By, Wendy Gillett of Caliluna Consulting
Originally published at restaurantowner.com

Unfortunately, the old adage still holds true. Most people who do not have anything nice to say will follow their mother’s advice and not say anything at all. The problem is, if those people have just had a bad experience in your restaurant, they probably will not be returning either.

So the challenge of the restaurant operator is to get feedback even when the customer may not feel comfortable offering it, and keep customer loyalty in the process.

There are many ways to get this feedback, all with their own advantages and disadvantages. Each gives you a different view into your customer’s experience, and each may or may not be right for your restaurant. What works for a fine dining establishment might not work for a deli, and so on. Picking the right feedback option for you can be just as important as the result.

No Need for the Third Degree

Now, before you start setting up the backroom with a single chair and hot lights to force the information from your guests with interrogation techniques that Rambo could be proud of, let us explore some slightly less invasive ways of getting the information you need.

Your front line of defense is the wait staff. They have direct contact with your customers and they see everything that happens from the kitchen to the table. They must have the confidence and ability to tell you about a problem, even if the problem is their doing. Well-trained and well-seasoned servers already know what to look for: the half-eaten entree pushed away from the eater, low murmurs at a table check, the “medium” steak that elicits mooing sounds from the customers. Encouraging your staff to give you the good, the bad and the ugly can be an easy and quick way to get feedback. The more you know about what is happening at each of your tables, the better you can be proactive in offering top end service. But, be forewarned, a waiter or waitress can be biased and may offer non-constructive criticism without resolutions. At times you may find that they can tell you about a problem even before the customer is aware of it. At a small pizzeria I was trying out for the first time, I ordered a pizza to go with many substitutions and special requests. When my number was called for pickup, the manager handed me two pizza boxes and explained that the first one was not made to my specifications, so he personally remade my pizza and then gave me the mistake as an apology. I never even had a chance to be upset because the manager came to me with the problem along with the solution.

". . . how many times have you actually sat in your dining room on a busy Saturday night and taken it all in?"

-- Chris Tripoli of A’ La Carte Consulting

Tabletop Surveys, Mystery Shoppers, and Consultants

Tabletop customer surveys are another way that the customer can offer feedback, as some guests may prefer to comment anonymously rather than face to face. The input can be anything from a complaint to a simple menu suggestion. With this, you can learn from their experience and make the necessary improvements, if warranted. “Sometimes we take the suggestions, and sometimes we don’t,” says Andre Edwin of The Garden Hut Restaurant. “Either way it is better than the customer leaving without saying anything at all.” The downside, of course, is that because the survey is anonymous and left behind to read after the fact, if the response is negative there is no chance to fix the problem for that particular guest before the damage is done. The customer has gone and will most likely patronize your competition in the future. Also, surveys may not be done frequently enough to give you a clear picture of your customers’ experience. Still, they can be very helpful in determining if rewards are due to staff members who consistently receive high marks for performance. Many operators use them as incentive programs with their servers as they can encourage a healthy competition for excellence. They can also be used, as Edwin does, as a marketing tool. By asking for a customer’s e-mail address on the survey sheet along with their critique, he can put them on the mailing list for the newsletter and offer coupons as incentive to return.

Both the mystery shopper and consultant can be excellent tools for the restaurant owner, as well, because they give feedback from a non-crucial guest. If their dining experience is flawed, you find out about the problem or problems without tearing into your customer base. You may be resistant to bringing an outsider into your business because, as a manager, you may think that you have your finger on the pulse of your own restaurant. But “as a manager,” says Chris Tripoli of A’ La Carte Consulting, “how many times have you actually sat in your dining room on a busy Saturday night and taken it all in?”

Though the mystery shopper and the consultant seem similar on the surface, their execution is quite different. Both have their place, and can be useful to your operation. The mystery shopper works on a smaller scale than a consultant. Mystery shoppers offer quick and inexpensive results, covering the basics of their dining experience with a checklist asking whether they were “welcomed in a cheerful manner,” or if “the food was hot when it was delivered.” Typically, they offer no recommendations for improvement. The consultant, however, is hired specifically to evaluate your restaurant and can give unbiased and educated feedback. The consultant offers recommendations tailored to your establishment that shows you how to improve your level of service. (For more information, see “Take the Mystery Out of Mystery Shopping,” in the RS&G archives.)

Straight from ‘The Horse’s Mouth’

One of the best ways to obtain the most accurate and helpful feedback is to get it straight from the customer. This can be initiated by the customer, the server, or the manager. Once you obtain the knowledge that someone is having a less-than-perfect night you are immediately called to the pitcher’s mound, for this is your moment to shine! The benefits of a manager-initiated dialogue are many; the least of which is the appreciation it shows to your guest. It also allows you to fix a problem before it escalates into something more serious. You are approaching them, as opposed to the other way around, which often can disarm the guest. And let’s face it, no matter what the problem is, everything in life seems better with a free slice of mud pie. Most importantly, by approaching them, you are validating their concerns and indicating an interest in their satisfaction. Such actions can breed loyalty and keep them coming back.

Recently, we had dinner at a small three-star restaurant. It was a Tuesday night and not very busy for the evening rush. During our meal, one of our glasses of wine had a strong odor of cork so we requested another selection from the wine list. Without fuss, the waiter quickly returned with a new glass of wine. Thus, the problem was solved but an opportunity was wasted. The waiter could have used the situation to ask the manager to come and speak with us. It didn’t warrant a freebie, but an appearance would have been a nice gesture.

You could get lucky and your customer could ask for you and complain to your face. In this case, lucky is the operative word. In this case, the customer is giving you an opportunity to right a wrong, or correct an injustice they believe they have endured. Oh, sure, some people just want all or part of their bill “comped” and are merely looking for a reason to complain. They come with the business and how you deal with them is a judgment call for your restaurant; however, most people who take the time to complain really do have a valid issue that is worth your attention. You are not only being offered a second chance, you are getting a chance to finish strong. If handled correctly, instead of dwelling on the problems they encountered, the guest can now walk away with a positive memory.

Once, while eating a meal at a chain restaurant that was neither bad nor memorable, we mentioned to the waiter that we had just relocated to the area. The quick-thinking waiter told the manager and he came over to chat about the city and all its benefits. At the end of our discussion he bought our dinner to welcome us to “his town.” To be honest, we most likely would not have returned, but his generosity gave us a better feeling about our whole evening, and we have been back many times since.

You very well might be thinking that you don’t have time to be that proactive. You barely have time to address the problems you know about, let alone go out and seek new ones. With everything you are juggling, the last thing you need is to encourage negative (and possibly expensive) commentary, right? Well, you are right in one respect: You do have a lot on your plate. But what if your extra effort made a difference to just one customer a night? What if the couple, who was having an average night, instead left with such a great feeling they decided they would come back next week to celebrate a birthday with 20 of their friends? What if the person in the far booth that had a dirty fork was actually a newspaper columnist writing a review? What is it worth to you to have them all walk away happy?

Customer loyalty has always been one of the greatest challenges in the hospitality industry. A long-term customer can mean a lot of revenue over the years. Conversely, the fallout from a customer’s bad experience can be everlasting. A bad night will always be recounted for friends and colleagues. And, now with the addition of e-mail into our everyday lives, a bad night in a Kansas eatery is heard about in exaggerated detail in Alaska. So, instead of just two people having a bad meal in your restaurant, it is as if everyone they know was right there with them! The best chance you have against this “outbreak” is to correct the problem before it escalates. Contain it before it escapes into your customer base and costs you more money in the long run. You can do this with the right customer service feedback.

Once you explore the different options, you can choose the ones that are right for your business. And who knows, with all the ways to get the feedback you want and knowing the importance of the information, maybe its time the adage was changed to, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, say it anyway…. Please!”

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Top Ways to Get Manager-Initiated Feedback

• · Walk the floor and stay visible.
• · Give incentives to servers who report problems.
• · Random table checks.
• · Greet every table throughout the night.
• · Conduct pre-shift meetings with the staff to discuss troubleshooting.
• · Talk to your customers to get a feel for their experience.
• · Ask each server how their night is going and how their tables are doing.

Meet Wendy Gillett, Senior Caliluna Consultant here, in this SBTV interview!