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What one rude employee can cost you

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Rick_G

New member
Today I got a call from a woman asking about our menu items and pricing, she said she may call back and order. About ten minutes later she called to place a delivery order. After getting her order and giving her the total, she asked if she was required to give the driver additional money. I told her no, that for delivery, tipping was the perrogative of the customer. She informed me that “Way back when you first moved out here” she had odered a delivery, and when the food arrived the driver informed her that she HAD to give the driver extra money for the gas. I told her that was not the case, that tipping is customary, but whether to tip and how much is up to the customer and would not impact the service we provide. I informed her that if she had called at that time and let us know I would have councilled the driver and if it was one that I had any prior problems with I would have terminated the person because I do not approve of that behaviour. I apologized for the behaviour and asked her to please call me if any of my employees were less than polite and helpfull. She told me she really enjoyed our pizza but had never called again because of the incident.
I think I know who it was, and I terminated that person eight years ago for adding in a couple bucks for a tip any time she delivered to people she thought would stiff her. Assuming this was her, eight years, $25.00 order once a week = $10,400.00 in sales.
Of course, we reopened a failed store nine and a half years ago using the same name so it may have happened before we even bought the place. How many more of these people are out there? How do you find out about them if they never say anything?
 
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That illustrates why you should call a few random customers every night…It will give you a good sense of how things are but also let your employees know you are checking on things…
 
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qcfmike:
Oh I am biting my tongue right now!!! :!:
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Mike
I know exactly what you are thinking. 😃
He said the driver was a “she” , not an aircraft carrier

Dave
 
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qcfmike:
Oh I am biting my tongue right now!!! :!:
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I know what your thinking Mike, this particular instance was a driver, but it could also have been an inside person rude on the phone or in person. Bad manners and lack of common sense is not limited to any one part of the business.
 
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Ok I am done biting and now talking! Yes there are bad employees in all areas of all businesses. It is just after spending a few nights reading the posts and “suggestions” at the couple of pizza delivery driver message boards that really got me going. Their lack of respect for anyone or anything is amazing. Then to hear that this employee…this just happens to be a driver… would say that a customer has to tip to cover gas…this was basically a line that I read over there. Things like intimidate the customers. Make them feel uneasy. Stand in the door and do not leave until they tip you. Talk about the 3 jobs you hold to pay for your 4 year olds preschool…show picture of sad kid. Oh, it doesn’t matter that you have no kids! If you feel they did not tip enough…you can tell them you will wait while they find additional money or rewrite the check for you. Then my favorite…if the person at the door is a child or younger…just take the money without saying how much and walk away. They probably will not question you and if the parents do…well it was the childs mistake. WTF! This is just total BS and any employee that does any of the above or what this lady said happened to her should be fired on the spot! Having had 300 employees working for you and having sat in meetings where the owner of the company has said to his plant manager of 18 years you are fired because everyone here is expendable and that includes you and also I… because of whatever reason it was that warranted this action… I am just a little tired of everyone thinking they deserve or should get a lot more for doing a lot less. The thread on the TT about “does anyone work anymore” is a good point. Why does a plumber get $135 to show up at my door to sweat two copper lines on a water heater? Oh, not too mention the additional $85 in parts. I know why…bacause nobody questions them anymore. The bottom line is attitudes like the drivers show and talk about is total BS and should be called out for what it is. If I had a delivery person tell me any of this at my door I would lose it. I would throw the pizza back at them and call the owner of that place before the door was closed. TImes are tough for a lot these days and some should feel lucky to be employed. The white glove Mickey Mouse handling of all these idiots should end with a slap of reality in the face! :!:
 
qcfmike:
Ok I am done biting and now talking! Yes there are bad employees in all areas of all businesses. It is just after spending a few nights reading the posts and “suggestions” at the couple of pizza delivery driver message boards that really got me going. Their lack of respect for anyone or anything is amazing. Then to hear that this employee…this just happens to be a driver… would say that a customer has to tip to cover gas…this was basically a line that I read over there. Things like intimidate the customers. Make them feel uneasy. Stand in the door and do not leave until they tip you. Talk about the 3 jobs you hold to pay for your 4 year olds preschool…show picture of sad kid. Oh, it doesn’t matter that you have no kids! If you feel they did not tip enough…you can tell them you will wait while they find additional money or rewrite the check for you. Then my favorite…if the person at the door is a child or younger…just take the money without saying how much and walk away. They probably will not question you and if the parents do…well it was the childs mistake. WTF! This is just total BS and any employee that does any of the above or what this lady said happened to her should be fired on the spot! Having had 300 employees working for you and having sat in meetings where the owner of the company has said to his plant manager of 18 years you are fired because everyone here is expendable and that includes you and also I… because of whatever reason it was that warranted this action… I am just a little tired of everyone thinking they deserve or should get a lot more for doing a lot less. The thread on the TT about “does anyone work anymore” is a good point. Why does a plumber get $135 to show up at my door to sweat two copper lines on a water heater? Oh, not too mention the additional $85 in parts. I know why…bacause nobody questions them anymore. The bottom line is attitudes like the drivers show and talk about is total BS and should be called out for what it is. If I had a delivery person tell me any of this at my door I would lose it. I would throw the pizza back at them and call the owner of that place before the door was closed. TImes are tough for a lot these days and some should feel lucky to be employed. The white glove Mickey Mouse handling of all these idiots should end with a slap of reality in the face! :!:
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Touche. Couldn’t put it better myself

Dave
 
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#1 lesson at my shop: Those customers work hard for that money and are trusting us with that piece of their lives away from home/family/friends that they spent earning that money they are spending. We better all d@mn well respect that their money means more to them than it does to us. Now, do your most excellent work for them :o)
 
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Nick you got this 100% right! The average employee does not give a damn about anything but their dollar! They do not care about the customer because 95% of them do not see the long term relationship they only see the dollar in hand. This is a trate that has overcome the entire workforce and is something that needs adjusted. Our handout mentality of a country with the “if I don’t want too…then why work” attitude is total BS! At some point the good 5% of the people will give up also and that’s when it really hits the fan. Start acting like a responsible and respectful individual and work for what you want and go that little extra and people will notice and chances are you will prevail in what you undertake. No…why bother. Just get in line for a handout and go sleep it off! :x
 
A bunch of years ago, I think it was Coca Cola, did a study to determine how much it cost them to gain one new follower of Coca Cola. The number they came up with was $5,000.00. So, you might say that a Coca Cola customer was worth $5,000.00 based on the study. How much would it cost to loose a customer? Less than a fraction of that amount. To what lengths would they go to keep a good customer? I don’t know, but so long as they didn’t exceed $5,000.00 they would still come out ahead. A good customer is too valuable for anyone to loose, but on the other hand, I’d pay a bad customer to go annoy my competioion. Just do it very gently, and politely, remember, a good customer will tell five friends about your great store, but a disgruntled one will bad mouth your store to at least twice that number of people, and continue doing it for what seems forever because that’s what they like to do. Complain, complain, complain.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Many small businesses work hard to grow their businesses and then kill it by their own actions…I was in a restaurant the other day where a client was arguing with the owner over the bill…It seems there was a charge of some sort for a takeout container…The client went over to the table and scooped up the 10.00 bill that was on the table and said take it out here and then left with the change from the 10.00 bill…The owner got his 0.50 and lost a customer…Waitress got “stiffed”…

Whether or not the charge was fair or reasonable is not too relevant if you lose a customer over it…Especially bad in a downtown location that might see customers a few times a week…
 
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Royce;
Great example of how cheap and easy it is to drive a customer away. You can only guess as to what the value of that customer was in potential return visits.
I find it very interesting that even the huge box stores, like Home Depot, Walmart, and others, I am sure, now allow their associates (floor people) discount items right on the spot, to a limited extent of course, when a customer responds to a marked price by saying something like I can buy this at So and So for a dollar less. They have found that the person will leave the store, without a purchase, and shop the other store, buying all of their items there. To keep the customer in the store, and to get the purchase(s), they can make that immediate discount. This is how competative the market is for customers. And for )$0.50 he sent the customer away mad…Unbelieveable!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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FOR GOOD CUSTOMERS: If a customer is unhappy with their $50 order, it costs me about $15 COG to comp the whole thing. If that is an every week customer, they are worth around $1250 to me over the next 6 months. Seems prudent to let go of that $15 on the promise of almost 100 times that in future returns. OR I keep that $50 and start chopping away at those returns.

Small operations live and die by customer loyalty, probably more so than those in bigger markets. We only got so many fish in the pond to start with. Making an emotional connection and keeping those customers emotionally committed to us is a survival skill. THAT SAID . . . we have had three or four customers over the years that we’ve had to suggest they find other places as we are just unable to satisfy their needs. AND one or two that we just gave the boot to the head and said never come back.
 
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NicksPizza:
FOR GOOD CUSTOMERS: If a customer is unhappy with their $50 order, it costs me about $15 COG to comp the whole thing. If that is an every week customer, they are worth around $1250 to me over the next 6 months. Seems prudent to let go of that $15 on the promise of almost 100 times that in future returns. OR I keep that $50 and start chopping away at those returns.

Small operations live and die by customer loyalty, probably more so than those in bigger markets. We only got so many fish in the pond to start with. Making an emotional connection and keeping those customers emotionally committed to us is a survival skill. THAT SAID . . . we have had three or four customers over the years that we’ve had to suggest they find other places as we are just unable to satisfy their needs. AND one or two that we just gave the boot to the head and said never come back.
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Had a customer come in last night and discretely called me to the counter. He came in a week ago and said he came from a suburb about 8km away and told us our pizzas were the best he had ever tasted and will do that distance to get our pizzas. He bought two pizzas that night.
Last night he raised a concern that the night he told me how good his pizzas were the ones he got that night were soft and spongy, undercooked and not nice, but also said he was willing to give us another go.
I told him we would make his pizzas free of charge and that we appreciaetd his feedback. The only thing I can think of that would have made his pizzas the way he described was that prior to opening we had lowered the temp to par cook some spare ribs and other items and that the person doing so hadn’t turned the temp back up and then did so after realising the mistake but said nothing about the pizzas that went through the oven.
We made his order, showed him the pizazs and he was delighted in how they looked, saying that was how the first ones he got looked like. Retail value of the order $30.50. COG around $9.00. Order weekly at $30.50 = $1586.00 per year. Not bad return for $9.00 to make the customer happy, plus a profuse apology and reassurance that we will always correct any fault.
Treated offhandedly it could have been a big loss to us, plus him telling everyone our pizzas were bad.

Dave
 
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wa dave:
We made his order, showed him the pizazs and he was delighted in how they looked, saying that was how the first ones he got looked like. Retail value of the order $30.50. COG around $9.00. Order weekly at $30.50 = $1586.00 per year. Not bad return for $9.00 to make the customer happy, plus a profuse apology and reassurance that we will always correct any fault.
Treated offhandedly it could have been a big loss to us, plus him telling everyone our pizzas were bad.

Dave
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See, Dave? I don’t care what people say . . . you are not a mean, fat old b@stard who doesn’t care about people 🙂
 
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