Customer experience is one of the hottest buzzwords in the food truck industry today. Vendors are putting more time, effort and money into into building a strong customer experience for consumers. The primary reason for this is due to the growth of the industry. No longer are price and quality the only areas where food trucks compete, it is now also customer experience.
Customer expectations are higher than ever and word of mouth travels fast! And as the customer becomes even more empowered, it increases the importance of the customer experience. We’re seeing data that vendors that invest in customer experience also boast higher profits. With that said, more food trucks are taking customer experience seriously.
Building A Strong Customer Experience
Customer experience is defined by interactions between a customer and a food truck throughout their business relationship. Today we’ll offer some basics to building a strong customer experience at your food truck.
Create a Two-Way Conversation Outside the Truck
Before your customers even make it to your food truck line, their customer experience has already begun. The premise of food truck marketing is to connect with customers. However, the communication that food trucks initiate and respond to are often opportunistic, one-directional, and fail to drive value. Sometimes, they’re not even directed at customers. Make sure that your online conversations are personalized, proactive and social.
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Engage with people in waiting lines
Lengthy waiting times can frustrate customers and sets a bad first impression. This is further worsened due to apathy from your staff who are only paid to service customers at the service window. The most effective strategy is to engage with these customers by providing a staff member who will interact with them. This could be someone taking orders, or even offering updates on queue timing. Also consider providing a set of menus to people in waiting so that they could at least make their decision while they are waiting to order.
Listen to Feedback
Many food trucks offer feedback forms to customers. However, they are often not customized to specific issues that locals may have. For instance, customers visiting trucks in a crowded neighborhood may complain about parking. Similarly, if you run a Taco truck, you are likely to face unhappy customers who complain about the food being either too spicy or not spicy enough. Understanding these common issues that your target customers face will help you fix them before they get worse.
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Additional Tips On How To Build A Great Customer Experience
- Strive to greet customers with a friendly greeting. Window servers need to be vigilant in watching the service window. This impacts a customers’ first impression and you know what they say about those.
- Keep it clean. Statistics show that cleanliness is one of the most important aspects of how guests feel about a food truck. This includes the area around your truck as well as the inside and outside of your food truck.
- Make sure your customers’ last experience is a good one.  Present the food a timely fashion and promptly handle any additional requests they have.  This is especially important to those customers who are in a hurry.
Make sure your food truck, food truck lot or food truck restaurant is listed at Food Truck Reviews
The Bottom Line
With the introduction of review sites and social media, food trucks realize they need to focus more on the customer experience. It’s important to find ways to ensure a positive experience so you not only deter negative feedback online, but also drive repeat business that maximizes revenue.
How is the customer experience at your food truck? Do you have any additional tips that we’ve missed? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section or social media. Facebook | Twitter
