Last week I blogged on how many good restaurants, as part of their customer complaints handling procedures, are so keen to write off the bill if a meal or service has been less than perfect. I debated whether in fact it can cause a customer embarrassment and not necessary improve the reputation of the restaurant in the eyes of that customer.
Well, just as I was thinking about this week and subjects to blog about, it happened again. My husband, also a development consultant, and I were in a modest bakery come tea room in Cheltenham. We had ordered our lunch of soup and home baked bread and were happily chatting when the waitress appeared to say that she was sorry but the basil and tomato had run out and there would a further 5 minute wait whilst the Chef made a vegetable soup. We had already waited 15 minutes.
In the meantime, we were offered free drinks and a plate of nicely cooked home made crisps to compensate. The vegetable soup in time arrived and very nice it was too.
Not bothered by anything or cross in any way, we were commenting on the quality of the food, as the manger appeared and said she was sorry we had to wait so long and that we didn’t need to pay. I confirmed this wasn’t necessary and that we were perfectly happy, but her response was ‘I shall feel better if you don’t pay and that is all that matters’.
So is this what it is all about, the sense of embarrassment of the restaurant manager not the discomfort of the customer? Is this why there is a sudden trend to writing off bills?
In this situation I felt uncomfortable with the free lunch, after all the food was excellent, but in my mind their reaction to the situation was over the top. Had I had boiling hot soup accidentally thrown all over my coat then a free lunch would have been the right thing to do. For me, customer complaints handling is all about satisfying the individual customer, not taking a standard approach to everyone. Rather than give away their profit, I would prefer for this cafe to instead look at their processes and have the kitchen let waitresses know when they are down to the last portions of soup and what other choices there might be. Or, perhaps a little gift of a small cake to take home with an apology might suffice.
Within restaurant customer care training, staff and mangers need to be mindful of what the customer is looking for should things go wrong.
By Kasmin Cooney OBE | Righttrack’s Managing Director
Interesting take Kasmin. I hadn’t ever considered that a customer could have such emotion over a service recovery action. I know that I frequently advocate refunds or free service if the service process breaks down for a customer, but it’s great to have your take on what it’s like from the customer’s point of view.
I love this article. I do so many posts on things like this on my website. A lot of managers figure that it fixes the problem and many dont even give a chance to listen to what it is that the customer speaks. Not listening to what the root of the situation is causes for disaster. Leaves the customer feeling empty and the real problem not getting solved. Love the article. Check out our site.