The worst way to deal with a food complaint.

When I was new to management I was taught a very interesting way of dealing with complaints about food.  At the time I was determined to show my willingness to learn and my “teacher”, who shall remain nameless, was keen to show me his so called skills.

Skills are probably the wrong word to use but I’m pleased he showed me.  I’m pleased only so that I can look back and never make this amateurish mistake again.  However he was not alone as more often I read reviews or hear from others that this method is used time and time again.

So what was his magnificent gift to customer service?

A customer is not happy with their food, they don’t think it’s cooked properly or taste correct.  When they complain the response they receive is “we have sold over twenty portions tonight and nobody else has complained”

What a disastrous response.  Straight away the customer has been made to look and feel stupid, no longer a loyal customer but someone who resents their time and money being spent in your establishment.

Why should the fact that twenty portions have been sold make any difference or have any reference to their complaint and opinion?

Just because other people have had the dish and not complained, does that make this customers point less valid?

Each customer and each complaint should be taken on its own merits. They should never be compared to others.  To make the suggestion that the customer is wrong is paramount to calling them an idiot and a liar and this has no place in customer service.

I know there will be people reading this that will say that the customer needs to know what others have said and that they were wrong, but my question to them is, why do they need to know?

Does it hurt your pride for someone to complain and not like one of your dishes?

Will the chef get upset and have a temper tantrum?

Or is it that on a busy shift you think that insulting a customer’s intelligence and causing an argument is constructive to the running of the restaurant?

My old boss and “teacher” could never understand why he always had arguments with customers, but if he had stepped back a bit, put himself in their shoes, taken a different approach then he might of had a loyal customer leaving with a positive opinion of him and the restaurant rather than never returning.

So that was then.  Now that I teach others what do I do in the same situation?

Easy.  I empathise with the customer, resolve the issue quickly and efficiently by replacing the dish or any other way that I can and look to turn a negative into a positive.  It may cost a few pound to rectify the issue but I guarantee that the customer returns and spends a lot more money in the future.

Always aim to get the customer coming back.

Philip