How to make customer feedback central to your operations

Mexican Mom is known not only for its rotating menu of authentic Mexican dishes, but also for providing a 5-star customer experience. Everything about the restaurant’s service revolves around its guests—from the open kitchen concept where “Mexican mom” Gina Antimo takes special requests, to the business’s Yelp Page where she gets feedback on the rotating menu. 

Since her own kids have grown up, Gina said her drive to provide excellent customer service stems from her desire to care for people. “I’m a Mexican mom. What can I tell you? Always taking care of my babies, even if they’re old and they live on their own.”

With a goal of serving what all Mexican moms serve their families, Gina uses the same ingredients, recipes, and principles at Mexican Mom as she does in her home kitchen. Along with her husband Jaime Reverté, she’s created an environment where guests feel like family and feedback is valued. 

Below, Gina shares three ways to make feedback central to your business—and why she changed her chicken quesadilla recipe based on a customer review.

1. Interact with guests for a memorable customer experience

At Mexican Mom, even the layout is designed to provide great customer service. The open kitchen concept allows Gina to step out of the kitchen and interact with guests—explaining the menu, getting feedback on a new dish, or simply making someone smile. “I still wanted to interact with people,” she said. “I didn’t wanna be in the back in the kitchen by myself. And that’s the best part of my place—that I’m here. I’m everybody’s mom.”

Gina’s warmth won over Yelp Elite reviewer Brett N. and his son, who was in low spirits. “What separates the experience from just any other place that maybe offers great service is that both times, Mexican Mom herself came out to talk to us afterward,” Brett said. “She just immediately came out and made [my son] happy and brought him toys and engaged with him. And you could tell within a moment that it was naturally who she is.”

Delivering a memorable customer experience not only creates lasting connections with guests—it’s also the most effective way to inspire them to leave reviews, according to reviewers themselves. Brett said: “You go to Mexican Mom, you’re gonna have great food, but you’re gonna feel like you’re a member of the family, even if you’re a stranger.”

2. Cater your offerings to each customer’s needs

Gina perfected the ability to read her audience after getting her start in catering, where she learned to cook any kind of cuisine a client requested. Now, 15 years into running her own restaurant, she still makes an effort to cater to her customers’ needs. She builds the restaurant’s weekly rotating menu around the guests she expects to visit—and even takes special requests. 

Accommodating these requests has helped Gina build goodwill toward her business and gain lifelong patrons. “[Our Mexican diners] come in and they say: ‘I’m from Sinoa, and my mom used to make this for me. Can you make it?’ That’s the best part of my job, that they even ask me for things that they have tried or that they had at home,” Gina said. “A lady cried [because] she was having memories, saying, ‘My mom used to make this corn soup.’”

When creating the weekly menu, Gina keeps Mexican Mom’s different types of customers in mind—from families with kids to first-timers—who can peruse the menu’s photos to choose from an array of traditional Mexican dishes. But as a restaurant in southeast Texas, the most important factor is the weather, Gina said. “If it’s gonna be a hundred degrees outside, like in Texas, nobody’s gonna want a soup.” She also thinks about upcoming events and holidays, especially on days that schools are closed. “[If the] kids don’t have school, they might come, so I’m gonna have something kids will like.”

3. Analyze feedback to improve your business

Just as Gina changes her menu to suit the weather and holidays, she also adapts her menu and service based on customer feedback. She frequently reads reviews to find ways to improve the business, so when Brett—in an otherwise glowing review of the restaurant’s menu—mentioned the chicken quesadilla was a little dry, Gina sprung into action.

“When I read his comment, that’s when it clicked to me,” she said. “I fixed it because of him and his beautiful comment, and now I hear people coming and saying, ‘I want the chicken quesadilla because they are the best.’”

As a reviewer, Brett said he never writes anything in his reviews that he wouldn’t say in person. “I try to think: ‘If I were the business owner reading this, what would be the most helpful to them?’ Especially when I do have to write a review that has criticism in it, I always try to be as constructive as possible—as if the business owner was standing right next to me and said: ‘I want you to be honest. Tell me what you thought.’”

Luckily, Gina was more than open to hearing Brett’s thoughts. She said she thinks of critical reviews as a way to strengthen her business and identify places for improvement: “It didn’t break my heart because I knew it wasn’t the best. But it helped me a lot to improve my cooking. I loved it. I really appreciate it.” 

These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear more from Gina, Jaime, and Brett, or visit the episode page to read more, subscribe to the show, and explore other episodes.