This is a very important question and one that isn't given enough thought by restaurant operators. If it costs you approximately $13.00 to get a new customer and the lifetime value of a customer over the next three years is $471.00, what are you prepared to do to keep that customer?

What if a customer is unhappy about some part of his meal? What should you do? The correct answer is: "Whatever it takes". I have found from experience that the vast majority of customers are very sensitive and even hesitate to tell you about problems, let alone, take advantage of you. Whenever I sense that a customer is unhappy with something, I immediately offer to remedy it and ask the guest what they would like. Don't bother with excuses. Just remedy the situation as soon as possible. How can they ever be upset with you if you give them exactly what they want? Usually their request is substantially less than what I expected. Sometimes, their complaints may be groundless, but that doesn't matter. It's their perception that matters. If they bother to complain it means they are unhappy. When someone is unhappy who is visiting your restaurant, you need to make him or her happy.

You must have an unconditional guarantee for all your products. Sure occasionally, someone will take advantage of us. However, it is so rare that as a percentage it is not even worth talking about it. This type of approach eliminates a potentially bad situation from getting worse by them telling all their friends about how unhappy they were with your restaurant. When they are telling their friends you won't be there to defend yourself about all the reasons you think they were wrong. Just give them what they want and that will be the end of it. By handling the situation in this manner you will likely impress the person and gain a lot of credibility. But don't expect that they will be impressed. Some tough-to-please customers expect that kind of service.

Your Customer Service policy must be communicated to your staff so they know they don't have to go get a manager; they can just handle the matter themselves. Have the employee apologize whether they think the customer is right or not (a customer is always as right as they are when giving you money!) Remedy the matter as quickly and as quietly as possible. In addition to replacing the meal, you may want to give a free dessert for the inconvenience. Everybody knows mistakes happen. We are only human. What separates the good restaurants from the great restaurants is what they do when mistakes happen. That's what keeps customers coming back. And more importantly they will be telling their friends about what a fine restaurant you are.

When you calculate what it costs you to get a customer and then think about the long term value of a customer and the amount of business they can bring you through word-of-mouth, you will realize that spending as much as $10 or $20 to replace a customer's meal is insignificant. Also, it helps you understand that spending 80 cents to a dollar for a birthday card, thank you card or newsletter is a good investment to keep the customers coming back.