How Restaurant Seating Can Influence Your Behaviour

The hospitality industry has become extremely competitive lately. Most restaurants often get only one chance to impress their guests. If their décor, layout, or seating fails to get the customers excited, then they may not get to see their guests ever again.

Many factors play a key role in the success of a restaurant- the food, creative theme like tropical paradise, location, etc.  However, one other factor is also quite important which is seating. That’s why, in this blog, we will shed light on that for your advantage, focusing on each point one by one.

1. Dimensions

The area design of your restaurant is heavily inspired by the size and shape of the rooms. If you want to achieve the perfect seating capacity, then you can follow certain formulas that are shared below:

• Some experts believe that you should provide around 30 sq.ft. area to each seat. This means that you can simply divide the total restaurant size by 30 to get the ideal number of seats.
• Some experts recommend that you should minus the size of service stations, bar areas, waiting areas, etc. from the total size before you do any calculations.

Useful Tip: It’s a good idea to maintain a healthy mix of different types of seating and heights so that you achieve a good capacity without making the place look overly crowded.

2. Furniture

Commercial furniture is usually more expensive than household furniture but that shouldn’t bother you because it’s also designed to withstand more wear and tear which actually makes sense due to the environment that’s it’s put in. However, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind when you buy for your restaurant. For instance, you want square tables if you want space efficiency, and round tables if you want to make it easier for your guests to talk to each other. The size of restaurant chairs and tables should also be picked carefully because if you run a cafeteria-style, then you need bigger tables that have room for trays, and the same goes for Asian restaurants where meals are served on the tables.

3. Heat, Cold and Noise Control

You may not know this, but the design of your restaurant’s tables affects how you control the temperature and noise inside the establishment. This can be a bit technical as you have to balance the level of air conditioning in the kitchen with the dining area. In the same way, you have to pick the perfect spot for the speakers. It’s all about how you plan the seating. For instance, you can create a partition or place a heavy curtain in front of the main entrance to prevent the tables near it from getting blasted by hot or cold waves. Similarly, if there are low-hanging light fittings on the tables, then they can irritate the guests, and if the lights are installed on the walls behind their backs, then it can cast huge shadows on the tables to make for a bad dining experience. So, you need to consider factors like these to make the experience of your guests more pleasant.

4. Service Efficiency

Service and staff efficiency can often make or break the dining experience. For instance, if you have well-trained servers, then they will always know what their customers need even before they ask for it. Not only that, they are able to reach out to them easily without running into other guests or furniture. This good experience is coupled with easily accessible napkins, condiments, and cutlery on the table, etc.

Making your restaurant staff awesome is important if you want to deliver a memorable experience to your customers. However, you can’t achieve success unless you work on the seating design first. There are a few things you want to keep in mind here- the servers should be able to directly glance at the tables in the dining and waiting areas. They should also be able to see exactly what’s going on different tables so that they can help the customers whenever they need. All this has to do with well-planned seating.

5. Enhanced Order Accuracy

Self-ordering kiosks in a restaurant greatly contribute to order accuracy. Customers can view the menu items and customize their orders with precision, reducing the chances of miscommunication or incorrect orders. This technology minimizes human errors in taking and transmitting orders, resulting in a higher level of satisfaction for guests who receive exactly what they ordered.

Bottom Line

As you can see, restaurant seating has a huge impact on the overall dining experience of the diners as well as the staff. So, it’s important that you create the best menu, find the most professional chef and servers, but also plan the seating wisely. Good luck!