Let’s face it, you can’t make everyone happy all the time. Particularly when you are in the business of food. As a restaurateur you should know this by now. Before the internet age, customers rarely complained. Or at least it seemed like that. If they weren’t happy about a dish or service at a restaurant, they would simply stop going there. But now with social media, it’s hard not to see complaints and feedback – be it on Zomato, Facebook or on Twitter. What you do about the feedback is one thing, but what you need to and must do, without fail, is acknowledge the feedback – positive or negative.

Any paying customer expects and rightly deserves value for their money. Whether it is the product itself or service, everybody looks forward to a great experience. And anything can trigger a negative experience for a diner – a rude waiter, bland food, having to wait too long for a table, unavailability of certain dishes, misinformation, so on. Of course, there are cases when the customer is wrong. Despite them being on the wrong, you should be tactful yet to hold your own.

First things first

Acknowledging a written or verbal feedback is the first thing you or your management should do. As soon as you acknowledge the complaint, you basically tell the customer that you take them seriously and are ready to fix the problem. Don’t ignore or just brush it under the rug. If you do, you’re aggravating the problem further. Time is a key component here. And you are more likely to lose that customer. As someone in the restaurant business you would know that every customer counts. Once you acknowledge the customer’s feedback, apologize and get the root of it. Fix it and let them know that you have fixed it. This may not calm the customer down right away, but it improves the chances of them returning to your restaurant. And that’s more than what you can ask for. 

Be nice

In any business, service is everything. More so in the hospitality sector. You’re interacting with the customer directly as opposed to offering them a service remotely. You gather reactions on a real-time basis and have every opportunity to mend any damage done. But before you get to the fixing of the problem bit, don’t forget to be nice. Being polite and gracious will take you farther than roughing them up just because you think you’re right. Being right doesn’t give you the excuse to rub it on the customer’s face anyway. You need them and you need to break it down to them about what went wrong. Like the saying goes, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Don’t let pride come in the way of you winning your customer back.

Make it up to them

After acknowledging the customer’s feedback and fixing the problem, you could go a step further and make it up to them. There are many ways to do it. For instance, give them dessert or a drink on the house. It’s a small yet effective way of winning your customer back. If you have an upcoming event, make sure they’re invited. You also give them a discount on their next meal. By making it up to them you not only move on from the reason why they were unhappy to putting a smile on their face. In a rare instance that they aren’t convinced or decide not to come back, let it go. There’s only so much you can do.

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Every scorned customer wants to be heard. They want the issue to be sorted and to be acknowledge by the restaurant’s management. Just by acknowledging them and fixing their problem will help you win them back. If you don’t, somebody (read: your competitor) will. Keep your pride aside and don’t forget that every customer counts whether they are right or wrong.