Questions to Ask on Your Restaurant Survey

The Two Most Important Questions

Don’t conduct a survey without asking both of these questions in some form or
another. You’ll learn about your biggest strengths and weaknesses across the
whole operation. More on other ways to ask these questions below.
 What was the best part of your visit?
 What was the worst part of your visit?
General Questions

Gather information about your customers, how they heard about you, and the
basics about your restaurant.
 Was this your first time at the restaurant?
 How did you hear about us?
 How often do you visit? 
 How likely is it that you would come back? Very Likely / Likely /
Unlikely / Very Unlikely.
 Do you find that our restaurant is family-friendly? Yes / No and Explain.
 Are our hours convenient? Yes / No and Explain.
 How far did you travel to visit us today?
 If _____ was an option, would you try it out? (This question can be
adjusted to fit any new process or product you’re considering testing –
an online reservation system, a new dish, a drink special, etc.) Yes / No
and Explain.
Facilities Questions

These questions will address issues of accessibility and cleanliness in your

restaurant.
 If you use a wheelchair, did you find the staff and facilities
accommodating? Yes / No and Explain.
 Were the seats comfortable? Yes / No and Explain.
 Were the bathrooms and other facilities clean? Yes / No and Explain.
 Was the music volume to your liking? Yes / No and Explain.
Food & Drink Questions

The food and drink at your restaurant is typically the main reason why
someone chose to dine there, so make sure your menu is at its best.
  How would you rate the value of our food? Rate from 1 (Poor Value) to
5 (Great Value).
 Were you pleased with our drink offerings? Yes / No and Explain.
 Is there anything you’d want to see on the menu that’s missing? Yes /
No and Explain.
 Do you find our menu has something for everyone? Yes / No and
Explain.
 How would you rate the range of options on our menu? Too Few
Options / Just Right / Too Many Options.
 If you have a dietary restriction, were you accommodated well
today? Yes / No and Explain.
Service Questions

Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group says, “the way we were

making people feel was even more powerful than what we put on the plate
and in the glass.” Your service can have a huge impact on whether or not a
first-time customer becomes a regular, so make sure everything is in check.
 Who was your server today? (This question is particularly helpful if
you’re trying to figure out who your star servers are and who might need
a little more training.)
 Was the service friendly and welcoming? Yes / No and Explain.
 Did the food come out fast enough? Yes / No and Explain.
 If there were any issues, did your server handle them well? Yes / No
and Explain.
Tech Questions

If you’ve recently implemented new POS technology, it’s worth asking your
customers how they perceive the user experience. If you’re offering delivery
via an online ordering provider, make sure that the food is arriving quickly and
that it arrives fresh.
 Was our checkout system efficient? Yes / No and Explain.
 Did you enjoy using our handheld checkout system and/or kiosk? Yes /
No and Explain.
 If you ordered online, how quickly did your food arrive? 
 If you ordered online, did the food appear and taste fresh when it
arrived? Yes / No and Explain.
 Which online ordering provider did you use? 
 Did you use any of our discounts or special offers?
How to Get Answers to Your Questions: POS & NPS
It's important to gather feedback as frequently as possible, so one way to get
the most important questions out of the way are through your POS system.
Toast’s Guest Feedback feature texts or emails the following question to a
customer, as a follow-up to their answer on the thumbs up / thumbs down
question on a Toast Go POS, Kiosk, or Online Ordering.
You can also approach this type of question by measuring your customer NPS
(Net Promoter Score), like Saddleback BBQ does. NPS is a calculation of
what percentage of your customers are your promoters, and what percentage
are your detractors. Saddleback’s simple survey asks “How likely are you to
recommend Saddleback BBQ to someone you know?” (with a 1-10 rating),
and asks for an explanation why. Then the results are tallied up (you can use
the NPS calculator that Saddleback recommends, provided by Delighted) and
you’ll have an idea of how many of your customers promote you in their
circles – and how you can get that number up.

What to Do With All This Feedback

Now that you’ve got your questions in order, it’s important to actually
implement some changes that your customers have asked for, explains
Vertical Response. Otherwise, your guest feedback initiative has gone to
waste. You don’t have to fix every single issue that’s mentioned on every
comment card right away, but you should absolutely keep an eye out for
severe issues and commonly mentioned issues. 
Anything that has to do with health or accessibility should always be
addressed right away, as well as any issue that has been written by a very
angry customer. Here are a few examples of severe issues that should be
addressed after one report:
 A wheelchair user says that they couldn’t reach the soap in the
bathroom.
 Someone mentions that their allergy was not accommodated properly.
 A person mentions that a server was extremely rude.
When dealing with reported issues that revolve around personal preference, it
makes sense to wait and see if it’s a trend before making a big change in your
restaurant. For that reason, it’s important to track guest feedback and analyze
it every week, at least. Any of these three complaints mentioned more than a
few times could be indicative of a larger issue:
  A person mentions that their dish was overcooked.
 Someone reports that the restaurant doesn’t feel family-friendly.
 A person comments that the music was too loud.
When it comes to gathering guest feedback, it’s crucial to be asking the right
questions on your restaurant survey. Reflect on what aspects of your
restaurant might need some work, and build out your survey from there. Don’t
just ask the questions you’ve seen on other restaurant surveys; one size
definitely does not fit all.
Finally, make sure your restaurant survey isn’t too long – don’t provide a
survey that you wouldn’t want to take as a customer, explains
SurveyGizmo. You can provide incentives, like a chance to win a gift card, if
you find people are hesitant to give their opinions. Then use the information
that you collect to make your restaurant the best it can be.