When was the last time that you entered your bar or restaurant from the street as a customer, keen to order or simply to find a table?

How easy or difficult do you make it for your customers to find what they are looking for? How hard have you worked at creating that all important first impression? Whatever the first impression is for your customer, it will take a long time and significant effort to change their opinion

As business owners, we are all extremely familiar with our own businesses. We know where everything is when we need it, we know where the toilets are and whether guests seat themselves or a member of staff seats them. We know if we offer table service for drinks or if guests have to order from the bar. This is the curse of knowledge. It’s the knowledge of our own business that blinkers us from seeing our business through fresh eyes, uneducated to the ways of our business and often leaves guests standing at the doorway or in the middle of the floor looking around while we and
our staff pass by at speed on our way to a familiar destination in the bar. I’ve experienced staff members passing me ten times without assisting me or directing me. What kind of an impression is this? If I can’t get the attention of staff when I enter, what chance do I have of having an enjoyable experience. I might even leave.

So how do you ensure the first impression is a good one? Here are some pointers that will help:

1. Don’t expect your customers to know what to do. Put a sign at the entrance advising guests that they may seat themselves. Foreign tourists often expect to be seated so might stand at the door blocking traffic indefinitely unless they are helped.

2.  Go through the guest experience yourself and see how easy or difficult you have made it for your guests to do what you want them to do: namely to come in, sit down and order.

3.  Check that you have appropriate internal signage such as “Toilets”, “More Seating Upstairs”, “Pay Here” and any other
directions that will help your customers spend more time and money with you.

4.  Create a drinks menu for customers. Not every customer orders Guinness and not every customer know what they want. You know what you stock, so get this down onto a menu and have it readily available for customers that have no idea what you offer. This is a great opportunity for upselling too.

So remember, the curse of knowledge can cost you business, but only if you close your eyes to the needs of your customers. Open your eyes and you may find people are spending more money with you and coming back again and again.

Easy? I think so.