For those of you that have a gaurantee, do you have a limit on the returns, and if so what is it? and would you share your gaurantee verbage?
We never had a formal written policy but if someone complained we gave them their money back 1 or 2 times…If complaints persisted we did not take orders from them anymore…Over the life of your business a good client is worth far more money than the lost profit on an order or two…Yet far too many restaurant only look at the little picture and make it hard for customers to complain…
I’d suggest a 100% money-back guarantee with the return of the pizza. The return of the pizza is required to stop the scammers calling 3 days later about their “bad” pizza. If you have to send a driver back to the house to refund their money and collect the pizza, do it. Refund the delivery fee and everything. You gave them a product they are not happy with and should bear all the costs. I HATE warranties where I have to ship the defective item back on my dime.
This guarantee assures customers that they will get a quality product at a fair price. It’s not their fault if they don’t like the product you provide, and the risk shouldn’t be theirs. A good restaurant will allow you to send back food that is exactly what you ordered but not what you care for. You should be that good restaurant. If the product is wrong because of your fault, then try to replace the product. If the product is “wrong” because they don’t like your sauce or crust or “doesn’t taste like Pizza Hut”, that’s a taste issue and you should guarantee a taste that the customer will enjoy (though there will be some that don’t enjoy the taste for whatever reason).
This is YOUR opportunity to say “no risk” to the customer. The only thing they lose is time.
what a tough subject that resurfaces every once in a while. last weekend a customer didn’t care for a dish she ordered, sent it back and wanted another dish. my staff didn’t want to assuage her because they felt she was pulling a fast one but i reminded my staff that she was there with 3 other people who were witnesses to the way we handle the matter. i just want all customers to feel comfortable enough to dine with us weekly and in most cases, i have seen the toughest customers melt into the sweetest customers, thanking us profusely for making the change without fuss.
for the pizza, i think a good policy to have is that you take their word for it the first time & second time. the third time, respective to last order, i would kindly ask for them to return the uneaten pie for an exchange or a refund ( we don’t deliver ). i know some people would get upset but I need to see it so i can fix it and make sure it never happens again. if you really screwed up, make up for it by giving them an extra pie for their trouble. this is life.
good luck and don’t sweat the small stuff! 