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How To Deal With A Difficult Customer

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Dealing with difficult customers is a fact of restaurant life. These "negative" customers can lead to employee burnout, low staff morale, or be responsible for someone leaving the industry entirely. We've all heard that one disgruntled customer can lead to the loss of at least six others by word of mouth alone.

The good news is that this seemingly "lose-lose" situation can be turned around. If it's handled correctly, difficult customers can be turned into some the most loyal, long term customers you'll ever see. Here's seven basic steps that will help you turn these "service disconnects" into opportunities.

Step One: Assume the customer is telling the truth.

If you train your employees to always assume the customer is truthful, you have just taken away a major source of stress related to service careers. The employee is not having a confrontation, nor are they conducting an interrogation; They are not looking for the negative, but listening to what is being told to them without having to be a judge that must rule in favor of the company because of a misplaced loyalty.

Step Two: Let the customer talk.

Let them air out the whole situation. This accomplishes two things. It allows the customer to tell their story with all the details and emotion that they feel is necessary. This step is vital to let the customer drain some of their emotion and anger. Don't say anything, except to give body language that you are listening intently.

A good idea BEFORE you start the listening / information-gathering step is to delegate all interruptions to someone else so that your entire attention is devoted to the customer. You want an automatic jump in the level of anger and frustration for the customer? Then interrupt their story with "Excuse me", "Just a minute", or "What were you saying?" Always listen without interruption or comments. Also remember that listening is the beginning of the information gathering process for yourself, which is vital not only to rectifying the customer's problem, but to avoiding it in the future.

Step Three: Be empathetic.

This is the step to (finally) begin communicating. Express understanding with how they feel or were treated. You're not admitting guilt. You don't even have to agree with them.



You do have to communicate understanding. Your tone of voice and body language both go a long way to reinforce what you are say. (There's nothing worse then a manager coming over to a table with their hands on their hips, challenging, " Is there a problem here?") In fact, without the proper tone or body language, your words will sound hollow.

Step Four: Understanding.

This is the main step in reaching the customer; this is where you ask any questions that you need to have the complete picture of the negative experience. Ask relevant questions to clarify your understanding of the facts. Resist jumping to conclusions until you are satisfied that you understand the entire situation.

Step Five: Solution.

Solve the problem. Come to closure that you both feel good about. Remember the customer was telling you the truth. Tell the customer what you will do to rectify the situation. Make the customer feel good about the solution. Do not sound angry yourself or make the customer feel guilty.



A good guideline is to deliver more than you promised. For example, if you said you would refund the customer, add a gift certificate for another meal. That not only solves the original problem, it brings them back again.

Step Six: Follow-up.

If there is any way to follow-up with the customer after the fact, you need to do it. Whether by e-mail, letter or phone, this step is very impressive.

Step Seven: Take steps to fix the problem(s) that caused the problem in the first place.

A good idea to keep a log or journal of customer complaints to enable you to see any trends. Remember that the best managers prevent problems rather than just fix them.

Do Your servers Understand the Magic Minute

http://www.yaseintl.com/As a customer, we all know what tends to happen to our mood when after being seated we wait and wait to be recognized by someone.

A good rule of thumb, is for your guests to be greeted within 60 seconds after being seated. Any longer than a minute and the potential for irritation and frustration increases geometrically with each passing second.

During a service program I was conducting, a lady told me how a manager had impressed upon her the importance of recognizing that magic minute. One afternoon the manager got all the servers together for a meeting and just before it started, dashed out to get something in his office. He returned and asked each person to write down how long they had been waiting for him to return. Most servers wrote down 4-5 minutes or more when in fact he had gone exactly “one minute.”

A person's perception of time can be very different from reality. Especially when you’re waiting, wondering if you’ve been forgotten, time can seem to creep by very, very slowly.

What a simple, yet brilliant way to demonstrate how important it is to greet and recognize every guest's presence as quickly as possible, within one minute after being seated. After a minute, the magic of the moment starts to wear off and the mood at the table starts to turn downward.

The Four Rules For Giving Feedback

Measure the performance that you get to the performance that you want. With measurable standards of performance stablished up front, this is fairly straight forward. If you have not established standards, you will want to establish them with your staff now.

Rule #1- relates to behavior - not attitude
if the work does not meet the established standards, relate to that issue alone. Don't get caught in the "attitude trap". As they say, everybody has an attitude. You can relate to the attitude as good or bad, but it has no relevance to the work getting done right. It would be great if they loved doing the work, but, because they like or dislike the work, their attitude toward any aspect of the work is no excuse for not performing the work to standards.

You may disagree with this philosophy. But let me ask, do you like everything you do in your job? No. does that mean you don't need to do it? Does that mean you do not have to get the work done correctly on time? Likewise, you have the right to expect your staff to get the work done according to standards.

Relate specifically to the behaviors the individual displays. Describe what you heard and saw, and how those behaviors impact the staff' ability to achieve the desired results.

Rule # 2 - Relate to future behavior
Make certain what you are dealing with is within the staff's control. Find out what the staff's perceptions are. he or she may identify an issue you were not aware of that you can alter to improve their performance. Another possibility is that they perceive they have no control over the situation when, in fact, they do. Your communication here will help them understand how a different approach and new behaviors can change the outcomes.

Rule # 3 -Communicate Clearly
Ask questions to make certain there is a clear understanding. Using questions creates two-way communication allowing you to surface and clear up any misunderstandings about what happened or what needs to change. Asking questions gets their involvement, you will get higher level of buy-in for them to make changes in their behavior.

Rule # 4 - Follow up
Make an effort to give positive reinforcement when the individual uses the newly defined behaviors. Without positive reinforcement, the new behavirs will not continue. People not only need to know when they do something right, they aso need to know the effort to change has value. Failing to provide positive reinforcement, you maybe seen as just trying to catch them doing things wrong. You will be seen as "out to t them".

"New World" for the Hospitality Industry

Wth the present economic situation, when the consumers are looking for added value, our industry will face the biggest challenge it had ever had to face before. Once this mess is all over, those businesses, that will continnue doing the same things they did in the past, will not survive in the new "world".

As an industry we need to change our customer focus, the "personalized service" concept will take a different meaning, the new educated and more careful consumer will demand for the "one-customer-at-the-time" concept. This will involved everyone in your organization.

Can you imagen how would be if everyone in your staff, who has direct customer contact, provide each client they take care of, with that special touch and with the "one-customer-at-the time" concept? can you even imagen the positive effect this will take to your bottom line? not to mention the built up trust  with the community and your own employees.

It's important that we take a step forward and start being pro-active and assume our responsability during this challenging times and provide our employees with the proper tools and training and to create a real "service culture" lost during the last few years.

George Abuabara
http://www.yaseintl.com/