Article
Fundamental Approaches to Effective Service Recovery Techniques
Independent restaurateurs face guest dissatisfaction frequently, and for reasons both within and beyond their control. An advantage of on-premises dining is being able to address problems in real time.
Nearly every full-service operator occasionally comps a meal because the kitchen was slow or offers a gift certificate to remedy a service faux pas. It is called "service recovery". You very well might lose money on a particularly guest for that meal, but service recovery takes the long view. Your hope is to retain their business and encourage positive word-of-mouth, including on social media.
Approach complaining, irate customers with a calm, attentive and respectful frame of mind and you'll find yourself with more business and very few "guests from hell." In this article, we review some of the basics of a service recovery program.
With delivery and take-out service an increasing percentage of sales for many operators, service recovery becomes more challenging. Operators can get slammed by online and telephone orders. While this sounds like a good problem it can create backups in the kitchen, which can cascade into a variety of problems. The wait for food can exceed customer patience. In some cases, orders are overlooked in the hubbub.
Hopefully, you have someone who verifies delivery and takeout orders are correct before they leave the door; however, on a busy night mistakes happen and guests might not discover problems until the order is in their own kitchens.
Customer retention and positive word of mouth promotion are important objectives of such a program. But it also can improve staff morale. A spate of angry guests during a given shift can make even "people persons" reconsider whether working in a restaurant is a good choice. This is especially true with all the other stresses of working in this business.
Saturday Night Fever
I dined at an upscale casual Mexican concept in my town recently. While I enjoy dining out, I cannot completely detach myself from my role at Restaurant Startup & Growth and RestaurantOwner.com. I typically scan the house to observe operations, and service best practices.
I overhead a conversation between a young staff person and a frustrated customer who had been waiting in the parking lot for her to-go order for more than a half-hour after she had been promised it would be ready for pickup. I felt bad for all concerned.
From my perspective, this was a perfect storm for a customer service crisis. The restaurant was particularly busy. It was Valentine's Day weekend, nevertheless, and as it is with many restaurants trying to minimize costs, the business seemed a bit short staffed. The holiday menu included some specials, which were very good but elaborate, so I imagine put a little extra pressure on the kitchen to produce. The customer's order was relatively large, so I further imagine there were quite a few hungry mouths waiting for her to return with dinner.
The young staff person was calm and sympathetic, and she tried to get the manager's attention for guidance on how to fix the problem. I would also imagine this particular problem was competing with other problems, as is often the case on busy nights.
We all understand not every customer complaint is legitimate. Some guests are simply chronic complainers and cannot be satisfied (see "Guests from Hell" below.). In this case, the customer had a reasonable complaint. She certainly was not a "Karen", an insulting and simple-minded meme that should be banned from your restaurant.
"Complaining Customers" are not "Guests from Hell"
Although the two may resemble each other at first glance, there is an important difference. A "guest that's been through hell" is a "complainer." A complaining customer is a decent person that may have just temporary lost it, like most of us do, from time to time when we feel mistreated or taken advantage of.
Although complainers may not be loads of fun to deal with, what you can learn from them might be worth their weight in gold. Consider that a complaining customer is usually telling you one of the following:
- "You had 19 other customers thinking the same thing, but they didn't bother telling you." Customer surveys estimate that only 1 in 20 customers that have a problem in your restaurant will tell you about it. They're "nice" customers, and they are killing your business, because if they have a problem they don't complain, they just don't come back.
- "You still have a chance at my future business if you show me that you genuinely care and make things right." Most complaining customers will do business with you again (some surveys reveal as high as 95%) if someone takes a personal interest and settles the problem to their satisfaction, on the spot. It's an opportunity to show your guests just how important they are to you and turn a disgruntled guest one minute, into an the next. Yes, it really can happen, if it's handled right.
- "I'm telling you where your restaurant needs attention." When one guest in 20 will bother to tell you there's a problem, one complaint is truly a wake-up call. Whatever the problem, it has probably occurred several times before anyone on your staff even hears about it.
How to Deal with Upset Guests
The most valuable asset you can have when dealing with an irritated guest is a calm and open mind. Approaching the situation with a good dose of empathy and humility is the first step in accurately determining whether you're dealing with a veritable jerk or a complainer, who may, by the way, be totally justified in being a little bent out of shape.
Your first objective is to attempt to diffuse an irate guest's upset state and the only way to do that, in all but the most extreme cases is to be calm and empathetic. This of course is easier said than done, but let me give you some motivation in helping you see the situation for what it usually is.
Whenever you encounter a difficult customer, recognize what you've got to lose if the situation is not handled properly. If you give the guest a reason never to return, it may represent tens of thousands of dollars of future business you'll never see. And maybe more.
Consider the potential lifetime sales value of one of your regular, returning guests. At one point, The Ritz-Carlton determined the lifetime value of a guest as around $100,000 of sales if they keep returning to their hotels. Domino's says their average pizza customer is worth $13,000 of business if they keep on ordering their pizzas.
If that's not enough to get see things a little differently, consider that when you blow it with a guest, you just don't see them anymore, but they often spread their venom by telling eight to 10 or even more other people about their horrendous experience (which, of course, they will embellish in their favor). And if the story is good (bad) enough, these folks will repeat the tale as well. Not the sort of word-of-mouth advertising that does much for your reputation or future business prospects.
The following ideas and thoughts may help you quickly defuse a potentially hostile situation and even have a shot of turning it into a positive one.
Show you care. Do whatever it takes to show that you are empathetic and genuinely concerned. Give the guest a chance to vent and let them know you are sorry about the situation and the way they feel. It's extremely important to not take anything they say personally. Their emotions have nothing to do with you.
While this may sound obvious to some and trite to others, customers will often tolerate even the most blatant screw-ups as long as they feel that someone actually cares about them. Just ask any attorney why individuals sue big companies. People usually sue when they've been jerked around or ignored by an impersonal organization that they're convinced just flat-out doesn't care.
Once we sense that someone, anyone, in an organization gives a darn about us, we tend to naturally lighten up.
Use calming language. In his book "Cashing in on Complaints", Bill Marvin says, "As the guest is blowing off, try interjecting one or more of these phrases. You will be surprised at how effective they can be at getting people's attention and calming them down: "This is important.", "This isn't the kind of service we want to give you.", "Your business is important to me.", "I apologize."
The point is that you have a major financial incentive for keeping your wits and trying to salvage each and every complainer or irate guest. On those rare occasions, when your best efforts don't work and you're convinced you've got a veritable "guest from hell", I believe you have the right to take whatever action is necessary squelch the disturbance and minimize the damage.
As we mentioned above, neither you nor your employees should have to put up with people that are abusive, repulsive or pose a threat to your employees or other customers in your restaurant.
Because you've got a lot of potential future business riding on each and every person who enters your restaurant, it's advisable to always give people the "benefit of the doubt." Even the nicest people experience moods that cause them to lash out.
Empower and train staff. Many successful service businesses allow their staff to spend a certain amount of money to immediately address a customer's complaint. For example, they might allow a staff member a budget of $15 to fix a significant service problem. Particularly when the restaurant is busy, having to summon a manager only fuels an irate customer's patience. This also provides employees with a sense of empowerment rather than feeling helpless and stressed in the face of an unhappy guest. Customers are typically impressed when a line worker is able to immediately offer a solution.
You should have the employee complete a form, briefly describing the issue, to avoid it being abused or overused. Moreover, recording all complaints, how they were addressed, and the customer's level of satisfaction with the resolution can be instructive. Management can review the forms to see if there are any recurring problems. In addition, the situations provide excellent training tools at staff meetings to discuss the problem and share ideas how your team might have prevented and fixed it.
GUESTS FROM HELL
Anyone who has waited tables, worked a counter or dealt directly with the public lately knows that whoever said, "the customer is always right" was wrong.
I'm sure your front-line service people occasionally run into bizarre, totally off-the-wall behavior that defies any standard of decency and common sense.
When you're convinced you've got a "guest from hell" I would say you've got, not only the right, but an obligation to deal with them firmly, swiftly and without apology. There's no law (yet, anyway) that says you have to put up with people that are abusive, repulsive or pose a threat to your employees or other guests.
The key though, is identifying whether you've got a genuine "guest from hell" or "guest that's been through hell."
