Comments on: Survey: 8 Things That Really Cause Consumers to Complain

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 11:21:38 +0000

In reply to Dave. @Dave I have a restaurant that I occasionally consult with and they too mostly get bad reviews around wait staff doing dumb things (pouring water into a glass of bourbon, being inattentive etc) that are the main source of criticism in their reviews which are otherwise stellar. Its almost as if the wait staff is an after thought. If the restaurant wants to do anything more than serve bar snacks, they have to realize that besides their food, th front line staff is the key to success.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 20:07:37 +0000

….and here I’ll agree with you!!! 😀 (yikes)

Absolutely get the feedback. That is how an smb learns, and also gets direction on where to make improvements. If the complaints are repetitive in nature and the issue is institutional …there is your guide to making changes. If the complaints are repetitive and about customer service misses and attitude or similar issues than training is the possible antidote.

Just an observation on these issues, more from reviews than from complaints. I noticed with some restaurants in my region, more than one all owned by the same person, (somebody with a long history of restaurants, and ownership (or partnership of many) that his recently opened restaurants were getting the same kinds of review comments wherein the negatives were always about staff.

Surprised me with the first new restaurant as this operator has enough restaurants that he has to understand training and hiring. Customer service complaints on the first new restaurant finally started to subside but they haven’t gone away. Next new restaurant opens and the customer service complaints again were and are plentiful. I would have thought he’d have gotten “it”. But he hasn’t.

The feedback is critical. You really need to keep an open ear to it.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 21:13:05 +0000

In reply to Dave.

I absolutely agree that it could come from multiple directions; it could be management attitude, it could be management driven process or it could be employees… generally speaking it seemed from the tone of the open ended answers that much of the service issues were institutional not personal but that data didn’t dig that deep.

Absolutely concur (llok at me, agreeing with you 🙂 its about training. But it is also about feedback and asking if the situation is improving…

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:59:14 +0000

Thanks for the survey data, Mike. Interesting. The poor service “thing” could come from both employees and employers. When I think of poor service in a restaurant that is normally from employees–it always seems like the front of the house staff….but when I think of a doctor’s office and me having to wait 2 hours while I too have a busy schedule….that comes from the bosses/docs/principals. That could also fall in the too long lines category…but from my perspective its a form of arrogance.

Anyway that 57% is really about training…and training is difficult for smb’s but doable and valuable–really valuable–just take it back to your initial concepts–losing an existing customer is horribly expensive and costly. The 8% about being too slow and long lines…oooh…sometimes that is a tough one….at times an smb is under a customer crush and is understaffed. If it happens all the time in an smb…its a major problem but staff up and/or make your people better more efficient.

Anyway valuable survey and information. Thanks.