Boosting guest experience: the moments that make the difference

Ask a guest a week after their visit what they thought, and they'll rarely talk about the food. They'll talk about how they were received, whether it took long, and whether anything funny happened. The food is why they came; the rest determines whether they come back.

Five moments when a judgement is formed

1. The first thirty seconds

Is a guest seen when he comes in, even if no one has time right away? Eye contact and one sentence are enough. Anyone who stands at the door for three minutes without being noticed starts with a deficit that you'll carry through the whole evening.

2. The wait before the first course

The longest gap of the evening, and the only one in which a guest has nothing to do. See also the article on bridging waiting time.

3. The moment something goes wrong

This is the most important moment of all, and the only one you cannot plan for. A guest who experiences a mistake that is resolved well often rates the visit higher than a guest for whom everything went flawlessly. Mistakes are not a threat but an opportunity, provided they are resolved quickly and without discussion.

4. The silence after the main course

Plates cleared, coffee not yet ordered, conversation briefly paused. Commercially, this is the most valuable period of the evening, because this is where desserts and second rounds are sold. If nothing happens, the guest asks for the bill.

5. The farewell

The last thing someone experiences weighs heavily in what he remembers. A guest who is still addressed while paying leaves with a different feeling than a guest who is simply handed the card machine.

Of these five moments, exactly one costs money. The other four cost attention.

What you can measure

Experience feels intangible, but there are figures that move along with it:

• The number of reviews per week and the average rating.
• The share of guests who order a dessert or coffee.
• The average time a table is occupied.
• How often the same names return in your reservations.

Why the middle group is the most important

At most places, reviews are skewed: many fives and a few ones, with little in between. This isn't because guests actually think that way, but because only the extremes bother to write something.

The large group in between — the guests who thought it was fine but not spectacular — writes nothing. And that is exactly the group that pulls your average up if you do reach them. One review from someone who thought it was "just good" weighs just as heavily in the average as an enthusiastic one, and there are far more of them.

Your average doesn't rise because of more enthusiastic guests, but because of the satisfied guests who currently write nothing.

Where the difference lies between places that do well and places that just fall short

If you compare two places side by side with the same food, the same prices and the same location, and one is fully booked while the other struggles, the difference is almost never one big thing. It's the sum of five small things.

Consistency outweighs peaks

A guest who comes three times and gets the same thing three times becomes a regular. A guest who gets something special once and something mediocre twice does not come back. This is counter-intuitive, because attention naturally goes to the special evening.

Speed of recovery outweighs flawlessness

No place operates flawlessly. What guests remember is not that something went wrong, but how long it took before it was resolved and whether they had to ask for it. A mistake that you notice and fix yourself before the guest says anything counts as a plus in the experience.

The staff notice it first

In almost every place, the waitstaff know exactly where the friction is, long before it appears in the reviews. Anyone who asks once a month what they're running into gets a list you can't get anywhere else.

What guests mention in reviews

If you compare a few hundred reviews of hospitality venues, it's striking how little they say about the food. The topics that come up most often:

1. The service staff, by name. By far the most mentioned, both positively and negatively.
2. Waiting time, and especially whether someone communicated about it.
3. The atmosphere: noise, light, how busy it was, whether you could hear each other.
4. Value for money, which rarely refers to the price and almost always to the portion size.
5. The food itself. Usually only the fourth or fifth topic.

That doesn't mean the food doesn't matter. It means the food is the reason someone comes, and the rest is the reason he comes back.

Small things that stand out

Experience rarely lies in grand gestures. These four cost nothing and are mentioned remarkably often in reviews:

1. Taking someone's coat without being asked.
2. Remembering what someone drank last time, even if that was months ago.
3. Asking a group whether the bill should be split before it's placed on the table.
4. Saying something at departure that isn't a standard phrase.

Ask for the review at the right moment

An email three days later only catches the people who were very satisfied or very dissatisfied. Asking while the experience is still fresh catches the large group in between, and that is exactly the group that pulls your average up.

Start with one moment

Choose the moment that you yourself feel is going worst and change one thing there. Measure for two weeks. If it works, keep it. If it doesn't, choose another moment. Changing everything at once never gives you an answer to what actually helped.

What games on the table do at moment two and four is covered in the games.