How many times have you heard a server or cook say this guest or customer is impossible? What about a manager? Ever heard them say that? Ever felt like that yourself?
There are times that it seem no matter how hard you try, can not make some customers happy and you end up comping the entire check which sometimes can be rather large. Yes, sometimes it seems like they are just looking for something for free and some people probably do that. What really gets me is that employees and management alike try to find excuses to not comp anything for the guest. A lot of times it’s not even us they are upset with, they are just having a bad day, or are fighting with their spouse and every little thing seems to be wrong and we just seem to get the bad end of the deal. It is our job to make sure they leave happier than when they came it.
What employees never think about and what management seems to forget is that we have spend marketing or advertising dollars somewhere to try and get them in the door. How bad can they hurt us with negative word of mouth comments about us? A lot!
If your customers have access to send comments to your corporate office and most companies allow that access, how much time and money does it cost to take of them once they get to corporate? A lot more than if you could have taken care of it in house.
In fact some of our most loyal customers are one that we made a mistake with and went above and beyond the competition to make it right.
When it comes to taking care of the guest, this is one area that can absolutely set you apart from the competition.
