Improve Your Restaurant’s Customer Experience with Food Service Uniforms and Workplace Supplies

Consumers are presented with a vast selection of restaurant and dining options from fast food convenience to fine dining experiences. Because of this, competition for their dining dollars is fierce and customer expectations are high. Adding to the pressure faced by restaurant owners and management is the prevalence of online dining reviews and social media influences. One bad review can negate several positive ones.

It's not enough to serve good food at a fair price. Restaurants have to be on their A-game with no room for error. Often, it's the non-food items such as food service uniforms or restaurant linens that can have a big impact on customer experience.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) recently conducted a survey of what customers are looking for beyond just food and price when dining out. The study found nine restaurant selection factors that are likely to affect customers' decisions in choosing a restaurant: word of mouth, online customer review, brand reputation, brand popularity, personal (past) experience, menu variety, menu price, sales promotion, and location¹.

It's important for restaurants to consider every aspect of their restaurant and how they can increase word-of-mouth and online reviews, promote their brand and have customers leave with favorable experiences. Vestis™ can help with building your brand, professionalism, cleanliness and contribute to the overall guest experience which can lead to favorable reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Let's look at how rental services from Vestis can help you enhance your professional environment, maintain cleanliness and create efficiencies in your restaurant.

Food Service Uniforms

Your front-of-the-house staff is the face of your restaurant. They must project a professional, neat appearance, but they also need to be comfortable as they work in a fast-paced environment. Food service uniforms need to address both concerns.

Back-of-the-house staff work in hot, busy, often close quarters. Breathable, comfortable and durable uniforms are a must.

You also need to consider how uniforms reflect your brand - what colors will work best in your restaurant; what fabrics will hide inevitable stains and what styles will keep your staff looking fresh as they go about their jobs. With a full plate of responsibilities to handle, your ability to streamline food service uniform management can free up your time for other important duties.

Vestis offers fully managed rental programs, as well as direct sale food service uniforms in the latest styles, fabrics and colors, including pants, shirts, aprons, chef coats and accessories. Our uniforms bring the latest fashion trends and fabrication technology into your restaurant to keep wait staff looking good and kitchen workers feeling cool and comfortable. We incorporate extra functional features in our uniforms like pockets large enough to accommodate ordering pads in aprons for wait staff or thermometer slots in chef coats. Uniforms can be customized with your logo and employee names to enhance your brand and create a more personal customer experience.

It's one thing to select the right uniforms for the right jobs but maintaining them can be a source of frustration for restaurant management, waitstaff and kitchen workers. When you partner with a rental provider, you won't have to worry about the appearance of your food service uniforms, spend time washing them or tie up capital by purchasing your own expensive machines. Vestis delivers freshly laundered uniforms and picks up soiled garments on a weekly basis eliminating the need for staff to launder their workwear or handle laundry inhouse.

Restaurant Linens

As you know, every aspect of your restaurant contributes to the overall guest experience. Restaurant linens are no exception. Seventy-two percent of surveyed consumers agree that cloth linens help create a better dining experience in a restaurant and 75% agree that restaurants that provide cloth napkins care about the environment³. Not only do soiled table linens present an unprofessional look, but they also leave customers wondering about the cleanliness and quality of the areas of the restaurant they can't see - like your kitchen.

Replace restaurant linens easily, consistently and affordably with a rental table linen service. Napkins and tablecloths can be ordered in consistent brand colors and professionally laundered on a weekly basis to ensure a fresh look with every serving. Restaurant linens also elevate perception. Sixty-one percent of diners surveyed prefer professionally laundered tablecloths over disposable ones in a restaurant³. When customers can see and feel high quality restaurant linens at their table, they are more likely to have a favorable impression of your restaurant. Vestis uses a specialized wash process that helps remove food stains and helps keep linens free from contaminants and germs.

Restaurant Towel Service

Just as you want to project a professional look in your dining room, you also want to maintain hygienic cleanliness in your kitchen. Dirty towels soiled from spills or the everyday demands of a busy kitchen are both unsanitary and a health risk. Contaminated towels can compromise your kitchen.

In the average household, the USDA recommends kitchen towels should be changed frequently and a common recommendation is to change them daily². But a restaurant is serving a far greater number of meals and has many more cooks in the kitchen than the average home. Restaurant towels need to be changed and laundered often - and with good reason.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases⁴. A single case of food poisoning in your restaurant can have a big impact on your reputation. Don't take that chance.

A restaurant towel service will pick up your soiled and contaminated towels, launder them and deliver fresh product to your location. A restaurant towel service also helps you maintain appropriate inventory levels on your restaurant.

On a weekly basis, Vestis delivers fresh towels, including bar towels, microfiber wipes, dish towels, soda towels, glass towels and grill pads. All towels are laundered using a proprietary formula that combines years of expertise with precise and controlled wash methodologies. Our automated washing system maintains consistency with measured detergent, water, temperature and wash time. Stain fighting detergents help remove oil, grease and food soils while retaining color, quality and cleaning properties.

Workplace Supplies

Vestis delivers more than just uniforms, linens and towels. We deliver peace of mind and the ease of one-stop shopping by also providing necessary workplace supplies for the well-managed restaurant.

Mats help maintain a clean, front-of-house appearance and help elevate your brand as soon as guests enter your restaurant. Anti-fatigue mats provide comfort to kitchen employees working on their feet, while splash mats can help prevent slips and falls. And should a guest or employee require first aid services, you're prepared with fully stocked and managed first aid supplies and services from Vestis.

Your reputation matters - and we're here to help protect it with restroom supply services. Considering that 64% of people surveyed would avoid an establishment based on a negative restroom experience⁵, you can't take a chance on running short on necessary supplies. Vestis offers a full suite of restroom supplies that are monitored on a weekly basis and refilled to maintain inventory levels.

Discover how Vestis can help elevate the dining experience for your guests and alleviate the management of uniforms and workplace supplies for you. Contact us today to talk to our experts.

¹Chua BL, Karim S, Lee S, Han H. Customer Restaurant Choice: An Empirical Analysis of Restaurant Types and Eating-out Occasions. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Aug

²Shew, Abigail, Are You Sure It Wasn't Food Poisoning?, USDA in Health and Safety, Aug 28, 2017

³Consumers surveyed who agree. Study completed by Engine, commissioned by Aramark Uniform Services, May 2020

⁴National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases (DFWED)

⁵Survey conducted by ORC International, funded by Vestis, 2016

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