42 Make the customers feel you care
Most customers, apart from a hardcore few, are simply too jaded to
complain these days. Yet you really need to hear those complaints,
particularly if you aren’t going to be onsite all the time (and you’re
not are you?).
You need to have a decent feedback system such as comment
cards with an incentive for completion included. It doesn’t have to
be much, but you do need something to encourage feedback. Very
often we have simply used a “Free Meal for Two” draw on a monthly
basis to entice customers to fill the cards in.
You also need to ensure that they feel comfortable enough to write
openly and honestly. This means providing a locked box for the card
to be inserted into and not making a customer hand the card to a
member of staff who may, perhaps, have caused them a problem.
Finally, you need to make
customers feel that you
really willread their
comments and that what
they say does matter to
you. Put a note on your box
explaining that cards will be read twice daily at 12.00 p.m. and 5.00 p.m.
by the manager or owner depending on your own circumstances. This
makes it seem that you really do value their effort and honestly care
about what they think.
Wake up to your own
valuable expertise...
“Experience is a good teacher, but
she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim80