Guests typically are more than happy to vocalize their opinions about an establishment when their most recent visit trended toward either of the extremes of the dining experience—surpassing all expectations or utterly failing to meet them. But how can managers best gauge overall consumer sentiment about their operation? Guest metrics—such quantitative indicators of the guest experience as meal-delivery times and data gathered from randomly distributed guest surveys—can provide a more-comprehensive view of the perspective from the other side of the kitchen.

Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard, upstairs/downstairs Union Square Hospitality Group properties in New York City, cater to slightly different audiences with similar menus of barbecue and comfort-food specialties from across the country. Blue Smoke is the more family-friendly of the two venues, while Jazz Standard boasts nightly live music. Feedback gathered from guest comment cards reflects the audiences’ varying needs and has spurrred small but important changes in the concepts, notes Managing Partner Mark Maynard-Parisi.

At Blue Smoke, the kids menu was updated to address parents’ requests for more healthful options, says Maynard-Parisi. “Parents were telling us, 'Hey, we’d love to have a seasonal vegetable, that’s what we feed our kids at home,’” he says. Now, Blue Smoke’s youngest guests can opt for grilled salmon with a mixed salad or a tuna sandwich with a seasonal vegetable, in addition to having such traditional choices as grilled cheese with french fries.

At Jazz Standard, the consistent complaint was that the space was too dark to be able to read a menu. To fix the problem without altering the venue’s club-like vibe, “We hired a lighting designer and just added a whole bunch of track lights that no one can really see,” Maynard-Parisi says.

“For us, it’s about having a dialogue with our guests,” he says of the feedback.

No concept wants to be in the position of having to alter its design or other operational elements because of customer complaints, but guest concerns need to be top of mind. “In the end, it’s all about the customer experience,” says Paul Papadopoulos, chef at Sweet Baby Ray’s in Elk Grove, Ill. The restaurant is experimenting with sound-absorbing wall hangings to address complaints about noise levels. To boost relationships with catering clients, managers call customers the day after an event to find out if their delivery was on time, how well they liked their food and whether quantities were adequate.

Soliciting feedback can be a stepping-stone to establishing a relationship with guests and reaping the benefits—namely regular business and word-of-mouth recommendations—that such connections bring. The lesson to remember: If you ask (nicely) for it, they will provide it.

• It pays to be specific. In asking “How did you find out about us?” operators will gather more-useful data by offering something beyond just “the Internet” as one of the boxes guests can check off or click on. As consumers turn increasingly to the Web for information to guide their dining decisions, offering “Web site—which one?” (along with, of course, a space for guests to write or type in their source) will help operators identify favorite search engines, customer-review pages and city-specific restaurant sites.
• Publicize it. Don’t assume, or let servers assume, that guests will see a comment-card holder next to the registers—it’s not a convenient place for people to grab or fill out a comment card, anyhow. Also, reward guests for sharing their opinions. A coupon sent via e-mail or snail-mail for a free appetizer or beverage or a discounted entrée will hold more motivational appeal than a promise that the guest’s name will be entered in a monthly drawing for a free meal.
• Don’t give them reason to worry. In asking guests to share their e-mail address, let them know how often they can expect to receive e-mails from the operation—say, once a month, and that the list won’t be sold. “We will use your address only to send you occasional updates …” might signal to wary guests that they’ll get blasted with an onslaught of promotional e-mails.
• Promote ’em if you have ’em. Vegetarian, gluten-free and allergen-free menus find an ever-widening audience, and noting online and on comment cards the availability of such selections can boost interest. Guests appreciate knowing in advance that it won’t be a hassle for the kitchen to deal with a special dietary request, and they’re likely to show their appreciation via repeat visits.

Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings monitors guests’ sentiment about their dining experience and about the concept itself in four ways: via a triennial guest-segmentation study, a mystery-shopper program, standard comment cards and a randomized guest-survey system known as the Guest Experience Management (GEM) program.

“I would say we’re very data-driven,” says Judy Shoulak, senior vice president of operations for the chain. “Beyond demographics, we dive deeply into what makes [consumers] tick.”

The four-pronged approach allows Buffalo Wild Wings to address the limitations of comment cards (only so many questions can fit—and are likely to be answered—on a card) and mystery-shopper programs (paid guests may not offer an accurate picture of the average Buffalo Wild Wings guest experience).

Guest-segmentation studies probe when, why and with whom consumers choose to dine at Buffalo Wild Wings. The GEM program offers more real-time, unit-specific data: A detailed survey is issued with, for example, every fifth or 10th ticket. Guests are asked whether they considered their meal a good value, whether they liked their service and whether they are likely to return.

In Raleigh, N.C., Rocky Top Hospitality owner Dean Ogan sought guest comments in advance of the reopening of Mash House, his company’s top-performing restaurant. “It’s my busiest restaurant, even despite some pretty tough economic conditions,” he says. The redesign was driven by a need to boost the kitchen’s food-prep capacity, but to complete the overhaul, the concept was given new signage and a new logo. New menu items include a bone-in rib-eye steak and a rack of lamb—both of which, Ogan says, have posted impressive sales numbers.

“All of our concepts, they’re completely molded by our guest experience and guest comments,” says Ogan. “We [directors] work a shift in each restaurant weekly. I know, 'OK, we’ve had a problem with lukewarm mashed potatoes. I can pinpoint problems as soon as I walk in, and help the team solve issues.”

He adds: “We try to teach managers that hey, when you have a problem in the restaurant, it’s almost a good thing because [then] you can really show your hospitality” in apologizing and making amends to the customer.

In Chicago’s northern suburbs, Jennifer Nickerson, regional director of food and beverage for F&F Realty and its hotel-anchored restaurant properties, looks first to hard numbers for insights into guest preferences. She evaluates menu-mix reports weekly to help identify, in particular, which newer items customers are responding well to and which might deserve an early heave-ho. “It really helps us analyze what’s working and what’s not,” she says.

Next, restaurant staffs discuss comment-card feedback at a weekly meeting. At Birch River Grill in Arlington Heights and other F&F properties, comment cards invite opinions not only about the dishes customers ordered but also about menu variety. General managers personally contact guests who submit a complaint or a suggestion. And as a food-and-beverage director, Nickerson says, “The first thing we do if we get a negative food comment [is] I’m in there tasting it immediately.”

A final key tool for managing the guest experience is tracking meal-delivery times during each shift—an especially important move given that the properties’ guests often are rushing off to business meetings or events. “We’re very conscious of it at breakfast and lunch,” Nickerson says. “We have to be, otherwise we’ll lose our customer base.”

Contact writer at christine.lafave@reedbusiness.com