I'd like to really sincerely thank all of you for your responses. The passion and sincerity that has come through on every response has really touched me. I have to say I was particularly taken by the suggestion to invite guests back for a meeting. This "feels" right to me and working in a service industry I am always looking to respond in a way that feels right, fair and honourable. Thank you all again.

It's excellent news to note that you do pay attention to detail and take the time and effort to allow your customers to provide their feedback, more importantly that you are actually seen to be acting by taking some preventative measures that may help resolve or prevent the cause of the problem from reoccurring again in the future. This is constructive action that lets your customers feel that you take their opinions sincerely, and that you are prepared to implement genuine measures and act...it is simple courtesy and makes good all round business sense.

For the latter part of your query, nothing makes a customer feel more important than actually being taken seriously and feeling that something positive is going to happen when they have a,'beef', instead of getting the feeling that they're just being fobbed off with the usual soon to be forgotten, 'robotic spiel' that seems to be so prevalent these days, particularly within the service industry. Some people are not really good at expressing their disatisfaction face-to-face and feel writing letters is their only recourse. Civil Servants are like that.! Some other individuals are sometimes too embarassed about making a fuss in public or in front of their company, or to be seen to be creating any unrest.

To address this situation, nothing makes as good an impression like a personal letter of apology giving a sincere from the heart promise that the problem will be fully and thoroughly investigated. The letter should be polite friendly and to the point, it should give reassurances that the matter will be given your undivided attention to get to the cause, it should finish by asking for a reasonable period in which to investigate and report back when the findings or the answers are evident.

Once you have had the time necessary to identify the trouble, either send a letter of apology stating what the cause of the problem was and what, if, any action has/will be taken to safeguard it from happening again the future. If you feel the customer has been disadvantaged then there is nothing whatsoever to stop you enclosing a voucher to the value of £? whatever you feel is the correct or appropriate gesture. You should include a final line in the letter along the words of something like, "Please accept the vouchers to the value of £? as a gesture of our goodwill". This wording is seen as more of a compensatory apology that is made entirely at your discretion.....but without the necessary admission of any legal liability.

PS - I have never been a restaurant Manager, but I have dined in quite a few.

Agree with Zeb that should just write back saying that you are sorry that they felt the need to complain. Then a few paragraphs about how your business ensures excellent standards are maintained, from the front of house team and from the kitchen team.

Some complaints will be about people feeling ill after eating, so you need to be careful to make enquiries before you make any comment. So as Zeb suggests the best thing to do is to invite the customer to see you, so that you may discuss this further. You would not want to make any comment in the letter about checking the food they ordered and that you have not received any other complaints from other customers who ordered the same items from the menu. Keep any letters non specific and standard, leaving any discussion to be held face to face. If the complaint is not real or exagerated, they won't bother.

As you will appreciate all complaints are a good learning tool. So you should discuss these with the team, not to discuss the merits of the complaint, but to make sure they redouble their efforts to make sure the same issue whether real or not, does not happen again. So if this is to do with the quality of goods from suppliers, then arrange for yourself and head chef to check the quality of goods, before they are signed for.

Some people feel that a confrontation, criticism or complaint at the time of a meal can spoil the evening, particularly if, for example, someone else is paying. People do not sit down and write letters for fun and, I feel, it is wrong to set out a standard procedure for dealing with all letters.

First you need to read the letter.

Yes, you could give vouchers "as a thank you for taking the time to write" and you could promise to monitor whatever has caused the problem. Worrying about liability should not be your priority (has legal action been threatened?) but neither of these actions would "admit liability".

No. You should not take the view that it is better to say something at the time of the meal. It may not suit your customer to do this. Nor should you ask customers not to write their comments down. Some of the most successful restaurants have postcards and suggestion boxes to actually make it easy for customers to make written comments.

Imagine I had just been told by a doctor that I needed an operation. If I was hungry and I walked into your restaurant and a member of staff asked how I was, do you honestly think that I'd say anything other than "fine" or "getting by" or "ok thanks"?

Having worked as Restaurant Manager for several years before my switch to finance I feel I can sympathise with you on this knowing exactly how you feel when you work your socks off only to find a letter waiting for you 2 days later.

You can write a letter of a million words and pour your heart out in a letter but your feelings will not come across in any where near the same manner unless you can do so face to face. You know this and so does the customer.

I always felt the best way to deal with a situation like yours is to write a letter or call the customer back and ask if the customer can come in to see you for a chat and to discuss the problems that they had. This way you can get eye to eye contact with the customer, you can better identify the problem and take the correct course. It is also alot harder for a disingenuous customer to accept such an invitation and even harder to look at you eye to eye and discuss this and if they do you will have a better chance of seeing it.

Taking a proactive approach like this will help you deal directly with customers and it offers an open approach to the problem which customers will be happy to utilise in a comfortable manner.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

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Hi,

I have a restaurant which has been trading for 5 years. We have a very dedicated and customer focused team, both front of house and in the kitchen. I regularly have Mystery Shopping Audits conducted in which the team perform exceptionally well. We hold weekly management meetings with the team and discuss all aspects of the business. We conduct quarterly appraisals with the senior staff and follow up with training as required. Specifically my staff are trained to check with guests that they are happy with their meal so that any potential problems can be dealt with immediately. In essence what I am trying to say is that we run our business in a very professional way in order to maximise our quality delivery and customer satisfaction.

All said, there is one aspect of the business that I still struggle with and that is guest complaints received after the event. Ideally a complaint is received at the time and we deal with it immediately ensuring our guest leaves happy.

However I really struggle to know how to respond when I receive a written complaint a day or so later. I understand that some people may not want to make a fuss and spoil their meal if indeed they are unhappy about something. However I find it hard not to be cynical or to feel the complaint is disingenuous when I know my staff have checked at the time of the meal and the guest did not express any dissatisfaction, or (even more confusing to me) have said specifically they were happy.

How can I respond with genuine concern for them but without admitting liability? Should I offer them a discount voucher to soften their “disappointment”? Does offering a voucher suggest we are in the wrong? Is it better to do so just in case they really were disappointed but didn’t feel they could broach the subject face to face with my waiting staff? How direct should I be with our guests that it would have been better to say something at the time?

Responses or advice on this would be welcome