Ever have a customer whom you HATE to see coming, yet you still are kind and courteous…but they just drive you up the wall?
I thought this would be a fun thread.
I’ll start:
We have this group of 3 people…a mom and a son and a daughter in law, who come in once a week with our $20.99/3 medium, unlimited topping coupon.
Even though they come in weekly…they look the menu over and over and over as if they’ve never been there before in their life, and take about 5 minutes deciding what they want (and tying up our line sometimes, because even if we say “your usual?” they always say “let me look first” and will not step aside)…and it’s ALWAYS the same!!! LOL
Mom wants regular sauce, double chicken, bacon, pepperoni, and extra cheese.
Son wants bbq sauce, triple chicken, double bacon, sausage, and extra cheese.
DIL wants bbq sauce, double chicken, double bacon, ham, pepperoni and extra cheese.
I have the best one.
Old lady orders delivery once a week. Sometimes if we put her on hold talks to the machine. She orders pizza , subs , desserts , drinks and wants everything wraped in tin foil. It’s usallay a big order but it takes for ever. If it’s raining asks if the driver has an umbrella. One time she called me back abd said she was missing her cake I was sure I sent but I told her I send another calls back 2 min. later that she found it under her couch.
I think the term ‘frustrating repeat customer’ is an oxymoron.
Repeat customers are the most valuable asset a company has. I don’t know how anyone else feels, but I don’t appreciate threads created around making fun of, complaining about or bashing customers that buy from us and keep us in business.
I had a very regular customer who one of my staff really P***ed off one day. Someone had put a comment on his order history that he was trying it on - after a fairly suspicious complaint - unfortunately they had written the comment it in a section which prints out on the order label rather than the store comments. Unfortunately my POS doesn’t track who added the comment but the customer obviously saw it and was unhappy.
The customer was rightly quite angry and I sent a long time on the phone with him (about an hour) really apologising and telling him that I couldn’t pin point who it was exactly but I would warn all my staff about making some comments and that if i found out who it was I’d discipline them. Even my wife who overheard the conversation thought I’d gone a bit over the top with the apology. I offered him a free order which he took then he stopped ordering.
I found out last night that he’s been ordering from my new shop since it opened earlier this year (next town along). He was spotted by one of my long term managers who moved from my other store a while ago. The customer spotted him and started a ‘you’ve left the other shop then have you?’ conversation ‘I don’t use the other store any more - I never even got an apology’. My manager was about to say ‘I thought you had an apology and some free food’ and to tell him that both stores are owned by the same person but didn’t. Better he doesn’t know
I didn’t mean to offend you, but I am also at a loss as to why you’d be offended, so I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree there.
I just wanted to apologize for offending you, it was not intentional at all.
BTW: I whole heartedly agree about the repeat customers comment, where I disagree is your sentiments toward making a thread to share our stories of the frustrating ones
Finally a thread i was so eager to answer to. How is it that customers can complain about us when we make a mistake yet when a thread like this was created someone complained it was not right. Never mind. every one is different. Ok my story. I have this customer that comes to my resturant every week. Its an all you can eat resturant. He turns up 5 minutes before close. but because he is a regular you do the right thing and let them in. He comes in with no shoes on, with bandages on his feet, which is why he cant wear shoes i guess. He demands 'fresher" pizza. Which he gets. One day i noticed this very tiny man had manged to eat 2 pizzas on his own. Untill i looked in the bin and seen he had simple eaten a few peices and throw the rest out. He doesnt pay for the pizzas as such, he pays to sit in the resturant and help him self to a buffet. It made me so mad that some one could be so careless. If you put your prices up because of wastage they are the first to complain. sigh…I feel so much better now. I shal post more as i get them.
TD lighten up,you sound like a tired old man who is grumpy 24/7.These peeps are just having some fun w/ some chat among PMQ friends!If you don’t like what it reads…TURN IT OFF! wow this cat is always so darn negative,He would be the customer that I hate coming in my store! smile TD life is too short.
I agree with Goomba,we’re not saying we wouldn’t serve these customers or that we don’t appreciate thier business but we all have customers that do something that really frustrate us whether we admit it or not. Posting it here is no different then going home and telling your spouse or friends about them.
We have this one customer who calls from this company at least once a week and its always during the lunch rush. They usually order maybe 12 subs. The thing that frustrates us is that they never have their order together before they call,all you hear is the person asking everyone one at a time what kind of sub they want & what they want on it. It normally takes up to 10 minutes. But the point is even though it is frustrating we appreciate their business.
nic I agree with you totally
there are always going to be customers that give us a hard time some are small some are big and if its to much of a hassle and stress(as if pizza shop owners dont have enough)I get rid of the stress. because they will move to the next shop and try the same stuff if they can get away with it
We used to have a guy call and order at 1:55 for the chicken fett alfredo lunch special. Our lunch specials ended at 2:00. We would make the order and he wouldn’t pick it up until 6:30.
Then he would complain that his side salad had white lettuce…he would also ask for extra dressing. When we charged him 33 cents he said he wasn’t paying it because our 2oz cups aren’t filled to the top.
Originally we would throw the order away thinking he wasn’t coming. Once his name starting ringing a bell we would wait until he got there to make it because I was worried about serving the alfredo that sat too long (I wouldn’t have eaten it) Then he would complain about having to wait. I finally said Stan we can’t keep doing this. Health department regulation doesn’t allow us to make it and let it sit.
He literally complained every single time. So I said I don’t think we are able to please you and you need to go elsewhere.
When I got home from work my husband said Stan called (our home) and told my husband he needed to “get control” of his wife.
He was very odd. Had about 8 kids so I dealt with it for a long time before calling it quits. That was about 3 years ago.
What is even funnier is he called about a month ago and asked if we still had chicken fett on our lunch special…I recognized his voice and said is this Stan?
We have a customer who informs us that he lives in a secure building and that the driver will have to call so he can come down and pick up his pizza
Almost regularly the guy never answers his phone when the driver gets there. So the driver, having no other choice, brings back the pizza and heads off with other deliveries. Soon afterwards the guy will call and say that he fell asleep, or his phone was off (?) or he was out.
Of course we go through the process of re verifying his address and phone number and then send the driver out to make a second (and usually successful) delivery attempt.
Don’t get me wrong, the guy’s not a jerk when he calls. He doesn’t ask for any discounts or freebies. In fact he tips rather well. Stuff like this though can really set back the drivers. That’s the frustrating part.
Being newly opened, I don’t really have bad repeats, but I did have a lulu this weekend. A lady called and ordered a large pepperoni, breadsticks and 12 wings. Delivery driver drops it off, and about 10 minutes later she calls the store. Tells the manager that it’s the wrong order. Now he took the order, made it and packed it for the driver. He goes to the POS and pulls her order up and tells her that is what she ordered. She tells him the POS is lying! Just let that one go, no help for her!
One difference is that people can find these threads using GOOGLE or other search engines. Post what you will . . . and be prepared to know that others can find us. Those who were around will remember when Gobpile pizza was confronted on the Think Tank by their landlord who found the thread on a search engine.
Post your stories if you will . . . I suggest being respectful and tactful in the telling . . . as if that customer were watching (they just might be). All the ones I’ve seen seem harmless enough. I don’t want to get in the habit myself, because I prefer to talk about the ones I cheer for when they walk through the door. Gives me more of a lift and better focus; I too easily fall into talking about the challenging customers most days.
I think I’d have the driver call the guy before he leaves the store to let him know he’ll be there in x minutes. No need in driving out there if the guy won’t answer his phone.
I think you guys are the ones that need to relax. If a repeat customer is ‘frustrating’ you, you might want to look deeper into the reasoning for your frustration.
The last thing I said was it was “Just my opinion.” Whether you agree or disagree you should at least respect my opinion.
It’s just not something that I do. I certainly don’t let my employees do it.
This board belongs to all of us, just as our opinions do. It is my belief that when it comes to negative comments or complaining about customers, thoughts become words, words become action. If you allow yourself to believe it’s ok to think of how ‘frustrating’ a repeat customer is, you’ll soon allow yourself to believe it’s ok to talk or write about how ‘frustating’ a repeat customer is and before you know it, the next time they’re staring at the menu even though they know what’s on it, they’ll be able to see your frustration in your face and body language.
TD i kind of agree with u on this. The pizza shop down the block has a owner who complains about everything hates evey1, he talks to me alot . He tries to find out if we were busy and calls often. I call him also and he complains about his employees who tried to already come work for me but I dont feel like having any quarrels or animosityHe also complains about customers and tells them to go to Dominoes , I tell him to send them to me he laughs. Anyway I have gotten a few customers because of the way he is which I see him getting upset if the customer has any opinions or any problems.
I havent posted any customers that are crazy or very frustrating because I could nitpick all day about them lolololol…
I think there are customers who are frustrating but thats our biz dealing with the public but I do love the stories I ll read them all day because there are some stories here that are very similar to mine lololol
I have hundreds of repeat customers who frustrate me - in fact everyone of them.
They all want to pay for their pizzas and I have to go to the till and put the money in. This stops me making pizzas for a while and disturbs my concentration.
And then I have to count the money and put it in the bank, which intrudes in my time off.
I’ve looked through the posts and I can’t really see anyone ‘complain’ about their ‘frustrating’ customer - in fact most seem to demonstrate that whilst their particular examples frustrates them that they actually go out of their way each and every time to keep the customer happy - to me thats a pretty strong message to share. No one has said they won’t serve the customer or that they have tried to alter the customer behaviour indeed most comment that it happens time after time (i.e. we let them continue to act in the way that the CUSTOMER is happy with - albeit frustrating to us).
As you say this is an open board and in this case it sends me a totally different message than it obviously sends to you, it says there are plenty of much more frustrating customers out there but we can all deal with them - and I’m sure lucky that mine aren’t as bad
If we only ever posts clinical ‘customers are perfect’ posts where the learning experience for this community as a whole?
