I read this article at CNN a while back and it irked me. This article was written by Ron Eyester and describes 6 different ways that customers tick off the Chef. I don’t totally disagree with the Chef, but he fails to mention one important thing! Restaurants are in the CUSTOMER SERVICE business model. If the customer was just looking for food, they could stop off at a fast food joint to get some food. Instead they are coming to your restaurant for the Ambiance and the Customer Service and of course the Food. I’m going to respond his six ways that tick off the Chef.
1. “Do you like it when people come over to your house and move your furniture around? Yeah, neither do we. We especially don’t like it when you decide to put chairs where we normally have people (i.e. our staff) walking.
This statement irks me the most, the reason that we go to your restaurant is to be served good food and to hang with friends. Remember chef, WE ARE THE ONES PAYING THE BILL SO SHUT UP! I do agree with him on where chairs should not be in walk way as that is a safety hazard.
2. “I love how a restaurant is expected to acknowledge your birthday like it’s a national holiday or something. Who invented the rule that you get a free dessert on your birthday in a restaurant? I guess we have T.G.I.Friday’s and Bennigan’s to thank for exploiting servers as they, the servers, clap their hands and chant a birthday cheer.
I can understand this but if you are trying to compete with a restaurant that provides that type of service and if you don’t provide it then be prepared to take the penalty of disapproving customers. If you want to be made at someone be made at the commercialized restaurants such as Applebees and TGIFs!
3. “One of my all time favorites: People’s utter disregard for hours of operation. ‘Oh, you all are closed? OK, well, I just get some food to go.’ No, I don’t think you get it – we’re closed. Not only can you not cash a check at the bank 30 seconds after they close – the old man locking the door actually takes pleasure in locking the door on you. In some banks, the tellers even have a nice panoramic window to gaze out of and laugh at all the folks who didn’t make it in on time.
I can understand this one as well, but you need to understand your market base and this is going to happen anywhere in America. Therefore, you need to build buffer time into your hours, stop taking customers at 7 to close at 8 etc. Plan around the customer, because that is why you opened the restaurant, to provide excellent food to customers. If you don’t want to provide food, then get out of the business.
4. “You know what happens when you’re late for a flight? You miss it! You know what happens when you’re late to the movies? It starts despite the fact that you’re not there. Why am I obligated to hold your table when you’re late? Oh, you hit traffic. What’s that? – I’ve never heard of traffic.
I can see this as well, but you have to look at it from the other side. If I’m a customer and you took a reservation for 8 and I show up at 7:45 for good measures but I don’t get seated till 8:30 then you sir are the same 30 minutes behind as the example you gave. This is something I don’t think can ever be resolved as punctuality is rarely found.
I’m going to skip 5 as I have no rebuttal to it.
6. “Why do people always seem to call the restaurant at the absolute worst time (i.e. between 12:45 and 1:30 p.m. and 7 and 9 p.m.) to inquire about our menu or make a reservation?
I should ask this guy if he wants some cheese with this whine. This is just basically part of the responsibilities of owning any type of store. Here is the thing, some customers don’t like the internet. They want to hear about the food from real flesh and blood.
If you don’t agree with me and or you agree with the chef, please feel free to leave some comments!
