Customer Satisfaction Survey For a Restaurant

What is Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a marketing phrase that describes the extent to which a company’s products and services meet or exceeds the expectations of their customers. It can be seen as the proportion of customers whose feedback on the quality of products and services offered by a company exceed certain set standards of satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is viewed as a principal indicator in a business and is usually an ingredient in a balanced scorecard or BSC. In an aggressive marketplace where businesses battle for customers, customer satisfaction can make a big difference and can be a key ingredient in an effective business strategy (Cochran 15). Accomplished customer satisfaction surveys increases the chances of retaining the current customers while positioning a business to attract prospective clients.

Businesses use various methods to gather customer intelligence. Some crucial information needed on a company’s customers include age, gender and geographical distribution. Some of the methods used to obtain customer intelligence are customer relationship management or CRM, customer research surveys, enterprise relationship management (ERM) among others. Customer relationship management refers to a model for guiding the interaction of a business and its clients using technology to coordinate, automate, and synchronize customer service. Customer research survey on the other hand is the directed effort to gather data on markets and customers and is usually a key component of a business (Cochran 89). Enterprise relationship management goes beyond CRM. A business strategy is used to leverage the business based on a network-enabled process to maximize current as well as future opportunities. ERM software analyzes data about customer to aid in better understanding how customers are using a company’s products and services. This application can use the existing sales, manufacturing, finance, and marketing database to produce new information about a company’s customer relationship.

The following is a short sample design of a customer satisfaction survey for a restaurant;

Would you consider recommending your friends to our restaurant?  Yes

The question at the end of the survey is meant to gauge the effectiveness of the survey. The response provided to this question will show the restaurant of the survey met its intended goal, and whether the quality of service is acceptable to its customer. Because in the above floated survey the customer indicated that he would be willing to recommend a friend, this is an indicator that the restaurant is doing well and should expect nice prospects for his future customers.

Successful entrepreneurs and managers are realizing that retaining clients is less expensive compared to finding new ones. If there are practices that drive clients away, then a business will constantly spend a lot of money to advertise and recruit new customers. The owners and managers are aware that below standard goods and services lead to unhappy customers. Customer satisfaction surveys provide businesses with distinct information on both the negative and positive customer perception, which would bolster sales and marketing efforts. Customer satisfaction survey may not be useful unless it generates statistical data which is scientifically analyzable. If the survey feedback indicates a need for a corrective action in the operations of a business, a follow-up survey should be used to assess the effectiveness of the corrective action