by Jerry Fournier

Customer Feedback The most successful operators have created avenues for receiving customer feedback. Whether it’s comment cards, secret shoppers, or mail surveys, you can learn how customers perceive the food and service received at your restaurant.

In this article I will cover two important concepts relating to quality customer service: “Benchmarking” and “Customer Feedback.”

For your operation to improve, you must look to the competition as a benchmark. First, you must identify the “best in class” competitors by reading trade journals, magazines, and restaurant guides, such as Zagat’s, that rate restaurants by region and concept trends. Next, involve yourself and key managers in “checking out the competition.” Learn what they are doing that would be beneficial in your operation. The improvements might include new food concepts, décor enhancements, service standards, and other basic operational principles that can be modified or reintroduced to return excitement to your operation. Once the quality opportunity has been identified, it is important to assemble an action team to create a plan for implementing these improvements. Often it is the creativity and innovation of your employees—those closest to your customers—who generate the best ideas for improvement. Your employees are at the heart of designing success.

As you will find through bench-marking, the most successful operators have created avenues for receiving customer feedback. Through such avenues, you can learn how customers perceive the food and service received at your restaurant. Servers and dining room managers can be trained to encourage customers to express their opinions of the food and service. A key objective is to put the customer at ease so they provide honest feedback, including any hassles. The employees must then feel comfortable sharing the feedback—including any problems—without feeling threatened. Employees should also be empowered to improve any negative customer experience on an immediate basis.

Another important vehicle for receiving customer feedback is a formal comment card program. Comment cards must be available and convenient in order for your customers to use them. Post the cards in full view, along with replies and resolutions of past critical comments. This satisfies customers that their comments will be read and action will be taken. If the comments are to be returned via mail, they should be printed on pre-addressed, postage-paid cards.

Comments should be categorized, summarized, and given to the quality action team so that they can begin the process of addressing customer hassles. In addition, if a customer has listed his/her name on the card, a manager should contact the customer (verbally or in writing) to follow up. Anonymous cards and their resulting actions can be noted in a company newsletter.

There are several other methods through which you can obtain feedback. Develop questionnaires, phone and mail surveys. Hold focus groups with non-customers and ex-customers to determine how to earn or recapture their loyalty. Hire secret shoppers to measure the service provided to the average customer. Whatever methods you choose, remember to categorize and summarize the results so the action team can identify hassles and prioritize improvements.

The simpler the card, the more likely that customers will use it to provide feedback. Don’t be fooled – if implemented and followed up successfully, these simple feeback techniques can greatly improve the quality of your facility’s food and service and, in turn, will improve customers’ perceptions of your operation.

Jerry Fournier is executive vice president of HDS Services in Farmington Hills, MI.