Keep The Peace, Keep The Peas Hot…
- Posted by Sue
- On 30th March 2023
Back in my hospitality days we actively sought feedback from our dinners, why wouldn’t we they worked hard for their money and they chose to spend it with us…
In my opinion, they deserved a great experience each and every time they came, reasonable I think you’d agree…
Feedback would often come in the form of compliments shown by giving generous tips and of course coming back time and time again and often bringing friends and family with them…
Compliments are great for the ego, they make you feel good but they don’t really help you move forward to improve what it is your doing and how you’re doing it…
‘s a tough job being a chef in a busy kitchen and while I always referred to it as the ‘heart of the house’ it was often a thankless task…
Our chefs took pride in their work they thrived on seeing empty plates coming back into the kitchen…
They took complaints to heart…
But it was the complaints that helped us grow, become better at what we did, and serve more guests tasty meals in the shortest time possible, nobody wants to wait an hour for their dinner…
Our waiting-on team was actively encouraged to give the chef’s feedback or as I preferred to call it feedforward…
In fact, if a member of the team didn’t think the meal was up to scratch they simply would not take it to the customer, and the chef was expected to put it right no arguments the waiting-on team had the final say on quality control as it were…
One particularly busy night a young waitress new to the role came into the kitchen to say that a customer had complained that their peas were cold 😒
The air as it often is in a commercial kitchen was blue in fact you could cut the tension with a knife 🔪
Hot peas were immediately sent to the table along with a heartfelt apology and our gratitude for bringing it to our attention.
During the end-of-night debrief where we asked two questions…
1️⃣ What went well?
2️⃣ What can we do better?
The topic soon turned to peas…
How could we ‘Keep The Peace and Keep The Peas Hot?’…
There were of course those whose response was ‘It’s just some peas’…
Not the response I wanted to hear…
After some debate most of which was hotter than the aforementioned peas, it was agreed that peas would not be added to the plate until a member of the waiting team had their hands on the plate ready to go…
Result!!!
Never again did we have a complaint about cold peas…
Fish that was too fishy yes but never cold peas…
What’s my point?
I believe that a truly satisfied customer is the only strategy you need in business…
It’s something I work on with my clients and something I would encourage everyone in business or indeed in a service role of any kind to keep front and foremost in their minds…
How do you gather customer feedback?
What do you do with that gift?
Are you always looking for the 1% that you can do to improve your products and service?
When was the last time you carried out ‘customer happiness calls’?
Do you know the lifetime value of a customer to your business?
I hope this has got you thinking about things you could do to improve your customer satisfaction…
Not only will collating and using this information improve customer satisfaction it will improve team morale and it will have a huge impact on your bottom line…
Next week ‘What’s the lifetime value of a customer and why it’s so important to know this number in your business’…
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