Brian of Pizzaspotz
Good or Bad Customer Service is Your Choice
If you, as a pizzeria owner, were asked whether you wanted to provide your customers with good customer service or bad customer service, which would you choose? Duh, of course you’re going to say “good customer service.” It’s a no-brainer. But in reality, the things we say and the things we do are sometimes not necessarily one and the same.
It’s a constant struggle in the restaurant industry to make sure our mouth isn’t writing a check our behind can’t cash. I think I heard that phrase in a rap song from Whodini back in the 80s. They were right, if we say over and over we have great customer service and the orders are constantly wrong, deliveries are constantly cold, your waitstaff is constantly rude, then maybe you should not talk about your customer service until you get your pizzeria (or insert any other restaurant here) operation to run a bit more smoothly.
How Does Bad Customer Service Come About?
There are a few different ways customer service can become the negative talk of the town.
1) Busy
Your customers for the first two to three years your pizzeria was in business may have marveled about your great food and the great customer service you provided with every single order. But then word got out that your pizzeria was the best in town. You had the freshest toppings, the service was quick and friendly, deliveries were always hot and on time, the baked lasagna was to die for, etc.
But with all the raves comes new customers, sometimes more than you can handle. You got by just fine with one waitress at lunch and two cooks and yourself but now you have doubled your lunch crowd and kept the same amount of staff. Orders are taking longer, they’re wrong on occasion, something that rarely happened before when you were staffed properly for your lunch crowd. With more business, things can change in an instant, usually that is found in great customer service becoming only good or some people calling it bad.
2) You Don’t Care
This reason for bad customer service is a rarity, but it happens on occasion. You may be one of those pizzerias that has never really cared about providing great customer service. Of course, you’d love to hear compliments on how much people love eating at your pizzeria and how friendly you are and how good you treat them. But if you don’t get those compliments, you’re alright with that. As long as people buy the food, you’re fine.
An example of some of your bad customer service is treating people differently. You cater to a lunch crowd that includes students from a local school. You have fresh house pies made and one held over from last night under the counter. You see a student come in and you put some of the left over pizza slices in the oven for him or her. Why waste a fresh slice on a student? Give those to the adults, right? Wrong. Treat your customers with care, all of them. Love your customers. I’d recommend not saving pizza from the night before, but if you do, charge a little less for it. I also understand it’s a cost saving measure. I talk more about that below.
People can figure out quite quickly when a pizzeria owner doesn’t care. And when people find out, heed this warning, “They don’t keep that to themselves.” When in Abilene, TX once, I ordered a slice. I had seen their fresh pies on the counter at 11:15 a.m. and I was hungry. Then I saw the cook take a slice from beneath the counter and put it in the oven. I kinda hemmed and hawed to myself (should’ve done it verbally and protested, but I didn’t). I paid. I took it to my car and tried to eat it. Why would that guy do that to me? I posted on Facebook about my experience. It was just terrible.
3) Pride
I really doubt this is a big reason for why some pizzerias give bad customer service, but it’s a possibility. You have the best pizza in town. You’re always busy. There’s never an empty seat at lunch or supper. People have written about how great you are on their blogs, in newspapers, etc. You shine like the star you and your pizza are. People come to your pizzeria and they get what they get and they better not fuss because yours is the best. But as in the case of black holes, star studded pizzerias can burn out too. Sometimes it’s due to pride. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but that pride could getcha eventually.
4) Trying to Save Money
With the government doing so much to put pizzeria owners (and everyone else) out of business with increased taxes at every turn, implementation of Obamacare and it’s 130 new taxes, increased burdensome regulations from cities (like NYC especially) and many new regulations from the federal government, pizzeria owners need to save money.
But do your efforts at saving money actually save your business money or cost it money in the long run? There is a big difference in cost cutting efforts and being cheap. Yelling at a veteran waitress because she gives a little too many napkins out or she doesn’t put enough ice in cups or gives customers too many packets of Parmesan cheese is not conducive to a happy wait staff and that probably doesn’t make customers too happy either. Customers see everything. If you must be angry with your wait staff, do it privately.
On delivery orders for 6 large pizzas (48 large slices), probably 20 people being served, you send no plates with the delivery driver because, “They didn’t ask for plates!” No cheese or pepper because, “They didn’t ask for cheese or pepper!” Sometimes, just go the extra mile and give it to them anyway. Now an example like the one just mentioned does happen, but you may have never been that cheap. In what ways would people say you’re cheap? And maybe better than being cheap or considered cheap by customers and having them go elsewhere is to raise your prices instead and be thought of as expensive by customers but keep quality and service at the highest level.
Service is Multiple Choice
Remember, there are three avenues to take when it comes to serving customers.
1) Not doing enough
2) Doing just enough to get by
3) Going the extra mile.
As in the case of bad customer service, where it is rarely kept a secret, the same could be said for the good customer service you provide by going the extra mile.
Let the customer service provided by your pizzeria be the the talk of the town, but let it be all positive talk, not negative. It’ll pay off for your pizzeria in the long run and remember, owning and operating a pizzeria is more like a marathon, not a 100 meter race.
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