has anyone else noticed that 90% of your mistakes to customers happen to the same 10% of people.??
I cant figure it out but it seems like most of the mistakes we make happen to the same customers over and over, and it makes me feel really bad about it and of course we take care of them and make it right but some people just have bad luck
Isn’t there a 90% rule that says 90% of your business comes from 10% of your customers? Following that it would be logical that 90% of your complaints would also come from 10% of your customers.
But seriously, I would rather have a customer complain to me than to all of his friends. It gives me a chance to make things right. I want to know what we are doing wrong and how to do it right, but know when to say enough is enough if the complaints are not legitimate and give them a gift certificate to PH.
We’ve definitely have this happen. The worst part is, these tend to be the nicest customers. I guess most people with two or more bad experiences stop coming back. We had one guy who orders takeout every week (sometimes twice). We’ve messed his rather simple pizza order up at least 4 times. Now, when his order comes in, only myself or my KM are allowed to make his pizza. All I can say, is that we really lay the apologies and comps on thick for these customers as they obviously care about our business and want to patronize our product. I’ll do anything to keep those kinds of customers.
Now, don’t get me started on those who consistently have CONTRIVED mistakes. First, like many of you probably, I am proud of my product and my store. For the first 6-8 months, I let that pride get in the way of good business. I was very defensive to all complaints, but especially those that were (IMO) not legitimate. I just read the book “Cashing in on Consumer Complaints” and it very much opened my eyes to the value of kissing everyones butt (the customer is always the customer and all that). It is REALLY difficult for me to swallow crow but I find it much more difficult to hear bad things about my restaurant through the grapevine - knowing that the bad word of mouth is costing me business. I’m currently taking excerpts from that book and sharing them with our shift managers. I guess there’s a reason chain restaurants comp so freely. I don’t feel better about myself for taking this approach, but I do feel better about my bottom line… 
Patrick
Next Door Pizza
I’m a big believer in the “Rule of Ten.” For every one mistake you hear about, ten others are going unreported. It’s possible that errors are happening more often than you realize, and these are just regular customers who always bring them to your attention.
Example: I can’t tell you the number of times over the years a new/careless driver switches the pizza boxes and only one of the customers calls back to complain. Most times we have to track down the other party by the label from the 1st pizza box, call them and offer to make amends. I wonder how many times it’s happened that both customers just accepted and ate the wrong pizzas?!
For many customers, the problem is minor and fixing it will take more time or is more hassle than it is worth to them. They just pick the green peppers off their half of the pie, or give the diet-that-was-supposed-to-be-regular to their spouse or are willing to pour ranch on their salad instead of bleu cheese. Complainers are like smoke alarms… now go find and put out the fire!
I tend to think that the people who always have a problem are the kind of people who look for problems. I have always wondered why this happened so I did some research on the subject.
We have a customer named x. Customer x has come in for his pickup order and waited 15-20 minutes for his order to be ready three or four times. I was getting really upset with my staff, knowing this guy waits way too long and obviously is not happy about this. Finally one day I answer the phone (we were busy) , take x’s order, then proceed right to the printer to take his ticket and move it to the front of the line. His pizza went in the oven and guess what…within 5 minutes this guy is waiting in the pickup area for his food. It finally clicked. His ticket time says 6:32. I told him 20 minutes. Why is he in my face at 6:37? Well I sparked a quick convo ( hey, how how them yankees) offered him a drink and found out his wife calls in the order for him to pick up on the way home. This whole time we are giving him free sodas, free pizza and gift cards all I had to do was tell him to have his wife call the order in earlier.
This is the only reason why I hate this business…