I absolutely adore pizza. But I don’t mean the tasteless rubbish you get in most British pizza chains like Pizza Hut, Pizza Express, Domino's, Ask, Strada, Prezzo, etc.
What I’m talking about is the really
authentic Italian pizzas that are made with the utmost pride and passion in
little independent backstreet restaurants in Naples - something I discovered
during my 'Grand Tour of Italy' a few months ago. To the Neapolitans, pizza
isn't a food: it's a religion.
With this in mind, I recently came
across an article about a pizza restaurant based in Seattle, USA, where the
owner is absolutely obsessive about good customer service. The article features
a conversation between the restaurant's owner Will Grant and the American
customer service consultant and author Micah Solomon.
Although you have probably never heard
of his restaurant (incidentally it’s called ‘That’s A Some Pizza’) the very
wise words of the owner are something that we can all learn from. I have
reproduced some of their conversation below.
Micah: Customer service is a
differentiator for your business. Can share with me your customer service
philosophy, and any customer service practices that have stood you in good
stead?
Will: Customer service - our
reputation with our customers - is literally our only marketing effort. In support of this, I think the number one
philosophy that has stood us in good stead is the feeling that every mistake is a chance to make a lifelong
customer.
When we make a mistake, not only will
we pay for the meal but comp the next one as well to make sure the customer
comes back. We will even cover it if the mistake is, or seems to be, the fault
of the customer. My feeling is that there’s no point being stingy about the
cost of one pizza order, if you compare it to the cost of weekly orders for the
next several years from a happy customer.
Micah: It can’t always be easy, in a
restaurant like yours, that does a high volume of business with the public. Are
there challenges related to customer service that keep you from always being
able to pull off the level of service that you aim for?
Will: One of the hardest things is
training our employees to not to take complaints personally. They’re proud of
the work that they do, and naturally prone to get defensive. It’s my job to
help them learn that fighting with a customer is never going to be successful.
Social media has been quite a
challenge at times. With websites like
Yelp, every person who has eaten food is now a food critic. It has taken me
years to learn not to look at Yelp after 10pm because, if I do, I’ll be up
until 5am in the morning worrying about it. I do respond to both good and bad
reviews, I offer free food on the next visit if something has gone wrong, and
do my best to relate to the customer.
Micah: Is a customer ever too
ridiculously unreasonable, or is clearly taking advantage of you?
Will: We’ve been fortunate. Maybe
because we’re in a small town and are involved with the local community, our
customers are pretty respectful and understanding.
Though we did have a funny incident a
couple years ago. During the playoffs the Seahawks were playing the Green Bay
Packers and our city manager got
national attention by temporarily banning any Wisconsin cheese on Bainbridge
Island, where we’re located. I didn’t think anything of it until the following
Friday, when my delivery driver asked me why we had so many deliveries to City
Hall. It turned out that a radio station in Wisconsin thought it would be funny
to encourage their listeners, Packers fans, of course, to prank order cheese
pizzas; we ended up with more than 30 prank calls, only a couple of which
sneaked past us. Once we caught on, we answered every prank call with “Go
Hawks,” which sent many a Green Bay fan into a string of expletive-filled
comments.
Micah: Great customer service depends
on having great employees who can interact successfully with customers. Do you
have a philosophy of hiring, onboarding, and inspiring customer-facing
employees that you’d like to share with me?
Will: Over the years my philosophy has
grown when it comes to employees. My first breakthrough was coming up with what
I call the 'Cycle of Sales' when I was just an employee myself learning the
ropes at our pizza parlour. The 'Cycle of Sales' idea is take care of the
employees and the employees will take care of the customers and in turn the
customers will take care of the business.
As an owner I’ve been able to become a
mentor to my managers and staff. I try
to think of myself as a father figure and to help them to succeed giving them
the moral support, tools and responsibility they need to be successful leaders
and employees.
In my perspective you need to actually
care for your employees for them to care about your business. Only with their
respect are you able to push them to work their best, always improving
themselves. And by giving the managers the respect and authority to do a good
job they in turn are mentors to the staff befriending them and asking for their
hard work and showing them how to work hard by example.
Going to yearly conventions, such as
the local Pacific Northwest food show and, of course, the show we’re attending
now (The International Pizza Expo), also helps introduce my key staff members
with bigger management concepts and socializes them with other
pizzeria/restaurant managers that can relate to them and their jobs.
Micah: One of my own principles of
customer service is that timeliness is essential. To quote myself, “If you
deliver the perfect product or service, but you deliver it late, it’s by
definition defective.” In the pizza business, failing to be consistently fast
can work against you, with so many other food options and with speedy
competition within the pizza arena. Are you able to address this?
Will: This has definitely been a focus
of ours. Even in a 500 square foot restaurant, we have amazing speed here. Our
Rotoflex oven can cook 300 pizzas an hour, our rollers can roll twelve 16 inch
pizzas in 4:26 seconds and we can make a pizza in under 30 seconds for a total
pizza make time of 8 minutes per pizza.
These details really matter to us,
because in 32 years our sole marketing has been word of mouth, which we develop
by focusing on the factors that we can control. Quick delivery times,
consistent food, hiring competent staff and focusing on training our staff have
all helped us market our restaurant to our local community.
REFERENCE
Solomon, M., How To Turn Customer
Service Into Marketing, Forbes, 21st July 2016.