Buzz
Every day, restaurants usually welcome hundreds, even thousands of customers. Each customer brings their own personality traits, behaviors, eating habits, and service expectations. Your restaurant is likely to encounter difficult customers.
They will complain, perhaps even 'lose it,' and be ready to argue loudly about food quality, service attitude, or anything else that displeases them about your restaurant, right in front of other customers.
As we mentioned in the article '9 Common Profiles of Target Customers in Every Restaurant,' it can be said that the F&B (Food & Beverage) service industry is one of the largest customer-targeted industries. Therefore, pleasing every customer in the food service sector, especially in restaurants, is impossible.
As a manager or restaurant owner, what will you do to quickly calm down the anger of these customers, without affecting those around them, and without any 'consequences' for future media risks?
Handling situations with difficult customers is also an art of professional customer care that any manager or restaurant owner needs to master. Follow the comprehensive article below by the PasGo Team to learn the appropriate handling techniques!
Effectively managing situations with difficult customers is also a pinnacle of customer care artistry.
Situations that easily infuriate diners.
To be honest, there are many situations that can make customers angry at your restaurant. Some causes are obvious, like servers spilling drinks on customers,… while others are unbelievably tricky, like 'I don't like the style of the guys in the painting on your wall!!!',…
However, regardless of the reason, as a manager or restaurant owner, you still have to 'try every possible way' to satisfy your customers as best as you can, no matter how difficult or 'hard to handle' they may be, right?
>> Below are some situations that can easily infuriate diners the most:
- Waiting too long for food to be brought out
- Being served food after another table that arrived later
- Foreign objects in the food
- Dirty utensils, tables, and chairs
- Poorly cooked food
- Wrong food brought to the table
- Attitude of the staff
- Reserved table not available upon arrival
- Deposits and reservations made but no table available due to lateness
- Customers forgetting belongings at the restaurant and finding them missing upon return
- …
Understanding situations that can make customers angry to 'prepare in advance' appropriate response scenarios
Common mistakes when dealing with difficult customers
When embarking on restaurant business activities, facing difficult, angry, and irate customers - is certainly something that any director, restaurant owner, or manager must think about. However, not everyone has the most appropriate response scenarios for each case of encountering such customers. Not to mention many people make mistakes in dealing with difficult customers, leading to serious consequences that cannot be 'salvaged'
Here are some common mistakes that many restaurant managers often encounter in handling angry customers:
1. Delaying resolution of the situation
Did you know that when faced with angry customers, choosing to 'delay' resolving the issue is choosing the path of failure?
As a result, two possibilities may occur:
- Either the angry customer feels discouraged, cools down, and overlooks the issue. This is what you and all restaurant staff hope for, but in reality, it rarely happens as expected. Don't delude yourself!
- Or, the second possibility is that the customer becomes even more furious. They will demand to meet with your superiors, and their superiors, until they get the issue resolved. In the worst-case scenario, if the highest authority in your restaurant continues to delay resolving the issue reasonably, they will seek the easiest and fastest way to vent, which is to tell everyone how dissatisfied they were with your restaurant. It could be their friends in their social circle, or it could be communities, groups, or forums on social media - places where information spreads at the speed of light, especially negative information.
Therefore, when dealing with difficult and angry customers, remember that 'delaying resolution' is never a good approach.
2. Asserting that you are not wrong
The second action is also considered a mistake in the art of handling difficult customers, which is always insisting that your restaurant is not at fault. Because at this point, indirectly, you have pushed both parties into a real 'public confrontation'. It's really detrimental because at this point, you've forgotten the restaurant's business purpose, haven't you? - 'The customer is god'.
In this situation, if you clearly see that your restaurant is at fault, you should apologize to the customer immediately. However, if you 'feel' that your restaurant is not at fault, then don't rush to assert. Take it easy!
3. Asserting that 'the customer is always right'
Many people believe that asserting 'the customer is always right' is a wise approach that will quickly appease angry customers. However, experts in the art of customer care believe that this is an unwise approach! Because it's a 50/50 solution.
- If later it turns out that the customer is indeed right, then you have scored points with the customer.
- But if the customer is wrong, then you have made a move with 'no way back' for yourself. Not to mention, as a manager or restaurant owner, you will have to deal with resolving the 'resentment' for your staff as well. What will you do then?
Therefore, let's push aside the idea of asserting 'the customer is always right' out of your mind. Think about an exit strategy for yourself.
Never fall into a 'head-to-head' situation with customers
What's the best way to persuade difficult customers?
Here are 10 steps to 'cool down' those hard-to-please gods, referenced from an article by Tom Hopkins – a world-renowned figure known as the 'Sales Champion Trainer' on Entrepreneur.com. For over 30 years, he has provided numerous high-level sales training courses through his company, Tom Hopkins International. Let's continue reading!
Step 1: Apologize to the customer
Apologize to the customer immediately when the incident occurs.
Apologizing – doesn't mean you admit fault right away. It's about apologizing for allowing the customer to have a bad experience at your restaurant.
Step 2: Listen, promptly acknowledge the customer's anger
If you deliberately delay, ignore, or underestimate the customer's anger, it's like adding fuel to the fire. At this point, the first thing you need to do is 'listen.' Learn to 'listen' so the customer can 'vent' their anger. At the same time, 'listen' so you can carefully record all the details of the incident. Remember, at this point, you just need to 'acknowledge,' no affirming, no judging who's right or wrong.
Step 3: Show empathy, clearly affirm that you care about their anger.
Just 'acknowledging' in step 1 isn't enough, express it. Let the customer see that you're still listening to their recount of the entire incident, you understand how frustrated they are. In this step, make the customer feel: they are being listened to, they have your empathy.
Step 4: Don't rush the customer
Be patient and let them finish expressing themselves completely. Don't deliberately interrupt or cut them off. In essence, this is also a way to 'delay,' but it's delaying in listening, not delaying in resolving the issue.
In many cases, the best approach is simply to listen. After being listened to and heard out, many customers naturally calm down. Some even realize they've blown the issue out of proportion and feel embarrassed about it. At that point, they might be willing to accept almost any solution you offer.
Step 5: Stay calm and don't nitpick
In moments of anger, sometimes the speaker doesn't fully understand the implications of what they're saying, not to mention, many customers forget what they've said altogether!
Your demeanor must remain calm, calm, and genuinely calm, even when you have to hear things that are blatantly wrong, very 'ear-grating' about your restaurant or staff. The best approach is to brush it off, not nitpick with the customer about those things, and only address them after you've resolved the immediate issues.
Step 6: Pose questions
The purpose of asking is for you to pinpoint specific issues you can address to resolve the problem. Therefore, try to gather as much detailed information as possible about every difficulty and trouble situation that has occurred.
Step 7: Analyze the situation, quickly identify the customer's 'reasonable' points
From the data collected in the 'asking questions' step, you need to quickly analyze the conflict situation, stand from a neutral, multidimensional perspective to analyze, objectively evaluate, and find the customer's valid and reasonable points, in order to think of behavioral solutions for both sides.
Step 8: Agree on a solution.
By this point, the customer's anger may have subsided enough for you to discuss with them a mutually acceptable solution. If you don't want to spend any more time with the customer, then after understanding the exact nature of the problem, it's essential that you come up with some reasonable solutions now to resolve the issue.
Propose a specific course of action. Any proposed solution, no matter how it's presented, will provide the customer with the quickest and most effective relief. Don't get dragged into endless arguments that only make the customer more tired and angry, and could also affect other customers nearby.
Step 9: Agree on the implementation plan
After your restaurant and the customer have agreed on a solution, you need to set forth a specific implementation plan to achieve that solution. Negotiate with the customer on a realistic timeframe or actual schedule that you are confident you can follow through with.
Step 10: Execute the agreed-upon plan
Make resolving the agreed-upon plan your top priority, aiming to resolve it as soon as possible. Remind yourself that you don't want to argue with this customer again, so don't neglect this task.
One of the biggest mistakes many restaurants make is agreeing with the customer on something that the restaurant cannot implement according to the agreed-upon schedule. By doing so, you risk facing another discomforting or even more terrifying anger than before. If the issue is not fully resolved, the restaurant's reputation will plummet, and all your previous efforts will be in vain. Simply because the customer no longer 'trusts' you.
Apologizing to customers is also an art
Summarizing the above 10 steps, the process can be condensed as follows: Apologize – Listen – Understand – Provide an immediate solution – and implement it.
Additionally, if you notice, when angry, people tend to 'vent' in one way or another. If the restaurant doesn't listen to the customer's opinions, they will seek elsewhere to vent their frustration. Instead of letting them speak ill of you to their relatives, friends, or on social media forums like Facebook, Zalo, ... create immediately a “forum right at the restaurant” for them to vent.
Not all unhappy customers speak up. Many customers are dissatisfied with the restaurant but only express it at home!!! Not always are managers or high-ranking personnel present at the restaurant for customers to vent. Therefore, consider placing suggestion boxes, sharing online feedback links, or installing feedback collection devices at reception desks, cashier counters, or at entrances and exits for customers to vent!
Create a 'forum' right at the restaurant for customers to 'vent'.
Wishing all restaurant businesses success,
Best regards,
