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In the restaurant and food service business, customer complaints are inevitable. Here are 8 common scenarios that lead to customer dissatisfaction, even anger.
'Customer complaints' is one of the common issues faced in restaurants. Running a restaurant is like threading a needle, trying to please everyone. Each customer has a different personality, taste, and dining preference, making it challenging for your restaurant to satisfy everyone.
Here are 8 situations that customers often complain about in your restaurant, along with some suggestions for appropriate responses for restaurant staff. This article will provide useful information for managers and restaurant owners in training and coaching staff to handle difficult customer situations. Check it out!
Detecting tables waiting too long and starting to lose patience to provide 'special care' is also an important soft skill that needs to be trained for serving staff.
Customers get annoyed waiting too long for service, so there are ways to assist (Photo: st)
3. Guests arriving first but served later
Normally, there are rarely 'narrow-minded' customers like that. But imagine their table waiting 20-30 minutes without being served, while another table just came in 5 minutes and already had their food served (possibly because both tables ordered the same dish).
Regardless of whether your restaurant shows favoritism or if servers mistakenly take food to the wrong table, both scenarios can make customers visibly uncomfortable, feeling their table is not respected. Even transferring food to another table after it has been brought over is unacceptable in any circumstance.
At this point, the serving staff must immediately apologize to the guests at the table that arrived first.
-If they become too upset, then reluctantly apologize to the later arriving table, while requesting them to kindly return the mistakenly taken food. Also, ensure that the kitchen has been informed to promptly prepare their order.
-In cases where the serving staff assesses the table that arrived first as not overly hostile, if possible, sincerely request their understanding once again due to the mistake, while ensuring that the kitchen has been alerted to prepare their order.
4. Serving the wrong dish
One common issue often encountered in restaurants is 'serving the wrong dish' to customers. Typically, when such situations arise, not many customers complain vehemently; most tend to overlook it after the staff apologizes.
However, it's precisely due to this 'leniency' of customers that many service staff become careless and make repeated mistakes.
Serving the wrong dish can include:
- Serving another table's dish
- Serving the wrong dish due to incorrectly noting the ordered dish's name.
Mixing up dishes from different tables is easier to handle, as the staff can apologize to the customers, double-check, and then deliver the correct order to the right table.
However, serving the wrong dish due to staff error in noting the dish's name, or when the kitchen staff mistakenly prepare a different dish than what the customer ordered, is more serious. In such cases, the dish cannot be exchanged for another table. In this situation, the staff immediately apologize to the customer, while also asking for their opinion on whether they agree to switch to a dish prepared by the restaurant or not. If the customer agrees, it's good. If not, the staff must remake the correct dish the customer ordered, then reflect on the experience and conduct internal evaluations.
When serving the wrong dish, it's important to apologize and provide the correct dish to the customer (Photo:st)
5. Accidentally spilling food on the customer
Accidentally spilling food or drinks on a customer is a very serious mistake by restaurant serving staff. In this situation, it's essential to quickly offer sincere apologies to the customer, provide clean towels to help them clean up the mess. If the customer still refuses to forgive, compensation is the last resort you need to provide to quickly calm the customer's anger.
6. Customers leaving due to slow service or lack of tables
While running out of tables may not be a 'fault' of the restaurant, the inconvenience or disappointment caused when customers arrive and find no available tables should still be considered a 'fault' of the restaurant, as it results from overcrowding. In this case, staff should immediately offer sincere apologies, introduce customers to other branches of the restaurant nearby if available. Additionally, to leave a good impression on the customer, staff may consider requesting management to offer discount codes or vouchers to the customer.
At this point, the staff needs to promptly send sincere apologies, introduce customers to other branches of the nearby restaurant if available. Additionally, to create a good impression on the customer, staff may consider requesting management to offer discount codes or vouchers to the customer.
In cases where slow service causes customers to angrily leave, besides apologizing, restaurant owners or managers need to promptly address the staff's working style and review the service process, supervise, and assign specific tasks to improve the restaurant's service quality.
7. Customers complaining because the restaurant is out of some dishes they like
The restaurant running out of ingredients for certain dishes is also an undesirable situation, especially if those are dishes that customers really enjoy. This can leave them feeling disappointed and diminish their eagerness to dine out.
For this scenario, staff need to skillfully apologize to the customers, introduce and persuade them to try other similar or innovative dishes offered by the restaurant. Whether customers are convinced and feel the urge to eat at this point entirely depends on the server's finesse.
When the restaurant runs out of a dish that customers request, serving staff can suggest other similar dishes (Photo:st)
8. Customers complaining about the price of a dish
Although most restaurants nowadays publicly display prices on the menu, this situation, albeit rare, can still occur.
If this happens, staff need to apologize and hope that customers understand because this is a price that the restaurant has carefully considered and calculated to be appropriate.
However, if encountering overly demanding customers, then depending on the situation: your restaurant may have to let the customer go, or if you wish to retain them, staff can seek the manager's opinion to offer them a discount code or discount voucher to create goodwill.
9. Customers complaining about the service process
Serving incorrectly according to the process is the restaurant's fault. Some customers, even if dissatisfied, won't voice their concerns and silently overlook them. However, there are also customers who provide direct feedback and complaints. To run a successful restaurant business, you should truly appreciate such straightforward customers.
For example, customers may complain about the restaurant's unprofessional service process such as not allowing to taste dishes, à la carte menus missing side dishes, or serving warm wine... In this situation, staff need to immediately apologize to the customer and continue to follow the correct process. At the end of the meal or when the customer is about to leave, staff or restaurant managers need to remind them that their feedback has been noted, and promise to provide better service for future visits.
10. Customers have booked a table but staff cannot find the information
The restaurant's reservation system may encounter errors or staff may forget to update it, the previous shift may forget to inform the next shift,...
To maintain the restaurant's reputation, staff need to immediately check for available tables to arrange a suitable one for the customers.
If the restaurant truly runs out of tables, staff need to send sincere apologies to the customers, explain the reason, and hope for their understanding. Additionally, they should introduce them to another branch of the restaurant nearby (if available and with vacancies).
To create goodwill, staff can also request permission from management to send them discount codes or discount vouchers for their next meal.
Recording booking information manually often leads to mistakes. You may also consider collaborating with professional restaurant booking solution providers like PasGo to address this issue.
Collaborating with PasGo can help avoid missing customer booking information (Photo: PasGo Team)
Handling customer complaints in the restaurant is one of the essential skills that every restaurant needs to have a well-structured training process for, from management to serving staff. In each department, different situations of customer complaints will arise.
Hope the article on common customer complaint scenarios here (mostly related to the food service department) will provide useful information for improving the management and operation of your restaurant.
Wishing you success in your restaurant business,
Best regards,
