Customer management in a restaurant is an art. Right from handling tough customers who are never satisfied no matter what, to ensuring the service is up to the mark – dealing with issues related to restaurant services with your personal touch and care can transform unhappy customers into repeat customers. Proper restaurant customer management leads to satisfied customers, and customer satisfaction is one of the most essential things in the restaurant industry. Unhappy Customers often share their complaints with peers and register those with customer reviews registries or forums. Hence, you need to be extra careful in addressing and resolving their issues, no matter how swamped you are. Resolving their complaints can create opportunities to keep them coming back for more. This article will tell you all about how to handle an angry customer in a restaurant.
Restaurant Customer Management Tips You Must Employ
We talked to some industry experts, restaurant owners, managers, and chefs to discover how to manage demanding clients in a restaurant through practical customer management tips. These are:-
- Stick to the words, ‘Customer Is Always Right.’
- Train your staff to deal with various situations
- Always ask for feedback
- Monitor your online reputation
- Always respond to complaints
1. The Customer Is Always Right
The golden rule of any customer service: the customer is always right, no matter what! If a customer is not satisfied with the food or service, listen to them, empathize and apologize. You can offer them compensation in the form of a dish on the house, discount on the bill, or a discount coupon for a future visit.
Even if you don’t agree with the customer, stay calm, and politely try to resolve their grievances. It might not be possible to accommodate every customer request, but you can always try to make them feel valued. Remember to be always courteous, no matter what.
Humility goes a long way in customer management. More than often, your customers demand extra personal attention. The trick is to give them what they ask! Even the most aggressive customer would calm down when treated with patience and respect.
2. Staff Training
A restaurant takes the entire staff to perform efficiently. Therefore, it is vital to have a reliable and efficient staff that works and coordinates smoothly with each other to deliver a seamless service. It is not just the responsibility of the waiter or the server to cater to the customer, but everyone, right from the doorman, the host, the busboy to the manager, to play their part well in restaurant management.
Pre-launch training is a must before the restaurant opens. Even if the person is experienced, you must train them to get them versed with your restaurant’s code of conduct and the art of customer management.
3. Asking For Feedback
Feedback gives you opportunities to grow. When customers are not satisfied, they will never return, but they might voice their opinions later on social media channels, forums, complaint registries, or review sites. Remember, this will damage your restaurant’s reputation as well as business.
The best method to minimize complaints is to encourage customers to give you feedback. After the guests have finished dining, ask them to share their experience and feedback. Let the host or the waiter directly ask them – in this case, you should remember that often customers might not be reluctant to give their feedback openly. To break the ice, you can present a feedback form along with the check to let them pen down their opinions at their convenience.
The feedback form will also facilitate you gathering customers” contact details and use it for your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) campaigns. This article will tell you how to conduct customer surveys and feedback for your restaurant.
But what to do in case of negative feedback? When it comes to customer management in restaurants, the best thing to do is to listen intently to what the customer is saying, empathize, and try to resolve their issues.
4. Monitoring Online Reputation
People often rely on others” experience when it comes to judging a restaurant since word of mouth seems to be the most reliable source of information. In the age of digital media, it has become a norm to check out the restaurant’s reviews online before trying a new place or booking tables.
There are many restaurant listing and review sites where people log their opinions about the place, ambiance, food, service, and overall experience. The restaurant’s ratings and reviews give a clear picture of how the restaurant functions and what to expect from the place. Therefore, monitoring your restaurant’s online reputation is extremely important and is an essential part of customer management.
You must invest a reasonable amount of time in responding to feedback, whether negative or positive. Acknowledging and responding to feedback help build stronger customer relationships and fixing existing issues. While acknowledging and propagating positive feedback will amplify your restaurant’s reputation, on the other hand, addressing negative feedback will help mitigate the damage, which is likely when you leave those unattended.
Read in detail how to maintain the Online Reputation of your restaurant here.
5. Responding To Complaints
Let’s face it; no one likes criticism. However, instead of taking complaints as criticism, bring those as opportunities to grow and improve. First of all, you must take all complaints seriously. Listen intently to the customer and try to resolve the issue immediately. Take immediate action to rectify the situation.
For example, if the customer claims that the food is cold or undercooked, send it back to the kitchen pronto and replace it. The key to efficient customer service is to serve quickly; however, there can be delays at times. If a dish takes more time to prepare, inform the customer beforehand. That way, they would expect the time lag and not be annoyed. Offer to bring an appetizer or bread if it is taking too long for the dish to be prepared. This gesture lets your customers know that they are valued.
Biting The Bullet: How To Deal With Difficult Customers In A Restaurant
Often times a customer might act ruthlessly, throw tantrums, or turn volatile when they are drunk. Their harsh behavior or yelling at the staff can disturb the peace at your restaurant. Here is what you can do to handle such customers:-
- The first thing to do is to stop topping up their glasses and offer them appetizers that would help soak up the booze.
- In case the customer is getting too loud and going out of control, the best thing to do is to ask them to leave.
- Do not hesitate to call the security if they start disturbing the other guests. Apologize to other customers as it may turn unpleasant for them and ensure the situation is taken care of.
There are also occasions when customers dig up a problem to get a discount or a complimentary dish. When this happens:-
- Don’t randomly offer discounts or complimentary food. Review the situation at hand. For example, if the customer complains of dissatisfactory food, you can offer to replace the dish.
- In case of delivery orders, where customers place the order on the phone or online, you can use your CRM database to blacklist them for future references.
“No matter how good your service is, odds of the unruly customer and volatile situations at your restaurant cannot be ruled out. Then, you would have to take a stand and make the unpleasant decision of asking him to leave.”
The hospitality industry, rewarding as it is, also calls for some awkward moments and customers. It is then when the management has to deal with, address those demanding situations, and how to handle customer complaints in a restaurant efficiently. With a little patience and smart customer management, you can soften the toughest of customers. All you need to do is to keep these points in mind and gather the love of your customers! But there will be more, and we are willing to learn from you – do share with us how you do it at your establishment.
What are the best ways to handle rowdy customers?