since i’ve been open there have only been 2 people that have disrespected me and my company so much that I have banned them.
The last one was about 3 weeks ago, they make a huge ordeal because they order wrong and blame my employees for the mistakes… of course they know their wrong but won’t back down and just keep badgering on. So they were banned.
2 days after that they came in and ordered/ate here… after they left is when my delivery driver told me who those people were.
Last night they call to place an order again. Of course the POS brings up the # and sees who they are. They are then told we are unable to accept any orders from them.
Now, I do not remember what these people look like, so they probably came in and ate again already.
Now all I need is face recognition on my surveillance system so it can alert me when these people come back so i can boot them. lol
ahh, gotta love the predictability of stupidity :lol:
anyway, I was wondering how many of you have banned people and have seen them try to come back again and again :shock:
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
Banning customers ??? Are you serious ? I’m busting my butt to get customers and you’re banning yours ?
I’m sorry, it’s your perogitive of course, but if it was me I’d just take the abuse… and then take his money. My crew knows that we are going to be seeing people at their worst. Tired, irritable and hungry. They know not to take it personally. In fact, in the rare case that someone gets upset here, we actually feel bad for the person. It’s obvious they are having a bad day/life.
It would take an act of physical violence for me to ban anyone. Even a bastards money is green.
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
Nah, td - there are customers who are unpleasant beyond the value of their order. For a few bucks, are you going to
a) let your staff be demoralized?
b) let other customers be exposed to some kook, jerk, etc?
There are definitely times someone needs to be told that they are not welcome. And it DOES seeem like those people tend to be the sort that for some reason still want to come back! I think perhaps they just like the attention.
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
my feeling onthis are pretty simple… just ok them to death and apologize if they dont back down they look like the asshole not you… banning is extreme… word of you banning people and refusing them service will travel very quickly among the neighborhood and town…
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
td,
I agree with you to a certain point, we’ve been open for 2 years and I have had to ban one fella. Older guy, but a pain in the ass. Very disrespectful to women and knows it all. I too was againts banning until I spoke with 4 seperate other regular customers, in conversation asking them where they been, their reply (for all 4 guests) was “when we see so and so car out front we don’t stop!” That was it for me, during his last visit he got obnoxious again, and I asked him to leave and find a new second home! End result all 4 of the others are in more frequently! At some point you gotta decide what is too much. I’ll pretty much take anything you dishout, part of the job.
but as far as my staff I protect them, this of course doesn’t ap[ly to a complainer…we just deal with those!
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
The Retail Food Market is a $422 Billion Market. Pizza accounts for 17% of that or $278.40 per person per year. In my town of 6000 every person counts, I think I would only ban someone if they were sexually harrassing my employees, If I didn’t I run the risk of being sued by my own employees. Other than that, I will probably put up with just about anything for that $239.13 in annual sales.
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
Also consider that the average person has a circle of influence of at least 250 people. And If you piss him off, he will probably tell all of them, and suddenly you have 251 poisened people who might echo his sentiments, to others. Consider this, how many different people do you talk to in a day, a week, a month. If you were really pissed, how many people would you tell?
There are four bars in my town. I got crappy service at one of them, the manager was drunk, and she said a few unreasonable words, and I left. I don’t go there anymore, and I will guarantee you everyone I know in this little town knows it, and why.
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
I don’t like banning people either, BUT If a person is so extremely rude to you that it comes to that, I’m sorry but those 250 people he’s spouting off to are aware of his personality (you aren’t his only victim), and are going to know why he got the boot. You should have enough respect for your employees and good customers to not put them through it just to make a buck from the jerk.
No matter how good morale is, those people that always cause trouble are going to affect it.
Tom R
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
Count me as one of those that has no problem banning rude customers. Tommie, you’ll put up with anything for their $278 per year? Really? If I had to put up with anything from people to stay in business I’d just close the doors tomorrow and get into some other business.
If somebody 1) Continually complains and seeks something free after every order or 2) is extremely rude to my employees or myself… they’re gone! What message does it send to your employees after they get beaten up by some jerk customer and you go and kiss said customer’s rear end?
Seems like it might tell them you care more about $15.00 than them. I had a customer go on such a rampage that he had a 16 year old girl in tears. What awful thing did we do to him for her to be the victim of that? We don’t accept checks. Yes, he directed an expletive-filled rampage at a 16 year old girl because she informed him that we don’t accept checks. And it wasn’t that he came in and that’s all he had to pay with (we would have taken it then.) It was while he was placing a delivery order. Well if you don’t like our policy feel free to order somewhere else. But there’s no way they’re going to beat down my employees. That one was lucky I didn’t drive to his house myself.
As for the constant complainers: They cost us more than they’re worth. They cost us free product, they take up CSR time, manager time, and worse of all MY time. We’ve had a few people that would ask to speak with me EVERY time they got an order to complain about something. They were always looking for something for free. No thanks… I don’t consider that to be a good customer. I’ll take all the best customers and let my competition fight over the crap and bottom feeders that are left over. Let them get all the headaches to put up with some jerk that’s going to make them $5.00/month.
Oh, and let them tell everyone they know. If they’re telling a friend, odds are their friend is a jerk or bottom-feeder too. That saves me some time. If they’re telling an acquaintance or somebody at work, that person already knows they’re a jerk and knows exactly why they got blacklisted. That probably makes me look like a hero.
Re: Banning Customers… and they still come back for more l
Our business model is similar to the “they know a lot of people” concept. I will go a long way down the road to rehabilitate that rude customer before proclaiming them persona non grata. Having a reputation for “banning” customers would hurt us in our market. Outrageous and out of control behavior requiring police intervention could be a differnt story, though.
However, having the rep for going out of our way to advise how we expect to be treated, and confronting directly when people are out of line, has made for some REALLY loyal customers . . . even the “jerk” or “dead-beat” guys can become weekly $30 guys. Happened to me.
Now, we do draw lines and let people know what our limits are. We have suspended deliveries to places who phone in orders and then leave the house to stiff us. We also have required prepayment for deliveries to locations before delivery. Usually, it is for a finite period of time . . . we don’t know what the second recourse will be, because they have all come around after 3 months that we don’t deliver to them.
Also, you stiff us, and we take the name. Your next total will be the amount of the “stiff order” plus today’s food. That’s our rep, and we are thankfuly few on the stiff orders. Heck! Some people call us back a couple of days later asking if they can come pay us for the order they forgot to pick up or stay home for.
We treat them like adults, and issue ‘suspensions’ rather than proclaiming anyone banned from our place. Well, one guy who called my wife an unliscensed prostitute & dropped some “F” bombs on me at a meeting in my shop. (turned out to be a crack adict and a good choice on my part)
It could happen again some day . … but we haven’t had the second one yet.