Author: This article was written and provided by Mo Kanjilal, Watch This Sp_ce.
Restaurants serve more than just food – they provide an experience that can either help people feel welcomed or not. The menu served includes the customer experience, the team, the environment, and the culture of the place when people visit. This goes beyond who is employed in restaurants and cafes. This is about the whole experience for anyone visiting a venue. How do people feel when they arrive? What is the experience like for them when they are there? And what is the lasting impression?
Hospitality venues serve communities, customers, suppliers, and their employees who all come from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. So, embracing diversity and inclusion is not just a social responsibility but also a business necessity. People go to restaurants and cafes for a treat, so they need to feel that they are welcomed and included when they visit.
People will show you through their behaviour what they really think, if people feel welcomed, they will be back. They might write a review and they are very likely to recommend the place to people they know. On the flip side, if people do not feel welcomed, they will be quick to tell people about their experience, and perhaps write a negative review. Something restaurant, café and hotel owners are so aware of, as this can influence other people into making their decisions about where to spend their money.
Biases and choices
Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all biased. This influences how we make our choices. Our brains are faced with 11 million pieces of information swirling around our heads at any moment. That is a lot of information to process. The thing is, our brains can only process 40 out of that 11 million. So, what happens? Well, our brains form patterns, and rely on assumptions and behaviours that we learn. We all do this and form patterns in our minds as we go through life. If we have a good experience somewhere, it starts to form a bias in our minds about that place. So, we favour that place, and recommend it to people, even though there could be many different places we could go instead. These biases take different forms. So, it could be recency bias, where we favour the most recent good experience we had somewhere. It could also form a negative bias, if there is somewhere we love, but the next time we go there, we experience something negative, it could put us off somewhere.
The forms of biases that are in the recipe for how we choose hospitality venues is made up of our patterns in our minds, our experiences there, and we are very influenced by other people too. Many people will take a recommendation from someone they trust over reading a menu or description. This all down to the biases in our minds and how much we can value and appreciate differences.
Watch Mo’s Tedx Brighton talk about valuing differences
Making the Dining Experience Inclusive
How can restaurants ensure their customer experience is welcoming to all to help people to feel included. Some ways you can work on to achieve this could include:
- Accessibility – is the venue accessible for everyone? Have you considered different needs people might have, and told people what you offer? This could include providing ramps, large-print menus, and accessible seating. It is worth doing a check of your venue on these things to ensure you have considered the options.
- Menu options – have you included dietary information and can you cater for different dietary needs and cultural preferences? This can be a deciding factor for many in making their choices
- Parents – do you have high chairs and changing facilities? And are they accessible for all parents? What about a children’s menu or things to entertain children? If you want to appeal to families, these are key things to consider.
- Your staff – training staff to be respectful and accommodating to all customers, including those from marginalised groups will help your customers to feel welcomed. How do people handle requests for different options and different cultures?
- Your brand – are you using inclusive language in marketing materials and signage to signal a welcoming environment? There are a lot of things you can review here to make your all your communications are accessible and appeal to everyone. Inclusive communication also makes businesses sense, so that you reach the people you want to reach.
Working on these areas will help create an inclusive atmosphere. An inclusive restaurant experience not only attracts a wider customer base but also builds loyalty and a strong reputation in the community.
The Business Benefits of Embracing Diversity
And that brings us onto more reasons why this is important. There are ethical and social reasons for embracing diversity and inclusion and creating an inclusive environment so that people feel welcomed. It also makes business sense and there are clear business advantages. Restaurants that prioritise inclusion tend to see:
- Higher Customer Satisfaction: Customers are more likely to return to a place where they feel welcomed, respected, and included. People will tell people they know if they have a good experience.
- A Stronger Brand Reputation: Word-of-mouth and online reviews reflect a restaurant’s commitment to inclusivity. If you work on this, your reputation will grow.
- Increased Revenue: A diverse customer base means more potential business and a competitive edge in the market.
- Better Employee Performance: Inclusive workplaces are proven to be places where people are motivated, work productively, are happier in their work…and so they are much more likely to stay.
For advice on how to attract more women to your roles, read our blog – https://restaurantsbrighton.co.uk/jobs/blog/how-to-attract-female-candidates-into-a-male-dominated-industry/
Restaurants and cafes play a huge part in how welcomed people feel in a city or town too. Brighton has a strong reputation for places where differences are appreciated and celebrated. The city has a wide range of venues catering for different styles and choices. It is worth making sure you have considered the different ways in which you can really reach and serve everyone.
For more on how to create an inclusive place, and stories and research, read The Inclusion Journey book.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inclusion-Journey-Creating-strategy-engagement/dp/1398616729/