It is essential that you communicate to your guests that you want to hear from them if they are unhappy in any way. Tell them you want to hear immediately when something goes wrong. This lessens the chance of unfavorable Word of Mouth Advertising.

Here is an example: We welcome your complaints. If you are displeased or dissatisfied in any way with our products or services, please help us to improve ... tell us what went wrong, and tell us immediately so we can immediately begin fixing it.

The idea behind making it easy to complain is simply to reduce the frustration for customers and to lessen the number of dissatisfied people who don't complain - but take their business elsewhere. Guests are more likely to complain if they think you care and will listen. If you don't want to hear complaints, nobody will bother to tell you. The more interested you are in the truth about your guests' experience and the more receptive you are to suggestions on how you can do better, the greater the chances you will get the feedback. Some of the feedback will be good news, some will be bad news, but it is all news that will help you progress, grow and prosper.

As restaurant operators, we tend to think that a complaint is disastrous. While it isn't any fun to receive a complaint, there is a lot that we can learn from complaints.

Complaints can keep us on our toes. They can help us to be our very best. The complaining guest brings to our attention, most of the time, simple things that will increase our level of service to all guests. It's easy for an employee to get complacent. Every restaurant has customers who are very discriminating, hard to please and/or just difficult. It is during these times that you need to focus on Guest Satisfaction and challenge all your employees to Exceed the Expectations of every guest. Look at every complaint as an insight on how we can better serve all of our Guests.

How to handle guest complaints should be part of every restaurant marketing training meeting and your employees will be effective at handling guest complaints which is restaurant marketing at its best.