Turning Problem into Profit

by Paul Katsch

There are a variety of management styles when it comes to running a restaurant, but ultimately how you treat your customers plays a big role in their repeat business. From a marketing standpoint, it's 10 times more effective to ensure repeat business than it is to attract new customers to your establishment. Your patron's satisfaction is directly related to their expectations, which reflects on the food and ambiance, as well as the service.

It's naïve to think that everything is going to go perfectly all the time. Mistakes can and will be made by the waiter/waitress, chef, bartender, or multiple parties. Sometimes even if you staff performs exemplary, you'll have a very difficult customer that just isn't happy. Whatever the cause, if your customer feels like your establishments performance was less than satisfactory, how you respond can either lose you business or convert that customer to a life-long patron. There's more than a single transaction on the line, when 90% of consumers trust peer reviews and only 14% trust advertisements, it's important your customers leave your establishment satisfied. Their satisfaction will influence their friends, family, and anyone else on the web they share their review with. What are your customers currently saying about your brand, and how can you maximize the positive reviews.

In the customer service industry, it's a common phrase that “the customer is always right”. Even when they're wrong, it's your job as the restaurant manager to ensure your employees treat your customers accordingly. If they get their food and say they wanted their meal with no tomato, it's not the waitresses job to say “but you said WITH tomato, I have it written down right here”. It's important to train your staff not to argue, but to agree with the customer's assessment. It's not about pointing blame, it's about going above and beyond for your customer to solve the problem quickly and efficiently. When your patrons have a range of choices for their dining establishment, it's up to you to dazzle them so the next time they're looking to eat out, your restaurant is the first name on their mind.

My aunt has never been one to complain too much about her food, in part because her fear of the horror stories of sending food back and having it spit in by rude and inattentive staff. At the same time, when she goes out to eat she expects the quality and satisfaction with her food to be comparable to what she's paying for it. We went out to dine at a local steak house, and her meat was grossly overcooked. She politely told the waitress who immediately apologized, took the steak back and had a new one cooked perfectly and brought out to her. Not only did they fix the problem, the managers gave the waitress permission to comp that item, which pleasantly surprised her and surpassed her expectations. The real icing on the cake was that after we had finished our meal, the manager came to our table, personally apologized for the error, and brought us a comped dessert. The quality of service was remarkable, and for that reason whenever we discuss going out to eat this restaurant is always my aunt's first recommendation.

 So how can you develop this kind of customer loyalty in your own restaurant? The first step is to anticipate the issues your managers and staff will face and implement a streamlined system for dealing with it. If you're not sure what your biggest customer complaints are, its a great opportunity to discuss it with your staff. You can begin by searching review sites, taking note of the best, worst, and average tone of your customers' responses. Once you have a starting place, its important to discuss it with your staff, both to hold them accountable and receive feedback from the employees that have the most face time with your guests. Say your problem is that you're tossing a lot of wrong orders. Is the error in the way your staff takes the orders? Are they being clearly communicated to your cook? Is your cook making the right thing? Are you customers just not satisfied with the finished dish? Whatever your personal complaints, start by attempting to address and minimize the problem. After you've worked that out, put an order of operations together for your staff to follow with a clear chain of command. Anticipating the problems will make your response time quicker, more consistent, and it will let your customer know how important their happiness is to you. It's your job to make sure your customers leave with a smile, and they'll do there job of telling everyone they know and coming back time and again.