8 Things You Should Never Say to Customers

This article was sent ro my email. Its very interesting and true. Sometimes the words we use might tirn away our customers. To us its a norm but to a customer is rude. In my hometown is normal to cuss when we meet an old friend with vulgarity. But to a customer is not right to do that even if he is a long time friend. He is still our CUSTOMER. I myself is guilty of number 5.  Below is part of the Article for more go to their website.

8 Things You Should Never Say to Customers

By Jeff Haden

Great customer relationships: Hard to establish, easy to ruin — especially when you say the wrong things
Here are eight things you should never say to customers (even if you would secretly love to):
1.“No.” A boss once told me, “Never tell a customer no. Always say, ‘Yes, we can. Here’s what that will cost.’” If you absolutely can’t provide a certain product or service, you can’t, but often you can’t simply because you don’t want to. (In the example above I didn’t want to. What the customer had asked for was certainly possible but would have been a real pain to pull off.) Price unusual requests accordingly: If you can make a decent profit, why not? Making a profit is why you’re in business.

5.“No problem.” Maybe this is just a pet peeve, but I’m always irritated when, say, I ask a waiter for dressing on the side and he says, “No problem.” I know he means “yes,” but “no problem” still implies I really am causing a problem. When I’m the customer, I’m favoring your business with my patronage; your business isn’t doing me any favors, so never imply you are. Replace “no problem” with “yes.”

To read more go to the website  8 Things You Should Never Say to Customers

Train Your Staff how to Handle Different People's Requirements (cont'd)

This is a continuation of the previous post “Train Your Staff how to handle Different People's Requirements”

6. The Customer with Special Dietary Needs
With this type of customer you only know if the customer tells you that he has special dietary needs. Therefore product knowledge is important. You need to know what's in the dishes you are selling. If you are not sure don't assume, get somebody who knows. This is because some people will get really sick and can be fatal to them. Make sure you highlight these requirements to the kitchen. If possible inform the chef personally.

7. The Intoxicated customer
Drunken customers can be a nuisance not only to you but to other customers. Seat drunken customers where they will not disturb other diners. But don't make it look like you are getting rid of him. Sometimes an intoxicated customer will be bothersome and rude. Be patience. Be tolerant and call the Manager if the situation goes beyond your control. Be sure the customer pays the bill first.

8. The Handicapped Customer
They are often sensitive to being considered helpless, so don’t be overly helpful. Help them discreetly. I once had a regular who insisted to be treated like everyone. He used a crutch. Listen to clues as to what your guests needs from you. Treat them as you would treat any other VIP.

Don’t Eliminate the Middle Man—Add One!

I came across this interesting article by Richard Saporito. It highlights that the service personnel in your restaurant is equally as important as the chef at the back. As mentioned in my Creating Great Customer Service Culture , 60% of restaurants fail in the first year. Reason being is that the food is only 20% contribution to the sucess of the restaurant. The article is as follow.

Don’t Eliminate the Middle Man—Add One!

Today, there are situations when we actually add a “middle person” instead of eliminating one for increased service efficiency. If it’s cost-effective and demand is high, then proper market positioning will make it a worthwhile endeavor. For example, my sister just informed me of a food delivery service in New Mexico that will let you choose one out of many different food outlets (all types of ethnic/fast food)- and then guarantees delivery within a specific time period. This not only gives the customer assurance of reliability, but more choices for dining take –out style.

In other areas of industry, the same idea holds true. There are electrical suppliers that no longer manufacture the product of electricity, but now are involved only in the delivery process of electricity to the customers. Because of market fluctuations, the new delivery supplier will utilize many other different energy suppliers to get the product of electricity to the customer efficiently and at the best market price. Again, adding the middle man seems to benefit all around.

In relating this theory to restaurants, it is the food runner that has become popular, especially in the larger dining establishments that rarely existed years ago. Food runners are employees who only work the rush hours of the dining room- only running food back and forth from the kitchen to the tables with light dining room table interaction (condiments, fresh pepper etc.). It is a 2-4 hr. shift, depending on how long the dining rush lasts.

Before large restaurants existed, the waiter would complete the process of order taking and delivering of the food. Today, the food runner can be implemented (additional middle man) relieving the waiter of this time consuming and sometimes painstaking process. The waiter must share a percentage of his tip with the runner, but in return his job is eased because the food is delivered for him- allowing extra time to work more tables and up sell to customers thereby increasing sales. Though, it does remain the waiter’s nresponsibility to check the table for additional diner needs-- either while the food is being placed by the runner or shortly thereafter. The tip-out to the runner is usually 10-15% depending on the service system, but well worth it if waiter sales can increase by 20-30 %.

The main point is the food runner addition improves delivery service efficiency while being cost-effective (if the sales increase outweighs the payroll increase). Properly integrating employees into the dining room with exact middle man connections always makes for smooth service flow. It’s not a matter of just blindly throwing extra employees at a service problem, but organizing the best system possible with the minimal amount of labor.

Adding the middle man can sometimes streamline operations in such way that it becomes irresistible and impossible to ignore. Always, the demand arises when delivery routes of a service system become overloaded.

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About the author: Richard Saporito is a NYC Restaurant Insider with more than 30 years experience. He is currently the President of Topserve Restaurant Consulting, Inc. and the author of "How To Improve Dining Room Service." Discover how to improve your restaurant's dining room service and dramatically increase your profits here: How to Improve Dining Room Service E- Book


Restaurant Promo Ideas

Train Your Staff how to Handle Different People's Requirements

Different people have different likes, dislikes and requirements. So I would like to suggest that you train your staff on the different groups of people. When I was a waiter, we were trained on ways as to how to give the best and appropriate customer service to a certain group. We were trained how to serve elderly, the tired, the hurried and so on and so on. So nowadays as part of my training to my service personnel, I have added training on ways to better serve different groups of people. Below are some of the ways. Maybe you can use it in your own training.

1. The Early Customers
Most of the time the service personnel will normally frown when the customer comes early before they have set up. Train your staff to receive them courteously and let them when service will begin. Offer them a drink perhaps coffee and newspaper or magazine to read to keep them occupied.

2. The Late Customer
As always make them feel welcomed. Train your staff to provide good service without making them feel that they are being hurried. Ensure the service personnel inform the guest 15 minutes before kitchen or the buffet is closing to give them time to order other things example desserts.

3. The Customer that's in a Hurry
Recommend something that the kitchen is able to prepare fast like a hot soup or sandwich perhaps. If there's a buffet then recommend it. Train your staff to let them know how long the items will take to prepare. Provide the best possible service you can offer. Ensure the staff is pleasant but don't waste time talking stories.

4. The Angry Customers
Most of the time your staff will avoid guest like this but if handled well this type of guest can be a regular to your outlet. Listen to their comment; thank him for calling this to your attention. Try to rectify the error but if its beyond your job scope, then get someone to handle. Don't forget to inform him that you are you are passing his comment to another person who is able to handle the situation,

5. The Tired Customers
Sit them at a quiet table and assist them with packages and coats. Set them in a quiet table. Assist them with their clothes and packages. If the weather is cold then suggest a hot soup, hot drink. On hot days suggest a chilled salad or even a frozen drink. Avoid disturbing them as they might just want to relax quietly.

Converse in the Language of the Locals

Malaysia is a multicultural country, so you will have different languages used. Even though Bahasa Malaysia is the national language and English is taught in schools, you still need to use the local language or dialect. This will then make the locals happy and thus create lasting relationship. This was apparent when I was working in a resort in Cameron Highlands. I have always worked in places that people understood Bahasa Malaysia or English, so it was easy to create promotional materials to attract the locals to my restaurant. So naturally I brought the same thinking to Cameron Highlands. What I didn't realize was that most of the locals were farmers who were only fluent in Chinese. So whatever flyers or promotional materials that we sent out was just rubbish to them, which I only found out after talking to a local farmer. Now I have software that I can write out menus and flyers in Chinese. I even hired a clerk and a few staff that can read, write and understand Chinese. Well this got the attention of the local Community and now they are frequenting my outlets. In the months of June till August, we get allot of Middle Eastern customers as they want to escape the heat in their country. So for these months my promotional materials are written in Arabic. How its even easier with Google Translator.
If you can learn the local language or dialect, that is even better. The locals will warm up to you if you took the trouble to learn their language. This I found to be true when I was attached to a hotel in Thailand. The Thais were so happy that I could speak their language and even my staff respected me more.

Be Sensitive to the Local Culture and Beliefs

This is very important especially if you are new to the community. Anything that you do, you must be sensitive to the local culture and beliefs. Do some research on the taboo in that community. If they find it offensive than avoid doing it. One example to this point is, when I was a waiter for a hotel that had just been taken over by an international chain. The Group General Manager, a foreigner insisted that for the new menu, we serve the local dishes in a wok. To the local community eating out of the wok was a taboo. We told him about this but he brushed it off, saying it was rubbish. We went ahead with this menu. The result of this action is that the locals avoided us and those that came were very annoyed. After a few bad reviews from the customers eventhough the food was great, the Group General Manager finally gave in to change the menu but it was too late. It took us another year to build back our local clientele. Even the design of your place or the uniform is also important. In the East Coast of Malaysia, the people there don`t take too kindly to their waitresses wearing revealing clothes. When I was working in Thailand, they have so much respect for their King and Queen to the extend that they don`t serve alcohol on the King`s and Queens` birthday.
Also if you know their culture you can use this to your advantage too. One episode of Restaurant Makeover, the designer found out that it was a culture for the Somalian families to dine together in a private dining area. So she created an area just for that. By the way they were making a Somalian restaurant. Well this a great customer service to the Somalian community.
All this means is that different cultures have different beliefs and taboos. In order to give great customer service and be on the good side of your customers, you must know what is the beliefs and taboo of the community around you. Even Sun Tzu has a verse for this in his Art of War. It goes like this
"We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country--its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps." Chapter VII. MANEUVERING Verse 13
To know more on how I use the Art of War, please click here. How I use the Art of War

Communicate with your customers

Regularly communicate with your customers. It can be either via a newsletter, a letter written to them personally or paying them a visit. This is the reason you see famous brands like Coca Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colgate spending million of dollars for advertising even though most people know these brands. Even a kid knows who Colonel Sanders is. By regularly keeping in touch, your customers will feel like they are an important part of your establishment and this will encourage them to return far more often. There are a few key things to remember when creating a newsletter. Firstly you will have to do it on a regularly basis but don't do it every two weeks then this will be regarded as junk mail. A monthly newsletter is more than enough. Keep your content interesting and add in special offers here and there. As for me apart from printing flyers and putting on cars and in mailboxes, I sent personally signed letters highlighting our specials to our regulars. This is what I’ve learnt recently from a marketing article which says to take care of the 20 percent that give us 80 percent of your business. The 80/20 rule. But you must remember to continuously add more names to your list. Reason being people might shift or be transferred out. So you will constantly have a new list . Each letter is written the name of the regular instead of Dear Sir. So they will feel that I’m writing to them personally. As my list is getting bigger, I will be purchasing a stamp with my signature on it so as I cansign more letters. Malaysia is commonly known for its diversity of its multicultural community, you will find a variety of festivals here. I visit our regulars bringing some festive goodies to say hi and also thank them for their business. When I visit the Chinese regulars during the Mid Autumn festival, I bring Mooncakes. For the Muslim regulars, I visit them during the Hari Raya bringing Malay Kueh and the Indian regulars bringing Indian sweets. This makes our regulars feel important and we are their first choice when they need a place to dine. You don’t have to go on the day of the festival, I do it about a week before the holidays.

Restaurant Promotion Ideas

The importance of good customer relationship

The other day on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah was a introducing a new reality show called "The Undercover CEO". This new reality show is about CEOs of multinational companies going on undercover missions that will place them within the lowest ranks of their own company. By working as a rank and file staff, they will get a closer look at both the good and the bad as the result of their decision as the big boss. They will also learn what the downline feel about the company while discovering the unsung heroes who make their companies run.
One of her guest was Joe DePinto the CEO of 7 Eleven who went to work at few of his stores. Apart from finding out some not too good store policies like throwing away doughnuts after a certain hour, he found two gem in his employees. A particular employee is Dolores Bisangni in the Southampton store, N.Y. DePinto commented that he had always wondered why the Southampton store sold a higher amount of coffee than his other stores. After working at the store he found out that it was not because of the coffee used as all 7 Eleven stores use the same product. It was the service and friendliness provided by Bisangni that got people coming back for more. Bisangni has worked for 7-Eleven for 18 years, has only one kidney and undergoes dialysis treatments twice weekly. She was a real gem on knowing everyone that came in by name. This is another good example of good customer service bringing in repeat business.