Editorial: Making Contact

It should be easy for your customers to reach out and talk to someone.

By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 7/1/2004

The story goes that a chain restaurant company was focusing on service. To emphasize the importance, every corporate employee had to take a shift answering customer-service calls. Because he knows this type of initiative has to start at the top, the CEO of the company signed up for a slot. While he was manning the phone, an unhappy customer called to complain about an incident on a recent visit. The CEO listened with empathy, trying to appease the customer with apologies and money-saving coupons.

The customer was inconsolable and asked to speak to his boss. “Well, I am the boss,” the CEO answered. The customer again demanded to speak to the supervisor. The CEO finally said, “OK,” and handed the phone to the customer-service rep in the chair next to his. The rep offered the same empathy, apologies and coupons, and satisfied the customer.

Can You Hear Me?
Sometimes customers just want you to listen, to hear them out and apologize.

After unsuccessfully seeking help from a manager at a casual-dining chain, my husband and I once sent in a comment card with a terse explanation of a series of service mishaps. Several months later, we got a form letter that included $10 off our next meal. That was nice, but if the manager simply called and said, “Sorry, we goofed,” we’d probably go back.

Take advantage of every opportunity to get input from your customers. At Famous Dave’s, the check includes a customer-service number that guests can call to answer a few questions about their meal using their touch-tone phone and get a free dessert the next time they visit.

Domino’s Pizza customers who call in to answer the service questions will win a free pizza each month for a year if they’re the 300th caller.

If you don’t have contact information on your Web site, menus, customer comment cards, tray liners and receipts, customers sometimes are willing to try to find you somehow. Often, customers Google your brand, and when they can’t find contact info on your site, they keep looking. They might find a story in Chain Leader’s archive and click on the nearest “contact us” button. That creates a popup window with an e-mail addressed to chainleader@reedbusiness.com. We get a lot of your e-mail. We’re happy to forward it if we can find the right address. But sometimes we just have to tell your customers they sent it to the wrong place. I’ll bet none of them tries again. They just stop going to your restaurants.

Information Age
Based on very unscientific research (the technical term is Web surfing), I learned that most, not all, chain restaurant Web sites have ways of contacting the corporate office. But that information is not always easy to find.

A good example is McDonald’s, which has its phone number and address and a function to send an e-mail, plus a comprehensive section offering answers to common questions about nutrition, promotions, etc.

I’m puzzled by one thing I found. One chain’s site says it doesn’t accept e-mail. I wonder if the company knows that most of its core customers use e-mail as their first method of communication with anyone, even their parents. If that company is afraid of spam or a virus attack, it should get a good virus software with frequent updates. If not, it is telling a lot of their guests that their comments aren’t wanted.