Our last article discussed customer experience mapping—formally documenting every aspect of the customer journey from the customer’s perspective. This begins with identifying the stages (the distinct steps the customer takes as they do business with you) and everything they are doing, thinking, and feeling in each of these stages. By mapping the customer journey, you can discover pain points, difficulties, and challenges and find opportunities to improve customer experience.
In our article, we suggested the following stages of the customer experience for pizza restaurants:
- Awareness: Learning that your business exists.
- Contact: Making the initial contact with your business.
- Ordering: Placing an order.
- Payment: Paying for the order.
- Waiting: Waiting for the order to be prepared.
- Receiving: Getting the order, including first impressions.
- Consuming: Tasting the food.
- Follow-Up: Sharing their experience, writing a review, repeat business, etc.
(As a reminder, this is a general outline, and pizza business owners should add (or delete) stages as applicable to their customer personas.)
In this article, we will look at each stage of the customer experience to suggest areas where you may improve customer experience and boost satisfaction at every step of the journey.
Improve Customer Experience in 8 Stages
For each stage listed above, let’s look at how you can improve customer experience in your pizza business.
1. Awareness
Awareness is the first moment when a potential customer learns that your business exists. To improve customer experience in this area, you’ll want to (1) ensure potential customers can find you! And (2) ensure that what they see sheds a positive light on your business.
Regarding the first point, it’s important to remember that 97 percent of users search online to find a local restaurant. While you may send direct mail or run a Facebook ad or something else, your pizza business must appear in local search results. Because of this, you’ll want a business website and to claim your local Google Business listing. Check out this Hubspot article for the latest tips on making the most out of your Google Business profile.
To make a good impression, you’ll want to ensure your information is complete and accurate on all web pages (website, social media, Google Business). You’ll also want to monitor, manage, and respond to your reviews because they can be the determining factor when potential customers are trying to select a pizza restaurant.
2. Contact
In the contact stage, the customer reaches out to your business for the first time. This could be placing an order, locating your physical address, or asking a question. You can improve customer experience here in two ways.
- Accurate and Available Information: Make sure your contact information is widely available and easy to find on your website, social media pages, Google Business profile, advertisements, flyers, physical menu, etc. If anything changes, make sure to review and update!
- Consider Your Channels: You should also be asking yourself, “How do my customer want to reach me?” Do they want the option to email you? Do they expect you to be available via Facebook chat or to have a chatbot on your website? Providing an excellent customer experience means meeting their expectations regarding communication platforms.
3. Ordering
Ordering is a big moment in the customer journey because it’s when the prospect becomes a customer. To improve customer experience, consider the important role of the menu, employees, and technology.
- Menu: Your menu can make ordering easy for customers, or it can cause confusion. You want options and customization, but you’ll have to balance that with limitations and a simple presentation. For pizza menu template ideas, check out this page.
- Employees: Employees must understand the menu and be ready to answer questions. They’ll have to be trained in customer service too. Pizza Today advises that you outline customer service expectations in the interview phase before you even select employees.
- Technology: The technology you choose can greatly improve customer experience. If your customers want the option to order online, you can find technology to do that. And you’ll want to provide the best experience possible with traditional channels like phone orders. Busy signals and long wait times are some of the biggest complaints, but you can easily avoid poor experiences like this by switching to a VoIP cloud system.
4. Payment
Statistics show that 52 percent of Americans want restaurants to use technology to make ordering and paying easier. Cash is no longer king, and today’s customers want options. Debit and credit dominate, and mobile payments, like Apple Pay and Google Pay, are growing. Delivering a stellar customer experience is about understanding how your customers want to pay and giving them many options.
For payment (and ordering, for that matter), you’ll also want to choose a top-notch POS system. Your POS system can make card and mobile transactions more secure and convenient, allow for a more personalized customer experience, connect with your customer loyalty program, and offer more detailed and accurate sales reports. If your POS system impacts the customer experience, it’s time to find a new one.
5. Waiting
Waiting is a necessary stage as the food the customer ordered is prepared. Still, it can also be the stage associated with the most negative feelings—hunger, annoyance, frustration, and the list goes on. To improve customer experience with waiting:
- Cut Down: Attempt to reduce the waiting time as much as possible. Using good POS technology can help, as does proper (and ongoing) employee training.
- Be Accurate: Nothing hurts the customer experience more than an inaccurate wait time that is longer than expected. Be prepared to give good estimates depending on what food must be prepared, the number of staff on hand, and how busy your restaurant is.
- Create a Comfortable Environment: For customers waiting inside your pizza restaurant, you can make the waiting area more pleasant by creating an appealing ambiance with music, décor, and furniture arrangement. You may also consider offering distractions like guest Wi-Fi, games at the table, or a free snack.
6. Receiving
The customer experience of receiving an order is influenced by the customer’s interaction with your staff and the product itself.
Once again, it’s important to train employees to deliver excellent customer service. Personalization is one essential aspect of good customer service. Smiling, making eye contact, and thanking the customer by name go a long way in upping the customer experience.
You’ll also want to ensure that the product makes an excellent first impression on the customer. As we mentioned before, consistency is one of the pillars of successful pizza restaurants. Remember that the food’s packaging will also impact customer experience. It has to do its job, and it also should represent your brand well. For some fun pizza packaging ideas, check out this article.
7. Consuming
As mentioned in this article, taste is the primary reason customers keep returning for more. To improve customer experience in this area:
- Know What You’re All About: Determine what makes your pizza unique and better than the competition.
- Deliver It: Once you’ve determined what makes you unique, keep delivering on that promise consistently.
- Listen to Feedback: You’ll also want to listen to what customers have to say about what is and isn’t working, including paying close attention to critiques, criticisms, and bad reviews. Don’t wait for feedback to come to you—be proactive and solicit it by talking to customers and sharing customer surveys.
8. Follow-Up
Follow-up can be any action the customer takes after their first experience with your pizza business. This could be sharing their experience with friends, writing a review, or returning as a repeat customer.
To improve customer experience in this area, promote and encourage the follow-up type you would like to see!
For example, you may email the customer and ask them to review their experience on Google. Or you may offer them a coupon for sharing their experience on social media. A customer loyalty program is arguably the best way to promote repeat business. To learn how to get started, check out this article.
Improve Customer Experience in Your Pizza Business
There are many ways to improve customer experience in your pizza business once you have mapped out the customer journey and understand the key touchpoints between your brand and the customer. Try out the ideas in this article to improve customer experience, and use them as a springboard to fuel your own creative ideas too.
