With so many restaurants in the hospitality industry today, customers have become more demanding as they expect to get what they pay for. As a result, restaurants always strive to improve their food, room settings, and overall restaurant visual appeal to enhance customer experience.
While these factors are critical in influencing a customer’s attitude towards your food service business, employee attire also plays a significant role. A company’s uniform represents its brand, an essential way for the business to communicate its professional services, quality levels, and organizational culture.
Companies in the food service industry should provide workplace uniforms for their employees in accordance with dress codes and grooming guidelines.
Here’s how food service attire affects customer perception.
1. Promotes Trust
Workplace dress instills a sense of credibility and trust in a company’s ability. Giving employees a work uniform shows your confidence in their ability to uphold your company’s values. As a result, customers will also trust them.
In addition, most customers naturally assume that employees who wear branded work clothes take more pride in their work and are more competent in offering services.
In order for customers to trust you in the food service industry, you must be careful when choosing a custom design of uniform. Look at the quality of the material and ensure it reflects the professionalism of the industry. The logo on the uniform should also represent your company’s values.
After purchasing uniforms for your employees, ensure that they are always clean. In the food service sector, neat and professional looking attire is essential to achieve high client satisfaction. If uniforms are dirty, it suggests that your restaurant is unhygienic, and your business may gain a bad reputation that affects the level of trust of your customers.
To avoid such problems, give your employees multiple pairs of uniforms. Also, consider hiring commercial laundry services for daily after-work outfit cleaning.
2. Increases Brand Awareness
When running a food service business, employee uniforms will help improve your brand image and improve brand awareness. Increased brand awareness can lead to new customers and increased sales.
A good company uniform will stand out when your employees are serving customers in your restaurant or running errands after work. When people walk past your restaurant, they are likely to notice your employee’s attire. Using photos of employees wearing your uniform in advertisements or social media posts will create a lasting impression on your customers, making your brand more likeable.
To ensure that this approach becomes effective, keep visual elements such as bright colors, designs, and a distinctive logo in mind. These features will help your personnel stand out from the competition and make it simple for customers to remember and recognize them. A school uniform creates a brand identity so that customers can quickly identify a brand by looking at the uniform.
Additionally, ensure that the logo and symbols you use on your apparel are consistent across all branding platforms. This way, you will promote the consistency of your business and avoid confusing customers.
3. Makes It Easy to Spot Your Employees
Restaurants are often busy places. Some people visit restaurants in a hurry and may want to be served immediately and leave. In such a situation, it can be frustrating for the customer if they cannot see the restaurant workers quickly.
Work uniforms make it easy for the customers to recognize the staff. So, they can quickly let them know when they want to make an order, get a drink, refill or bill.
Prompt customer services make your customers happy. Satisfied customers are likely to be more involved with your business and its employees and therefore value them in ways such as leaving tips.
4. Improves First Impression
When customers walk into your restaurant, they will interact with your employees first. If customers see employees sitting around in casual attire, they may think they don’t take their work seriously.
People are used to seeing workers in the food service industry wearing uniforms. Therefore, they may be surprised if they find that your employees do not wear work uniforms.
Clothing can improve a customer’s first impression. They will make your customers feel comfortable and interact freely with your employees. In addition, costumes can energize customers, especially if you choose vibrant colors.
5. Classy In-house Reminder
In some cases, before a customer walks into your restaurant, they’ve probably heard about it from their friends or online. Employee uniforms remind customers that they have walked to the right place and will receive the expected services.
Remember that the quality of the service will determine whether they will come back or not. Use your uniforms to remind customers where they are.
When designing the outfit, carefully place the logo on the chest or sleeves to ensure it leaves an impression. As the customers see your employees walking around in your uniform, it reassures them that they are in the right place and that they can feel at ease moving forward to seek your services.
6. Promotes Professionalism
For a food service business to grow, it should maintain a strong professional image. One of the best ways to improve professionalism is for employees to wear clean, neat, properly designed uniforms. If customers feel that you have taken time to design your outfit, they will be confident that you will also take time to prepare quality meals.
A business with employees wearing clean, well-designed uniforms will feel more professional than one with old, dirty, stained or poorly designed uniforms. With a custom uniform design, your customers will feel that you are a serious business that clearly understands its place in the industry.
7. Builds Team Spirit
Employee teamwork is essential to any business, including the food service industry. When employees wear work uniform, they will feel like a team, encouraging them to work together towards a common goal. Customers will trust a food service business where they see employees working together as they prepare their orders.
Also, when customers see your employees wearing similar outfits and working as a team, they will trust your business even more. They will feel that someone is ready to work to give them the best experience.
Final Words
Clothing plays a vital role in any business. However, you shouldn’t choose just any outfit. Choose one that resonates significantly with your brand and promotes brand identity / image.
Consult widely when deciding on the uniform that is most suitable for your food service business. Involve your employees, and if necessary, seek the services of professional custom costume designers.
Nick Warrick is the sales manager for All Seasons Uniforms, a professional workwear company based out of Chicago that has been in business since 1991.