Improving Service with Customer Feedback
Feedback in my house can be very important from a timing perspective. For instance, if we have dinner reservations at 7 and my wife comes out of the bedroom at 6 and asks me “how do I look?” the correct answer, if we want to be on time, is GREAT!
Hey don’t judge, this works for me. 
In the real world though, there are times where you need honest feedback. This honesty allows you to improve your establishment by making adjustments based on the kind of feedback you receive.
There are two kinds of feedback - Positive and Negative. If you are anything like me (and obviously my wife) you tend to favor the positive feedback. Things like praise, satisfied customers and happy employees. This feedback tells us we are on course and doing the right things. Positive feedback makes us feel good.
Negative feedback we tend not to like – complaints, dissatisfied customers, reviews and unhappy employees. This kind of feedback makes us feel not so good.
However there is usually a lot of useful information in negative feedback and more often then not it comes from customers that want to make you better. Receiving negative feedback tells us we are off course and we need to take action to correct it.
In the food service industry you need feedback (positive and negative) to align your establishment with your guests ever changing expectations. Food, service, atmosphere, they all need to change with your guests needs and wants. What worked yesterday may not work today.
So what is the best way to get that feedback. Simple – you ask for it.
The problem is floor managers and owners have fallen into the same trap as my wife. They tend to ask their guests the same questions they have always been asking which lead to the same answers they have always been getting.
Asking questions like “was everything OK today” and “how’s everything” is about as effective as drinking soup with a fork. You’ll rarely hear anything negative but are you doing yourself any good?
If you want to know how your team is doing in regards to service, have the managers try this short two step process.
#1. Introduce yourself to your guests and ask them how their meal was. Better yet ask about their specific dishes they ordered.
#2. Ask them “On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate our service today?”
If you get any answer less then 10 follow with “What would it take to make it a 10?”
After you ask that telling question, don’t say a word. All you want to hear is truth coming from the guest. Knowing someone is not feeling the service was a 10 isn’t enough, you need to find out why they feel that way so you can correct it.
Utilizing this two step process at a few tables each day will ensure that you stay on course and will alert you to any problems that may slowly be cropping up.
I just hope my wife doesn’t walk out of the bedroom Saturday night and ask for a ranking based on a 1-10 scale
