Does Your Service Menu Meet Your Customers’ Expectations?

Menus can tell you a lot about a restaurant.  Some menus have limited choices; some have way too many.  Many have rules like “no substitutions,” “salad bar extra,” or “breakfast only served until 10:30 am.”  Some show you pictures of their featured meals; some have crazy entre names like “Whoopee burger” or “Don’s Big Mess.”  There are restaurants that communicate what they think of young guests by the size of their “children’s menu.”  Some laminate their menus giving you the distinct perception they are not changing with customer desires.

Customers today evaluate their experience in part by your service menu—the number of choices and options you provide.  Their expectations are way up.  They expect you to provide what they want, when and how they want it.  If you are not offering customers multiple communications choices and multiple channels to complete their journey with your organization you are likely losing customers.  And, they assume all service providers can tailor their experience.  Can you imagine a fast food restaurant flatly refusing to “hold the onions?”  Customers return to service providers that allow them to “have it your way” and avoid those with a “one size fits all” perspective.

Wise service providers base their choices and options on what customers prefer, not on what is organizational convenient.  Granted, they must balance customer preferences and personalization with economic limitations and brand promise.  McDonald’s would not serve you a lobster burger, even if they could get it quickly.  The service providers that create a loyal following continually update their customer intelligence and use it to adjust and/ or modify the experience they provide so they are certain it matches the experience their customers prefer.

What can you do to make your “service menu” match your customers ever changing expectations?
 

© Chip Bell Group, 2023.  Courtesy of John R. Patterson (www.johnrpatterson.com).  Permission is given to download and distribute this article as long as it contains this copyright notice.