<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in; mso-pagination: none;" class="MsoBodyTextIndent"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-small;">With the remarkable growth and economic contributions of the services industry, companies are finding that they need to focus on service to keep up with rising customer expectations and to compete effectively. Thus excellent customer service in

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... a restaurant has the potential of differentiating the restaurant from competing ones and could lead to creating a competitive advantage. Thus, if a restaurant becomes well known for its superior customer service, this can be used as a way of outmanoeuvring competing restaurants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This article examines customer service in selected restaurants in the Tshwane area. It is aimed at establishing criteria for excellent customer service in restaurants, which can serve as the basis for building good relationships with customers. An empirical study was conducted to namely to investigate customer service in selected restaurants in the Tshwane Area, with the aim to establish criteria for excellent customer service as a benchmark for establishing relationships with customers, by means of an exploratory study. A self-administered survey was conducted whereby questionnaires were handed to restaurant patrons with the restaurant bill folder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on the research results, criteria were developed for excellent customer service which can be used as a benchmark for establishing relationships with customers, by providing customer satisfaction, which leads to customer retention, loyalty and ultimately profitability for an organisation.</span></p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>