the Denver area where the manager actually greeted us as we entered the restaurant. He also seated us and told us his store was a test store and made some suggestions from the menu cube on the table. As I discovered in my store, building a rapport from the beginning is important as he was doing by seating us and making some suggestions. He returned about 15 minutes later and saw that we had ordered the chocolate shake that he suggested on the test store menu cube and asked how we liked it. It was excellent, by the way. His behavior was relaxed and confident as he circulated throughout talking to his customers. He was helping with greeting and seating people, making suggestions, and brought items out to people. He was clearly engaged in all the aspects of the operation of his restaurant which clearly showed in his interactions with his customers. It was genuine and real which was obvious to us customers. It made it much easier for him to do his interactions with customers since he had built a great deal of rapport with most of the diners.
We left Red Robin with a very positive feeling and we gave a big thumbs up to the chocolate shake on the test menu and hope they roll it out to all their stores.
