How important is it to give a quality product to your customer?

Last week I wrote an article on “Why Are You Losing 84% Of Customers To Inconsistencies With To Go Orders” / “Do your customers get exceptional to go products every time”. This week we are going to dive in a little deeper and I will explain how much revenue you are losing when your restaurant doesn’t give the customer an experience that encourages them to return. This past weekend we decided to order sandwiches from a local restaurant. I had heard the food was good and wanted to try it out. We proceeded to look for their website so we could place an order, they didn’t have a website!!! We found a menu on their third party delivery site where it said that one of their signature items was unavailable. It also stated they couldn’t deliver till next day, it was 5:00 pm, the dinner hour? Why would you have your signature item unavailable and why would you not deliver for dinner that night? This restaurant gets raving reviews on their food. I started to think of how many orders they must be losing with no website and these other inconsistencies? If restaurant was closed it should be listed on the hours of operation.

We proceeded to order from another restaurant close by where we had ordered from previously. We placed the order online and when looking at the total noticed a suggested tip added of $3.00. I wasn’t sure why there was a tipping fee added to the order when I was picking up? We had only ordered two sandwiches, so we declined the tip. I will put a cash tip in their jar if I get a great experience when picking up food. I understand times are hard however not sure why a customer would tip a 15% – 20% on food preparation? When I got home unwrapped the sandwiches and noticed one sandwich had moldy bread (see picture). The condiments were sparse on both sandwiches. I didn’t contact the restaurant that day. I did fill out a feedback comment the next day. The corporation replied promptly and apologized. They offered $8 worth of points.

Lost revenue

Let’s break this down. The first restaurant didn’t get our initial order due to unavailable items, order was $20. If 5 customers tried to order this way, that is a $100 loss per day, that multiplied by 4 is a $400 loss every week totaling over $20k lost revenue in a year.

On the second restaurant, if they serve moldy bread or forget items on sandwiches to say 4 customers a day that would spend $20, they are possibly losing 4 customers that won’t return or if they complain they might want to refund their $20. So if they lose 4 customers a day at $20 that would be $280 weekly and over $14k lost revenue a year.

Think what happens when they tell friends and family about these problems how much revenue they could potentially lose… During Covid it is so important to keep customers returning again and again.

The Hart Experience can help your restaurant see these lost opportunities that are costing you $10,000 – $20,000 yearly revenue. Let us shop your To Go, Curbside or Ghost Kitchen services and educate you on how to fix these problems before those negative reviews are posted on Social Media. Contact Debbie@thehartexperienc.com 602.717.3271 for more information on shops for your restaurant/restaurants. https://www.thehartexperience.com

PS Who wants to throw $20,000 annually in the trash??