Hello street food owners, we hope that this digest meets you well. It was the World’s Environment day just a couple of days back. How did you celebrate it? What did you do? Remember that through all your business operations, it is best to have the environment’s interest at heart. We should all strive preserve the environment for the future generations. Endeavour to tilt more towards eco friendly packaging at your food shop or coffee shop.

Have you read all our digests? You could begin with a first and see how it goes. Our ultimate goal is for you to expand your customer base and make more profit.

Do you know that you could make everyone who steps into your food shop happy? We do not guarantee that this will be a one hundred percent success no matter how hard you try. But we want you to try and we will show you how.

Food is almost everyone’s experience. What this means is that people from all walks of life visit your food shop daily, smearing it with their experiences and moods and stories. Most times, you as a food seller are the first human to come in contact with these foul moods and histories. Some customers seek temporary healing in your meals. Some seek other things – comfort, strength, happiness, etc.

We are buttressing this so that you will understand that there will still be few people who will never go home happy after visiting your street food shop. Now let’s go straight to showing you how you can try.

Ways You Can Make Your Customers Smile Home

WAY #1: Train Your Crew To Be Friendly

We already discussed staff training in one of our digests and here is where it comes in handy. If you are not yet investing time and resources in training your staff, it is time to begin doing so. This is because many customers will stop coming to your food shop if they experience a bad customer service. Most times, one bad service over writes all the other good services.

Great customer service begins the moment your customers walk in through the door of your shop, in fact, the first time you lock eyes with them. This is why you and your staff must be very friendly people. When you make your crew a happy team, they exude happiness even in the face of negativity. They meet rudeness with politeness; they meet frowns with happy smiles.

You should train your staff to address all diners with respectful titles except in cases where a diner opted for his or her name. Encourage them to be kind and playful but not to overstep their boundaries of familiarity with a customer. Teach them great listening skills, and in the case where they missed an instruction, tell them that it is better to demand for an order to be repeated than to serve the wrong order.

You could hold monthly training sessions to keep your staff on their toes. Monthly appraisals and rotation of posts would also go a long way in making your food shop a fun place.

WAY #2: Make Every Meal Important.

This may sound tasking but it is a lot easy. You are already a chef and you are surrounded by professionals, so make and serve the best out of every meal. This is because every customer is a new and different person and must be given full attention. On some days, you are going to have a full shop of hungry customers who are hurling orders at the same time. You are human so you may get nervous and angry sometimes, but please always try to do your best.

You must never compromise the quality of your food or your business generally. It is better served late and right than served quick and wrong.

WAY #3: Transform a Bad Experience Into a Good One.

When we discussed Resolving Customer Disputes at Your Street Food Shop, we went into detail about how angry customers can be put at ease and how your attitude can make them repeat a visit even after a bad experience. Internalizing dispute-resolving skills is very important at your food shop especially among your staff should you be absent.

A ranting customer should not be ignored or traded words with. It is important to show understanding and empathy and a willingness to resolve the misunderstanding to an angry customer. If the problem is food-related, endeavour to offer a free meal, and to get them come back, you can offer them a free meal voucher for their next visit. When you sponsor free meals and drinks for angry customers, you are not going to regret the act. You will see the reward when they keep coming back to your shop.

WAY #4: Be Their Friend.

In most of our digests, we hint this friendship which some of your customers may need from you. Earlier in this piece, we explained the importance of your role as a food provider in the society. Your shop heals, comforts, and loosens tongues. Some people may want to talk to you about their worries while eating. This will not always be the case, but it is important that you open up yourself to friendliness.

No matter how busy you are, try to ask them one or two personal questions. It could be a brief ‘How was today? Thanks for coming by.” It could be “You look tired. Not to worry, our food will fix you.”

These friendly questions and observations are great for fostering better customer relationships at your street food shop.

WAY #5: Treat Them to Surprise Free Meals or Snacks

At your street food shop, you could decide to do something different by picking customers at random tables to give free treats. It could be a first time customer and this will encourage him or her to repeat a visit. However, do not make this a regular event or customers who have eaten for quite long at your shop will complain of being neglected. Some of your loyal customers may stop coming because you have not appreciated them. So while doing random surprise treats, equally try to reward loyal customers once in a while.

Always remember to never indulge costs and promotional sales that are detrimental to your business capital. Everything you do must be what your business can handle. Also make sure that your pockets do not go empty when trying to please customers. Only promise what you can afford and only offer what you have.

You can share your stories with us if you wish to. We are all in this together, remember? We wish you the best in the coming week.

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