|
|
| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Food Service |
Managers: What do you do to remedy a situation at your restaurant? |
Customer is unhappy, but calm and collected, but definately looking for reparation of poor service. (No food was eaten, because no food was served after long time waiting after ordering) Would you: A. Serve it in a hurry and demand payment. B. Do not serve it and demand payment C. Do not serve it and remove from bill. D. Serve it and remove from bill. E. Serve it, comp entire meal and appologize. F. Shout at customer for ordering it in the first place. If you have another idea, please indicate your practices of public relations with your unsatisfied customers. either D, E, or C also not a manager but a fine dining server. do you notice certain employees doing this? Many of our lacking service issues come directly from the employees that same manager hired that is now talking to the table begging for their return. We beg the managers to hire the best employees, but time and time again they will hire dumb clucks. So just a prevention tip if you are having many issues with this. But if they had already ordered their meals, it depends. Ask the customer what would be best. If they are in a rush, they will probably not want it, so you could comp it and in the mean time have the server get a free soup to go, or anything to go that can be made in seconds. If they say they still want the meal, you would go for option E or D depending on how angry they are. Not a manager but I have been the complaining end a few times. I have numerous times recieved some type of discount on the meal in addition to an appoligy or free desert of some type. A few times I have received a free meal, which was a shocker and a nice change. I used to know a restruant manager that would only give partial refunds or allow a customer to change an order if a few small bites were eaten, otherwise you were SOL. It worked for him but I did not find it ideal. Anymore it seems like a lot of managers like to throw cupons at the problem. My response is why would I want to come back again for crappy service if I received it once. A lot will depend if they are a regular or first timer but ultimately you have to play the situation and see what works for them. Maybe you could try what I do in law enforcement which is just ask. Sure you will always find some idiot that goes overboard but many times you will throw an honest person sideways. They get torn between getting something for free (knowing that is against the way we are brought up) and not having anything happen. If they come up with a bogus offer it is certianly in your power to offer a counter proposal. I think the main key is to listen. If you shun complaints all the time you may not be able to identify problem areas in your company. If long waits become a problem for certain meals it may be a simple fix just by having the waiter advised the customer of the potential for an extended wait if they proceed with their selection. My two cents for a law enforcement officer and resturant patron. I'm an assistant manager at Little Caesars(LOL i know) Depending how the customer reacts is how I react. If they are pissed off, arguementative, and agressive I basically tell them to **** off.("Sorry there is nothing I can do" is the response I give them, but in all actuality there obviously is) If it takes a bit of time for them to get their food before they complain just give them an extra something that costs a dollar(like crazy bread) They tend to be content with that. If they are calm and explain the situation AND have a legit complaint I usually give them a refund(if already paid for) and food for free. If it's not legit I explain how they are wrong in a nice way(one time i had a customer complain because a specialty pizza took too long to make. I explained to her that the cook time is 15 minutes and we don't keep those pizzas ready. She got pissed and yelled some. I gave her corprates number and walked away.) the saying "don't **** with people who handle your food is true"(WARNING TO EVERYONE NEXT TIME THEY COMPLAIN! be nice about it you'll get what you want faster and without the spit.<- Joke) Another thing is wording your sentance. Don't say "I'm sorry". That's placing blame on yourself. Instead say "Sorry this happened to you" serve it remove from bill, and give a coupon for free food on next visit. I was not a manager but did help out in the family restaurant while growing up. If they are not leaving I would say E. Fortunately I work for a corporation that wants that to happen so there would be no problem with comping the meal. Hopefully I would be watching and have prepared so this wouldn't happen in the first place! (No I am not perfect I have situations all the time) Another thing I do is give certificates to come back next time on us. I will depend of the customer...the first thing you wll have to do is to listening to him vry carefully this will help you with two things, first see what is he really angry about (the food, teh service or because he had a fight with his wife and he want to share with the whole restaurant) and second the customer will feel that you are insterested in what is happening to him and will take action on the matter. Sometimes the customer doesnt expect a big rewarding, just to have a nice apoligize and the food serve inmediatly. It helps that you can give a dessert free of charge as a way to say sorry, and in this case the customer feel specail (believe just with that) and the restaurant doesnt loose a lot with the cost in case the bill is really big. In the worst of the cases if the customer is really angry the best will be to pay the whole bill and send of course the meal inmmediatly. If the customer says that he has to leave give him a coupon so he can return later. I really reccomend in due to avoid this to happen frequently that you give a training in service every now a then to your cast. Remember that a bad customer recommends bad our restaurant to 10 people (according to the numbers) and a happy customer just to 3. HOpe this can help you...if you want more information sned an email. |
Finance Categories--Copyright/IP Policy--Contact Webmaster |