If you provide anything less than exceptional customer service for your food truck customers, you’re wasting the time of, creating extra work for and frustrating your food truck staff, managers and yourself.
The basic premise of customer service training in many food trucks comes with the best of intentions. The vendor has a rally meeting about customer service, and the service improves for a few days or weeks and then it returns to mediocre levels. Consistent reminders don’t come because you’re busy and you have lots of other things on your to do list.
So what can vendors do to continually improve their food truck customer service? Today we’ll provide you with a simple two step process.
The Two Step Process For Exceptional Customer Service:
Step One: Train your entire team to deliver exceptional customer service.
Step Two: Constantly remind your staff of your customer service expectations.
Simple…right?
Digging Deeper
The first part of the process must include training your entire team to understand how you define exceptional customer service. Then you need to consistently reinforce those expectations.
When you have your entire team trained and you always remind them of your these expectations. Make sure every new employee gets the same initial customer service training that your entire team received.
The best thing you can do to show every new employee your commitment to customer service is to train them about your customer service expectations on Day 1. Any time your staff provides less than exceptional customer service it’s your fault.
How can this be? It’s simple, either you haven’t trained or reinforced this training properly.  If you’re not committed to providing exceptional customer service for your food truck customers, your food truck will never achieve its potential.
When food truck owners become committed to exceptional customer service, you may stumble from time to time, but when you do, you’ll still be providing good customer service. The added benefit to providing exceptional service is that when you or your staff do stumble, your customers will be much more likely to forgive you.
Involve Your Customers
Do not rely on the absence of customer complaints as the way you determine the level of service your truck provides. Even in this new world of social media a large number of customers who are disappointed with a food truck won’t complain to anyone, they just leave and don’t return. You have to define what “exceptional” means then train and remind your staff of the definition.
Satisfied customers are . . . satisfied. If someone else has a little better price or opens a store that’s a bit more convenient, they’re gone. Just think of it, if your goal is a satisfied customer, even if you and your staff do everything perfectly, the best you’ll get is a satisfied customer—that’s your goal.
Customer satisfaction isn’t good enough. Your customer service expectations need to be exceptional. Not only should you create satisfied customers, but happy, loyal customers.
Don’t Keep Your Standards Secret
Don’t think that you show your commitment to exceptional customer service by making up slogans about it. Let your customers know what your customer service expectations are. Let your customers that you want to know if they are not happy or simply ask them, “What do you like? What don’t you like? I’d like to know.”
RELATED:Â Customer Service: Show Customers Your Food Truck Cares
The Bottom Line
If you do ask for input from your food truck customers, you need to act when you get it. Whether it’s a good comment or a complaint, every customer who gives you feedback needs to get a response. The best reason for sharing your customer service expectations with your customers is that it puts your staff on the “hot seat” if they feel they haven’t gotten exceptional customer service.
We hope the article helps food truck vendors elevate to exceptional customer service levels if you haven’t already reached them. Not only will your customers appreciate them, but your staff will as well.
Do you have any examples of exceptional customer service you’ve received from a food truck in your area? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter
