Things have been really busy at our deli the last few days. We are trying to hire some more help and have coped with the crowds pretty well, but yesterday was just terrible. Our newest employee failed to show up so we were one man short and our normal sandwich maker had a bad case of the slows. He’s given his notice so no amount of pleading could get him to move faster yesterday.
All of our food is made to order and I’d say on average, the wait is 10 to 15 minutes unless you order the Cuban. That takes a few minutes longer. But two tables waited about 30 minutes yesterday and they were not happy. In addition to the wait, one customer said she got the wrong sandwich altogether. My wait staff said she ordered what we made, but the customer said differently. I don’t know what really happened since I didn’t take her order myself and only heard part of the transaction. Originally the customer ordered something that the previous cafe used to have. That place closed 3 years ago.
Anyway it was obvious that we were swamped and both my husband and I personally expressed our apologies for the wait. We also offered to make her a new sandwich, but she refused. We gave her a card for a free sandwich, but I’m not sure it helped. What else could I have done?
I guess you could have comped her meal in addition to the free sandwich card, but otherwise I can’t think of anything reasonable. Some customers are assholes, and you’re probably better off without her future business.
I’d rather have my meal comped than get a voucher because maybe I don’t plan to, want to, or have the ability to come back, but it sounds like you handled it well.
Some customers really don’t want to be mollified. Once they’ve worked themselves into a lather (10 or 15 minutes at the table complaining about the service and putting themselves into a feedback loop about how angry they are) there’s really nothing that can be done.
You offered to make a new sandwich and you gave her free food. You did fine.
I think that either a card OR comping the sandwich would be enough for a reasonable person.
However, some people aren’t reasonable, and they will generally show up when you’re swamped. Nothing you do will make them happy, unless you give them everything they want at no charge while expressing what an honor they are bestowing upon you. If you’re in retail, you WILL get these people from time to time. You have to decide how to handle each customer, because sometimes it’s someone with a legitimate gripe, who will be happy to become a loyal customer if you give good service, but sometimes it’s someone who is out for a free lunch in some way.
If the sandwich was completely uneaten, or only had a bite or two out of it, then it shouldn’t have been charged for. If she ate it, or most of it, then the fault is probably hers for not fussing about it (though to be fair to her, if you were short staffed then she might not have been able to get anyone’s attention) and maybe you could have given her a free side order or dessert, either to be eaten there or to go.
I do have to say that it’s aggravating to wait for half an hour at a deli, and perhaps you should have your servers tell customers that cubans will take a bit longer. Most reasonable customers, though, will understand that if the place is busy, they might have to wait a bit longer, and if they order something that takes extra prep time, again, they are going to wait longer.
I vastly prefer to get comped rather than get a card for later, because I always lose the card. But that’s me.
You could have asked a friend or relative to come in and help you.
Even if they knew nothing about your business, you could instruct them to go to each customer’s table after they sit down and explain to them you are having a problem due to short staffing and offer them something right at the beginning of the meal.
Giving them an explanation and a sincere apology as early as possible will make a big difference. Then, you could offer them the choice to leave and come back at another time and maybe give them a discount coupon for their return trip.
Or you could offer them something for free in their meal - like free drinks (not alcoholic drinks) or maybe a free soup and/or salad while they wait.
The important thing is to make them feel engaged ASAP and make them feel like they are part of your family and then they will be rooting for you - not against you.
Of course, it is easy to make these suggestions after working in the service industry for many years. But, if it were to happen to me and I had to react “in the moment”, I doubt I would have been able to come up with any kind of good idea.
One of the worst things about the food service industry is that some people are just really hungry when they walk in the door. If she came to a deli because she was past the point of no return then nothign short of a quick sandwich done correctly would suffice.
Maybe if you’d offered a snack while she waited for the “corrected” sandwich?
Or maybe she was just in a terrible hurry and needed to get back to the office. In which case the wait alone would have been too much for her.
Your number one goal here should be to replace mister “go slow” even if it means you have to pay out his time for nothing. It sucks, but having someone in the place who is sabotaging you can have long term effects.
Although the commodity in question is restaurant food, since this is a request for advice on how to deal with a situation running a business I’m going to move it to IMHO.
The last couple of times that come to mind that I or a companion received the wrong food, the food I said I wanted was not the food I paid for or received–what was intended to be ordered, and what the server thought was ordered was not the same.
So I suspect the same occurred in this case–although if the customer started off wanting a no longer in existence menu item, satisfying the customer was unlikely.
(In the cases where I or a companion was “wronged” no complaint was actually made–the wait wasn’t worth it, and the food eaten regardless).
What could you do? I agree that offering to comp the food can be more satisfactory than free food on a future visit. Alternatively, offering to comp a dessert or side might be helpful–anything that results in free food NOW is probably better for customer cheering up.
The problem with offering a new sandwich to fix a problem is that it takes time–even if you let that order cut ahead, it’s still a delay. And if the person had plans for what was going to happen after the meal, well, that’s why I’ve been in situations where I just ate the wrong food.
There’s definitely a part of me that says you probably couldn’t have pleased this customer regardless–but long waits and wrong food aren’t helpful and that’s obvious and you know it. Apologies are nice, but they don’t fix the “I’m hungry and I’ve got places to go”.
I’ll chime in on the comp the current meal band-wagon. About two months ago I went out to eat with the family and had a problem with something I ordered. They did take it back, and brought me something else. Of course, by then, the rest of my family was done eating.
If they waiter had offered me even 10% off the bill for my trouble, I’d have been happy, and been willing to try again. I’d know that they’ll take care of their mistakes But he didn’t even apologize on behalf of the restaurant. I sent an e-mail to corporate, and they sent me a gift card. I’m giving it away, because I don’t want to deal with the place again.
Not saying it’s necessarily logical. But it’s how I perceived it.
not what you’d expect…“Things have been really busy at our deli the last few days.” Is that due to Labor Day weekend or the new sign?
I think you already know you could have comped her sandwich, making it hard for her to bad-mouth your establishment without looking like an ingrate. Especially since you gave her a card for free food anyway, altho at a future date.
I would have put the sandwich maker at another station and at the end of the day, told them bye-bye. If that person has got you to the point of begging for competence, you’re no longer in control. And it couldn’t be helping morale. And it’s sure not helping your business. (Call in cousin Max, anybody, to help cover. They couldn’t do worse.)
I don’t know the circumstances around the no-show but after hiring someone else, I’d probably be letting that person go, too.
You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find some good employees. Once found, compensate them accordingly and don’t micro-manage. (From somebody who’s been at both ends of the stick.) I envy and whole-heartedly support your new deli and hope you all the success in the world!
Go directly to the staff involved, and tell them you’re about to throw them under the bus, to the customer, but you know they didn’t make the mistake.
Apologize to the customer for the error. (Do not say,’…she usually doesn’t make mistakes, she thought she heard you say’, or anything else!) Tell the customer you feel terrible, you are the owner and you stand behind your staff when they err, as they are not machines, and you know they are trying their best.
It’s okay to say, “What can we do to make this right for you?” Of course, you may get something sarcastic like, “Can you get me back the 30 mins I’ve been waiting!”. Don’t sweat it, or acknowledge anything this stupid, just ignore it and move on. But you may be surprised to hear, “Well I don’t have time to stay now, can you make it take out for me to take back to my office to eat?” or something else quite reasonable. No, it’s not the usual, but it does happen, and it never hurts to ask.
If you do want to share that it’s an especially difficult day because… staff shortage/illness/whatever, always finish with how ‘That’s no excuse, I take complete ownership of our failure to meet your expectations and feel terrible about this.’
Fully comp their meal. No matter how much they ate, or how wrong they were. Unhappy customers tell dozen’s of people.
The other customers will really like seeing you behave well, it will be good for your business, even if it costs you on that day’s sales.
Don’t stop apologizing until they are gone.
And most importantly, decide, when the door closes, on their asses, to Let It Go! (Obviously address any mistakes made, etc.) You cannot please everyone. And you will truly make yourself crazy worrying over such things. Tell yourself you’ll do better next time, and then choose to let it go!
Staff quitting, and not turning up? Something needs to be addressed, in this area, of your business. You may think you know what the problem is. You may be wrong. Ask some people. Try to hear what they are saying, beyond what you think the issue is.
I am delighted every time I hear news of your Deli, congratulations again!
Are you saying she waited 30 minutes AND got the wrong sandwich? That is a very long time to wait for a sandwich. I don’t blame her for not wanting to wait for another one. That would have been, what, 45 minutes minimum for a sandwich?
The problem is not with this customer, it’s with your whole process. You have a “normal sandwich maker had a bad case of the slows. He’s given his notice so no amount of pleading could get him to move faster yesterday” who should have been shown the door the minute he started pulling that shit. People don’t get to be lazy because they gave their notice. His work slowdown while you were so busy was hurting your business and was a great big fuck you, and you stood there and took it. He should have been out the door. Don’t you cross-train employees? You should have people ready to step up and step in.
15 to 30 minutes for a sandwich? I know people outside of the NYC area move slower, but that is still a very long time. Any deli in NYC will have your sandwich in front of you in two to ten minutes, and everything is made to order. In Union City, any Cuban sandwich you want will be in front of you in minutes.
You should also have been upfront about wait times. Something along the lines of, “We are currently suffering a staff shortage. We will not compromise on quality so we ask for your understanding that your lunch may be delayed.” And provide tea and biscuits while they wait.
Not food, but customer service at a car dealership. I had a certain window of time, so I called my dealership, explained my situation and asked if they could get me in for a oil change and out by a certain time. It was a 60 mi round trip back to where I needed to be at the end of the time. They said yes, and I got there promptly. Somehow, it took a lot longer than the 45 minutes they promised, so they comped my oil change. I had to fly low on the interstate but I made my appointment by the skin of my teeth. I will continue to go back to the dealership because of this type of committment to customer service.
There’s a pizza place near me that’s part of a local chain. (Pizza Man, for those who are interested.) One night my brother and sister in law were visiting and we ordered from them. The store sent out the pizza and then went back to the store because the person taking the order wrote down the address incorrectly. By the time it got to us it was cold.
I called and they offered either to send out the order again or give me $10 off next time. I kind of wanted to just not be charged and be done with it, but I certainly didn’t want $10 off when we paid about $25 for the full order. So I had them send out the whole order again and we were eating pizza the whole time my family in town.
TLRD version: The pizza is good, and much better than all the national chains, so despite the screw up and not totally getting what I want I was still happy once I had lots of good, hot pizza in me. I’ll order from them again for sure. So either there’s nothing you can do to please some people, or your food will speak for itself. So long as you do something somewhat reasonable.
All really excellent advice, but I want to comment on this. You are in the food industry. You will have people quit, not show up and are deliberately slow. It’s the nature of the people who work there. Not everyone, but a good number of them.
This goes along with what LurkerInNJ says, you need to have a Plan B. If you’re too small to have extra employees around all the time, can you have someone on emergency back up? Pay an insanely high wage for just that day because it’s better than losing your reputation. “Oh ya, they used to be really good when they opened, but their service sucks now.” is what you want to avoid.
For this particular customer (and I used to be an asshole just like that :smack:) there are a couple of things which may help. As someone said, tell your employee that she’s going under the bus. Let the customer know he’s right, or he’ll continue to argue. Can you solve the problem? Ask if they can wait for X minutes while they get a new sandwich, and make the X minutes absolutely as fast as possible. Can you get them some cookies while they are waiting? I’m in a different field, but when my customers would get pissed, I’d give them choices. “I’m really sorry that you had such a terrible experience with us. We can refund your money, give you a XX% discount on your next purchase or do XX.”
