From Bruce Meglio

It’s Gotta Be Perfect, Especially Today!

By Bruce Meglio

Remember when we were told that a disappointed customer would tell at least 10 people about their bad experience??? Ah, the good old days. Why were they good? Because email, text messaging and all
of the social networking sites like Face Book & Tweeter has changed all that. Now, if a customer has a negative experience in your restaurant, who knows how many people they can get the word out to! Not
only that, word quickly spreads like wildfire with distribution lists, “friends list”, etc. There are also review sites galore (try putting your restaurant into a search engine and see what comes up). Technology
has changed the rules of the game! We now have to be better than ever!

Now, more than ever, you cannot let one customer out the door who is not absolutely delighted with the service, the food and the cleanliness of your restaurant. You simply can’t afford it. Not only will they not
return, but they may let hundreds or even thousands of existing and potential customers know that your place is not worth the visit. Sales can drop rapidly and you won’t know what hit you. You may blame it
on the weather, on competition or the economy but, chances are YOU BLEW IT!

When I say the customer has to be absolutely delighted, I mean they have to be overwhelmed with goose bumps. When doing table visits or asking customers on the way out how their visit was, if the
answer is “okay”, “fine “or “good”, you blew it! You need to hear, “excellent”, “perfect”, “wonderful”, “delightful”, “couldn’t be better”. If you don’t hear something
that is better than average, you need to fix it fast. “Average” means you are the best of the worst OR the worst of the best. Which one is better?

What if most of your food is take out including drive thru? Yikes! You have the toughest job of all! You won’t get that immediate feedback. Put your headset on, keep it on and listen in, preach complete
orders, quality product and speed of service.

When asking your customers about their experience, ask like you really want to know! Do you really want to know that everything is “okay” and “average”? Don’t just do it because it’s required, do it as if
your career depends on finding problems and fixing them. Ask questions that will help you get the answers you are looking for like, “Is your steak tender and cooked just the way you wanted it?” or “Are
your fries hot and salted just right?” or “Is your salad crisp and tasty?”. You get the idea. Teach your staff this as well. Tell them to let you know every time a customer gives them an average or below
answer and then go talk to those people. Knock their socks off! Remember, we want PERFECT!

Look, I know that from the minute you walk in for your shift, all efforts are to make sure everything is perfect for the customer. It doesn’t take much for a customer to have an “average” to “poor”
experience. It could be trash in the parking lot, finger prints on the front door, no paper towels in the restroom, warm/old coffee, luke warm food, not enough salt on the fries, and a hundred other small
details that got past you. To ensure a better than “average” experience, you need to walk, look and talk

all shift long. You need to be everywhere in a short period of time. You need to talk to your staff and ask the right questions. Talk to your customers and, again, ask the right questions. You need to make
sure hot food is piping hot, cold food is refreshingly cold, service is fast and friendly, and everything is clean and stocked. Restaurant management is a high energy position… and that’s why.

Hey wait, there is good news here! Remember when we were told a happy customer would tell no more than 4 people about their good experience? Guess what? Again, because of today’s technology, this
amount is also increased to who knows what (I’ll bet it’s more than 4). But, it takes work, really hard work, to make this happen for every customer on every shift. That’s why we exist, isn’t it?

At the end of the day, when we get home, we know how we did. We can feel it in our bones. If we’re tired, happy and have a deep satisfaction with what we accomplished today, we know inside of us that
we earned our pay today. If you have that feeling, chances are, you had happy customers who are tellinga lot of other people about their experience and you were darn near perfect!

Bruce Meglio is a proud 30 veteran of restaurant operations. His free web site, http://www.RestaurantManagerCentral.com is dedicated to the professional and personal well-being of all
restaurant and food service managers.