Dealing with customers... when their full of...

Want to know how all of you deal with customers in these situations.

Situation 1: Order is placed at 7:45, picked up at 8:01… Calls back 9:10 saying the pizza is BURNT. Now I saw the pizza myself and know 100% it’s not burnt, and wonder why an hour later are you get it, you’ll call back saying it’s burnt?

Situation 2: You get a call after a delivery from a guy saying he can’t chew the pizza with his false teeth (note I promote everything as a thin and crispy crust), then decided a few minutes later that it’s burnt and wants a full refund…

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On another note, when something goes wrong that may actually be feasible, do you give full cash refunds or store credit? And why?

Thanks all!

Have a refund/return policy:

If your not completely satisfied, please return the uneaten portion (6 slices minimum) for a full refund or exhange.

Situation 1 and 2: I ask the customer to return at least 1/2 of the pizza and I will gladly give them a replacement, 100% refund or credit their choice. But I also have a 3 strikes rule.

In most cases the customer has eaten more than 1/2 so it must not have been that bad.

I hate to sound cliche but the customer is always right. Refund it. Immediately.

But also flag them in your POS as a potential scammer. Don’t let them take advantage of you further but always give them the benefit of the doubt on the first one.

Integraoligist:

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On another note, when something goes wrong that may actually be feasible, do you give full cash refunds or store credit? And why?

Thanks all!

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Whatever the issue we are resolving, we ask the customer their preference. we even send a driver to deliver refunds if that is what they want. Majority of the time it is a regular customer, and they’ll take a “make-up” the next time. We always prefer remakes and gift cards over refunding $$$, and offer that as the first option when giving them the choice . . . costs me less . . . but the decision is the customer’s.

When we smell a scam, it is a slightly different approach, but still quite cordial. We usually request part of the food back to do our research to figure out the forensics of the problem.

Agree with the above poster as far as making the customer happy. Maybe they were in a bad mood, their guests that night were extra picky, or someone ordered the wrong pizza. In the end what does it really matter. Better to take care of them and have them continue being paying customers than end the relationship then and there and never make another dime off them. As always record the episode in case they are repeat offenders.

I don’t think you have to necessarily give a full refund either. We normally offer to simply replace the pizza right away and bring back the first pizza so that we can see what happened. Most of the time that works and if not 25 or 50% off their next pizza works. If they ask for a full refund we do it.[/i]

cowtown:

I hate to sound cliche but the customer is always right. Refund it. Immediately.

But also flag them in your POS as a potential scammer. Don’t let them take advantage of you further but always give them the benefit of the doubt on the first one.

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At our shop we know that the customer is NOT always right.

Our approach is that the customer is #1. We understand that we’ll have people that lie, scam and/or exaggerate to get what they want. But there are also a lot of legit claims and we will fix the problem. First time, no questions asked. Second time, sure we’ll take care of the problem but become suspicious. The third time they try and pull something over on us is when I get on the phone and apologize to them that we cannot meet their expectations and service them properly and suggest they look for another pizza shop.

pizzapirate:

In the end what does it really matter. Better to take care of them and have them continue being paying customers than end the relationship then and there and never make another dime off them. As always record the episode in case they are repeat offenders.

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I have to remember that, above the high road and human interaction, every customer is worth a potential $700 to $800 a year, if my numbers are remembered correctly. All pride, “being right” and ego crap aside . . . . it is worth a $5 food cost hit to maintain that income.

Don’t trip over the quarter to pick up a nickel. Protect yourself, but keep the eyes on the prize.

I agree with every1 here , but if u do not return food u do not receive anything back !!!

I always tell my employees that the customer is never right BUT, they pay your check and I want every single one happy, we appoligize tell them we use a converyor to explain that every pizza comeout the same, please let me make another for you and we will place it further in the conveyour…if they have finished it but not happy we will tell them there next one is free and that we will mark in the pos how they like thier pizza!.
ps the custtomer never right remark is because I hate to keep repeating to WHY I am fixing the 5 percent of the orders we make…even if the customers are wrong

Pretty much any complaint I get no matter how ridiculous it its I will make sure the customer gets comped but make a note of it in my POS. If a trend develops then we may become more defensive about fixing the issue. Overall there fairly few and far between and its never that much of an issue. I also find for 80% of complaints if you comp them a free breadstick on there next order they are generally very happy with that and you really did not spend anything to make them happy.

It’s Snowman’s story time once again…

I ran a very tiny pizza shop (it had one employee and that was me). I was having fun, but not making a decent hourly wage. A couple of my regulars came in and got a pizza. I charged them normal price. I realized that I’d done that, and they were my best customer. I’d littered the neighborhood with coupons and thought “if I were the customer and saw everyone else getting it cheaper, I’d be mad”. I went to their house to refund the difference, explaining the situation. The wife was nice and we chatted on the porch for a few minutes. She is the one who got me my first real break in IT, all because I delivered the price difference to her door and we started talking. That was certainly when fate kicked in.

I’m not a big believer in Karma, but something sure went well that night. I’ve been in IT ever since (and making a nice profit) .

Got our favorite complaint customer tonigh, an elderly ladyt: I took the order, and she said that the wings and cheese sticks she got last time were horrible, and overcooked. They were almost inedible.

(Backstory: we have replaced food for this lady 4 maybe 5 times for the same complaint . . . giving benefit of the doubt. She usually calls several days after the fact and complains sternly. When we told her to start calling the night of the problem, and saving the food, she got really angry, but did exactly that the next time she ordered. Probably 75% of the time she ordered and paid, she complained about something . . . 0% of the free ones)

I told told her how unfortunate I thought it was that our staff made food she didn’t like. I told her I would walk the order back to the cooks myself, and ask them to be sure it is not overcooked, and that it is the best they can make. My instructions to the staff also included making one extra wing with the order, and cutting a “core sample” of the cheese sticks (a tiny strip out of the middle where I could check the doneness through the whole pie. Both were great, so we sent it out with driver instructions to have her check it at the door.

They were okay per the lady’s adult daughter, so driver collected 24.50 on the 24.83 ticket total. Figuring to cut his losses, he headed for the car. Elder lady comes running out saying she wanted her change as ticket was 24.38!! Driver advised it was 24.83, and she said. “okay,” and went back in the house. She ran out the door in a flurry over getting 12 cents change and the blew off stiffing the driver for 33 cents.

I love the pizza business. There are so many interesting people.