Trust and loyalty in the restaurant industry is hard-earned. Consumers are accustomed to their favorite restaurants switching owners, chefs leaving and quality varying. You must build customer trust through the actions you take, such as:
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Monitoring food quality
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Remaining consistent
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Working on your eatery’s atmosphere
Over 66% of consumers read online reviews, and it makes them trust brands more. An estimated 59%+ of people will read reviews before going into an eatery.
If you’re not focusing on how to build trust with customers or on loyalty, you’re risking losing customers in 2024.
We're going to outline the steps that you can take to create a sense of loyalty and trust among your customers.
How to Build Trust with Customers as a Restaurant
How can you build customer trust? Start with the food that you serve.
Create Trust in Your Food Quality
People come into your restaurant for great food. If a person could recreate your meal with a frozen dinner, they wouldn’t come in and order. You want to offer food that maintains:
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A certain level of quality
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Consistency
You don’t need to have a 5-star chef on hand, but you do need to provide a level of quality that your customers expect from similar restaurants.
Sourcing your ingredients will play a crucial role in quality.
For example, you want to source:
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High-quality ingredients
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Fresh fruits and vegetables
If you decide to switch suppliers due to costs and opt for low-quality ingredients, your customers will notice. And before you know it, your reviews will begin to mention that your quality is declining, and foot traffic will begin to fall.
Trust and loyalty go both ways.
Offer food quality that you can provide year after year, and you’ll build a loyal consumer base organically.
Remain Consistent
Consistency in quality is a good first step in building consumer trust, but you also need to be consistent in:
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Menu options
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Menu updates
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Pricing
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Atmosphere
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Operating hours
For example, a local pizza and rib restaurant near me decided to go vegan overnight. The restaurant was one of the most popular in the town, yet they lost consumer trust when they no longer offered:
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Ribs
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Chicken
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Meat
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Non-vegan cheese options
Overnight, the taste and quality of the restaurant changed, and consumers started to abandon the eatery. The restaurant has since closed its doors after being open for years. Consumers who didn’t like the non-meat or non-dairy cheese options decided to go elsewhere because the menu and quality were 100% different overnight.
Design an Inviting Atmosphere
Customer loyalty for restaurants also relies on an inviting atmosphere. You want your customers to have a memorable experience when they come in to eat, and this means offering:
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Ambiance and music
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Friendly waitstaff
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Consistent service
Cleanliness is also crucial to the restaurant’s atmosphere. You want to have dedicated staff who maintain clean countertops, tables, seating areas, bathrooms and anywhere else customers may come in contact with.
Stay on Top of Social Media
Your social media presence will also be scrutinized by customers. You want to reply to reviews – good and bad – because it shows that you value the opinion of your guests. For example, you may offer an unhappy guest:
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A call to learn more about what happened
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Free meal on the house
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Discount
Simply replying to bad reviews or comments online can make a drastic difference in your eatery’s trust and loyalty.
Build a Website That Follows Best Practices
We live in a digital world, so building consumer trust should start with your website. After all, your website will likely be the first thing a customer sees when they learn of your business.
When your website is built using the best practices, you automatically build trust with consumers. But what does it mean to build a site that cultivates consumer trust?
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Focus on website security. For any customer-facing features, make sure that you require strong passwords and for users to use two-factor authentication (2FA). Two-factor authentication requires users to enter their password and then enter a code sent to their phone or email.
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Ensure your site is secured with a secure sockets layer, or SSL, certificate. This ensures that data transmitted between your site and visitors is kept confidential.
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Make data protection a top priority. Only collect the data you need and ensure that all data is encrypted. Consider whether you really want to take on the responsibility of storing credit card information or collecting personal information.
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Make sure your site is speedy. Aim for your site to load in less than two seconds.
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Ensure your site’s design is responsive, so it looks great and functions properly on any device, including smartphones and tablets.
Speed and security are two important factors when it comes to building trust, but make sure your site’s design is professional and aligned with your brand’s values and mission.
Add a Loyalty Program
One highly effective way to build restaurant customer loyalty and encourage repeat business is to implement a loyalty program.
Loyalty programs reward customers for their continued business with:
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Discounts
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Exclusive offers
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Free meals
These incentives increase the perceived value of your restaurant and create a sense of exclusivity.
For restaurant owners, loyalty programs provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. You can leverage these insights to improve your menu, your marketing messaging and personalization.
To maximize the benefits of your loyalty program:
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Keep it simple. Make it easy to sign up and use your program. Point systems are preferred by restaurant customers.
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Consider creating a customer-facing app for your loyalty program. Most customers prefer digital programs that don’t require them to carry a physical card around.
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Personalize the promotion of your loyalty program. Consider segmenting your customers based on behavioral data and personalizing your marketing messaging based on that data.
To keep your program at the top of your customers’ minds, you can send emails with limited-time offers that encourage them to return to your restaurant.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to increase customer loyalty in a restaurant is both an art and a science. By bolstering customer loyalty, you help secure a steady stream of regular revenue for your restaurant. There are many ways to encourage customers to return to your establishment. Give the tips in our guide a try to start cultivating a culture of consumer trust at your restaurant.