When I visit a restaurant, a café or stay at a hotel, I always give feedback. Whether it was a positive experience or a negative one. I give honest feedback, but I never complain, unless there was an important mistake.
Unfortunately, feedback is not always welcomed. I have no idea why. No matter how positive and constructive you may be, there are always someplace, someone who not only doesn’t appreciate you telling them how, as a customer you feel and how you perceived the service you experienced, but who also fails to understand the valuable contribution a customer makes to their business by taking the time to provide feedback.
A few weeks ago, I stopped at a café in Newcastle Upon Tyne centre, which I often visit whenever I am in the area for a quick Americano. It is an independent café, with a great location, a lovely establishment and pleasant team of young people. I always sit on the terrace, but that afternoon the sun was so strong that I decided to take a seat inside, as it was cooler. There were only a couple of tables at that time of the afternoon. I ordered my usual coffee and had a look at the food menu while waiting. It looked attractive, and since I had never had food there, I decided to try it and ordered a falafel salad with toasted almond, fresh mint and coriander, and crusty bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
The food arrived relatively quickly, which in my experience is not always a good sign. The place wasn’t heaving but still. The plate looked fine at first glance, although the main ingredient, the falafels, were three little balls the size of bocconcini. I picked one and tried to bite into it; it was rock hard, and when it spilt in two, the inside was very dry and had begun to burn. A sure sign that the falafels had been heated in the microwave oven. I called a waitress and pointed out to her the issue. She had no idea what to say or do, so she called for reinforcement. Another waitress came to the table and I explained what the issue was. I asked her whether the falafels were homemade – the website states that all dishes are made fresh on the premises – I didn’t get an answer. I told her that it was obvious to me, that there were either bought in frozen and put into the microwave oven to defrost and heat up, or cooked on the premises in batches, frozen them reheated in the same way. In any case not deep-fried to order as expected, to make them crisp on the outside and soft and moist in the middle.
I was offered an apology and a fresh portion of falafels; these were warm and soft. I then realised that the toasted
almonds, the fresh mint and coriander were missing from my plate, and that the five olives in my salad were of the cheap rubbery pitted type. My ‘crusty’ bread was simply a defrosted panini bread lightly toasted; soft and not crusty. But I didn’t say anything.
Having finished my coffee, I walked to the till to settle my bill and took the menu with me. I told the young man at the counter of my experience and specified that I wasn’t making a complaint, but simply pointing out a few issues with my meal, and that I hope he would pass on my feedback to the person in charge, to avoid a repeat of the issues. He apologised and offered a 10% discount, which I turned down, as this was not the reason I was giving feedback. I also explained that I was a trainer in CX and customer service and that I always gave feedback, good or bad when I visited an establishment. I stated that I would be back for coffee as the place and the staff were lovely, but that I would not purchase food again. I paid my bill and left.
On my way home I was thinking about my experience and the feeling that my feedback would not be passed on to management. Once home I wrote an email to the café – not knowing who would read it – and shared my experience with them. I explained that I was a customer experience trainer specialised in the hospitality industry, and offered to meet with them should they wish, and give them a few ideas on how to improve the customer experience, free of charge.
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I never heard back. A week later, I happened to be in the vicinity and decided to sit on the terrace for my usual coffee. I asked a waitress whether the manager or the owner were available and referred briefly to my email. The manageress came to see me, and I briefly went through the content of my email and experience. She apologised and stated that she didn’t deal with the emails, but that it was the owner who did. I thanked her for taking to time to speak with me and asked her if she would pass on the information to the owner. A little later, I went in to pay my bill, and as there was a small queue at the till, someone, who I realised was the owner, approached me and took me to another till. I know that she was aware of who I was, but she didn’t say anything.
That was three weeks ago, and I never received any response to either my email or the feedback I gave to the manager.
So, I think cafés and restaurants could learn a few lessons from this experience:
- Always acknowledge a customer complaint, take it seriously and act upon it.
- When customers take the time to give you feedback, especially when their experience wasn’t a positive one, have the courtesy to reply to them. For me it is a must.
- Look at a genuine complaint as a gift; an opportunity to improve your customer experience.
- Your establishment may be in a great location, and you may have been doing good business over the past few years, but if you don’t care about how the customer feels about the quality of your food or service, things could easily take a turn for the worse.
- Take advantage of an offer for free suggestions and ideas on how to improve your food and customer service. What do you have to lose? If you disagree with it, you can just ignore it and carry on.
- Regularly review your processes and systems to ensure you and your team perform to the standards you have set, and provide an excellent service constantly.
- Provide regular training to both the kitchen team and front of house to ensure they know how to prepare your menu dishes and produce them consistently, and know how to deal with a customer’s complaint or feedback appropriately. Remember training is not a one off, but an on-going process.
- Ensure you offer what you advertise; freshly homemade food does not include bought in frozen items, reheated in the microwave – this is fraud.
