Satisfied customers are the key to success for any restaurant. Occasionally, complaint in the restaurant industry is inevitable due to different customer with different personalities and different expectations. Certainly restaurant owners have experienced a complaint from dissatisfied customer in their years or months or days of running their business.
That is why it is important to know how to handle, respond and deal with to customer complaints. Below are tips on how to reply to a complaint on poor service at a restaurant or negative restaurant reviews.
Sample Restaurant Complaint Letter Response
From,
_______________ [Name Of Restaurant Manager],
Date: _______________
To,
_______________ [Customer’s Name],
_______________ [Customer’s Address],
_______________ [City, State]
Dear [Enter customer’s first name],
I’m terribly sorry to hear you had a negative experience at our _______________ [Enter Name Of Restaurant] on _______________ [Day in weeks like Monday] and received an [state meal/snacks ordered] that didn’t meet your expectations. We strive to provide only the best-quality food to our valuable customers.
Your feedback is vital to our success, and we will be using this as a learning experience to improve our dessert menu. I’ve already spoken to our chefs about this, and we’ll be adjusting the recipe.
To make up for your negative experience, I’d like to offer you two free desserts the next time you visit. Please see the gift card enclosed. I hope we’ll see you again soon.
Best regards,
_______________ [Enter restaurant owner’s name]
_______________ Owner, [Enter name of restaurant]
Response To Long Wait to be Seated or Served Complaint
When customers complain about the long wait on a Saturday night, respond with empathy but encourage them to make a reservation in the future. You might say, “I’m sorry about the wait. We tend to get very busy on Saturday nights! We offer online reservations if you’d like to make one for your next visit.” Then include the link to your reservations page.
You’ve also likely seen people point to empty tables and say, “But that one’s open!” Customers may complain about this online as well. One way to respond is to say, “We know how odd it looks when you see open tables and are told there’s a wait. We do our best to seat everyone ASAP, and those tables are being held for reservations. If you’d like to make one, please visit [Enter LINK to restaurant].”
Response To Long Wait for Delivery Complaint
First, make sure that hosts and kitchen staff are communicating about how long a food order will take to prepare. Then, factor in drive times and traffic before giving the guest an estimate. Then, be sure you address the situation with your delivery service or driver to make sure they didn’t run into any issues during the delivery.
Still, things happen and sometimes deliveries take longer than expected. If you can communicate with the customer, offer a sincere apology along with a credit for a comped appetizer or dessert on their next order.
Response To Food was Overpriced or Poor Value for Money Complaint
You might say: “The market price for that particular seafood ingredient tends to fluctuate, but we charge what we do because we source the highest quality possible. We’d love for you to give us another try. Our happy hour has excellent prices on similar, appetizer-style dishes!”
Response To Food Not to Their Liking Complaint
You can’t please everyone, but you can try. Locate the source of the complaint; was the food sitting out too long before being served? Look for bottlenecks on the line. Is the sandwich bread soggy? Perhaps you need a different type of bun.
Try saying something like: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I’m so sorry you didn’t enjoy your experience. I will speak to the kitchen manager to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If you’d like to give us another try, we’d love to make it up to you.” You can say this in person or in a message over social media.
If you can swing a comped meal or a round of drinks, offer it up. If the customer posted online about a bad experience, they might also be willing to share how your restaurant made it right.