How to improve customer experience in a restaurant

There is no denying the fact that the restaurant industry in India has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. For over a year now, restaurants have borne the brunt of localized lockdowns and dwindling footfalls as a result of operating at reduced capacity even after lifting of the lockdowns. As several states in India are now unlocking after a unrelentless second wave of the pandemic, it becomes important for restaurateurs to welcome their customers with an unmatched dining experience.

With restaurants in India striving hard to cook up a delicious platter to welcome diners, utmost care must go into elevating the overall customer experience across touchpoints. One such important focus area is the payments experience in restaurants.

Here are few ways in which customer experience in a restaurant can be improved through a seamless payment experience:

Reducing the wait time - No matter how scrumptious is the food you serve in your restaurant, a longer wait time is bound to irk even your most loyal customers. Giving diners the option of making reservations through a digitised table reservation system is one good way of improving CX in a restaurant. InResto by Dineout is one such table reservation app that can seamlessly integrate with your Pine Labs PoS terminal and comes with exciting features like quick integration with popular online food ordering apps and a single dashboard view to manage all your orders. Read more about utility apps that can add value to your restaurant business.

Protecting customers and employees - The outbreak of Coronavirus last year disrupted most businesses and the way they used to operate. In the new normal, contactless payments and self-checkouts will be the key to reinforce trust not just in diners but your staff as well. Giving your diners the option of speedier checkouts through contactless payment options like QR codes and tap and pay contactless card payment options will go a long way in improving customer experience in a restaurant business.

Contactless doorstep delivery - With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to an INR 6 lakh crore loss to the hospitals and hospitality industry and several restaurants running at reduced capacity, food delivery is now fast-emerging as a prime source of revenue for restaurants. Even five-star hotels are today aiming to deliver the luxury dining and bar experience to the customer's doorstep. ¹

For restauranteurs it is important to arm their delivery personnel with customer-focused superior doorstep payment acceptance solutions like Pine Labs AllTap which is a revolutionary mobile payments app that converts an Android smartphone into a payment acceptance device. Faster and contactless transactions leading to happy customers.

Capturing customer feedback - Feedback from diners is critical to improving their experience. Our Plutus Smart Android PoS device is equipped with a customer feedback capturing mechanism to help you get a sense of the ground reality when it comes to your efforts versus the customer validation of it. Watch this video to know more about this from one of our esteemed merchant partner and owner of Gastronomica, Kitchen and Bar restaurant in Delhi.

India's restaurant industry might be reeling under the impact of a prolonged lockdown today but what works to its strength is the country's rising and aspirational middle class, a younger workforce with evolving lifestyles, and more disposable income in the hands of citizens who are more than eager to go out and relish different cuisines. While the halt in the growth of this industry is temporary, its future looks promising provided the industry embraces digitization in payments in a big way to navigate the new normal.

¹ https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/covid-19-five-star-hotels-plan-to-deliver-luxury-dining-and-bar-to-your-homes-11595071010974.html