With the price of the products these days, guests should expect that the product they order is of a good quality and comes out the way they ask it to be made. Unfortunately, as I discuss with my students from time to time, there are three items you need to have a great restaurant: Speed, Sanitation (cleanliness), and Quality. I then tell them to pick two of those three items as it is impossible to do all three. Some of my students will disagree with me and try to argue; however, none, as of yet, have been able to show a restaurant that can perform all three effectively and consistently. Some places (Jack-in-the-box, In-N-Out) focus on Sanitation and Quality and you have to wait, so they sacrifice speed of service, while others (McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell) focus on Speed of Service. You can argue amongst yourselves as to whether they focus on Quality or Sanitation as the other item.

Suffice to say, most restaurants WILL focus on the quality of their products in order to create return customers. If the product is of excellent quality, most people will overlook any other faults the establishment may have. For me, this has started to become an issue at the local Pizza Hut here in Flagstaff. Having worked in restaurants, I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of an upset customer; however, as I have learned over the years, as is stated in the title of this post, “The customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer”.

In my classes, I teach my students about customer service, embellished with stories of how I have handled angry customers, and the occasional story of myself being the customer. During these lectures, I teach my students about the two different versions of what is known as “The curse of Ten”. This is something I feel is important and that every manager in a restaurant should know about, as it impacts the business dramatically.

The curse of ten (aka telephone). The first curse of ten is more like a game of telephone. If a person goes to a restaurant, has a bad experience (food, service, etc), and the experience is SO bad that they may never go there again, that person (based on previous research) will tell a minimum of ten of their friends. IF the experience is extremely bad, it is possible that those ten friends could also tell ten of their friends. Depending on the severity of the issue, a business could end up losing a great deal of business. This “curse of ten” was established well before the invention of social media, which snowballs the way people perceive food establishments. This is evidenced by the recent incident at the Red Hen restaurant that asked Ms. Sarah Sanders to leave the establishment, and the resulting negativity has impacted other restaurants that happened to be named “the Red Hen” even though they had no affiliation with the original location. People are quoted as saying “You have the same name, you must be related”. This also holds true for franchise establishments, where the Starbucks in Pennsylvania called the police on some African American patrons, and Starbucks locations in other states were being hounded and punished as if the incident happened in their location.

The second “Curse of ten” is one that all Managers should learn and understand, as it says a lot more about what may be going on in the establishment than they may realize. This curse of ten states that for every one (1) person that takes the time to complain about an issue, there are ten (10) more guests that had the same issue but decided to leave and never come back.  Now, this is not saying that EVERY customer that complains is part of this curse of ten, as there are unscrupulous people out there trying to get a free meal. It does mean that every complaint needs to be taken seriously, until it is determined otherwise.

Last night I was having discussions with a couple restaurant owner friends of mine along with some other friends. The topic turned to dealing with angry customers. My philosophy has always be to let them have their say, apologize if appropriate (and appropriately), try to make it up to the guest. One of the restaurant owners stated that they had a guest call and start yelling about how the food was the nastiest garbage they ever had, it made them sick within an hour and a half, and they just went on and on, then stated they wanted a free meal. Most people, if they know they got sick from eating a specific restaurant, would not call that restaurant and demand another meal from them. I know I wouldn’t, and I hope that a lot of my readers feel the same way. This of course was a person trying to get a free meal and not a legitimate complaint. So how does a person know what is a legitimate complaint and what is not. Well, it takes time to learn the difference, and honestly, there are still times when I have gotten taken advantage of when I was a manager. For example, when I managed Burger King in Las Vegas, I was working breakfast at my store and a person called and said they spoke with a specific manager and was told they would get a replacement breakfast because the hash browns the day before were too salty. Well, the manager they spoke with did work the day before, so I went ahead and honored what they said, and didn’t think any more of it. That afternoon, I was asked if I could help at another restaurant for some reason I can’t remember why, but that afternoon, the same person came in and used the same excuse (but for lunch) at that restaurant. Come to find out, they had been using the same excuse at several local Burger King locations and had been getting free meals for several weeks before they were caught.

So why am I discussing this on my blog? Well, I personally, have had an ongoing issue with the local pizza hut here in Flagstaff for the past month, and I cannot seem to get them to understand customer service. it started on June 13th, when I ordered some two large pizzas, 16 boneless wings, and cheese sticks through the online ordering system which I have used in the past. I had asked for the pizzas NOT to be cut because every time I ask for 12 slices they would cut it into 16 slices. The pizzas were made correctly; however, they started to cut one of the pizzas, so there was a cut halfway through, not a big deal in my book. The wings and cheese sticks on the other hand were incorrect. The deliver driver took them back, brought the correct wings and said the lack of cheese was how the cheese sticks come. I was upset and complained.

I should have realized that customer service for Pizza Hut was going down hill when I received in the mail, a letter of apology on letterhead designed with free pizza coupons as part of the letterhead. For a company to actually spend money on designing letterhead paper with free pizza coupons on them, says a lot about the customer service.

With the coupons in hand, I walked to the local pizza hut (about a mile from my house) and placed my order with a manager. I ordered the exact same as before, two large thin & crispy super supreme pizzas with extra cheese and jalapenos, 16 boneless wings, and the double order of cheese sticks. This time, I asked for extra extra cheese on the cheese sticks to make sure they were cheesy. Unfortunately, and for some unknown reason, the computer system would not allow them to add extra cheese to the double order of cheese sticks, but it would let them add it to a single order of cheese sticks. So the manager rang up to single orders and added extra extra cheese to them. I complained about the price difference and the manager was unmoved and only said that it is the only way the computer will let her do it. For those that don’t know, the double order of cheese sticks is $1.59 less that two single orders, so I was being over charged for wanting extra cheese on my cheese sticks. I went ahead and paid for the order, she applied the coupons, and since I was walking, asked for the order to be delivered later that day.

Later that day, the driver delivered my order, showed me that the cheese sticks had lots of cheese on them, and drove off. I opened the pizzas, they were not cut, as I had asked, but one of the pizzas was wrong. Instead of a super supreme in was just a regular supreme. I took pictures of the pizzas, then called the restaurant and asked to speak with a manger. I was told the manager was busy and if I could leave my name and number they would call me right back. I left my name, number, receipt order number, total paid, and what was wrong with my order. I was told the manager would call me back shortly. This all happened on Friday, June 29th. By Monday, July 2nd, I sent a message through the pizza hut website complaining about my order and the lack of attention by anyone in management. On Thursday, July 5th, I received a call from the district manager for the store here in Flagstaff.

The district manager appeared to be a nice gentleman, apologized for the mistakes and for no one contacting me (apparently the manager had a death in the family and had left to deal with that, of which I was very understanding). He asked that I give Pizza Hut another chance and offered me a $25 discount on my next order. He advised me to speak with the general manager (she would be returning the next day) and that she would make sure I get what I order. I thanked the district manager and decided I would give it another try.

On Friday, July 6th, I walked to the local store, but the dining room was closed due to a water pipe break. I went back on Thursday, July 12th, but the dining room was still closed; however, they were still doing delivery and carry-out. I questioned how they can do carry-out with a locked door, but I left and went home. Yesterday, I decided to give the store a call and speak with the manager and use my discount before I move away from Flagstaff at the end of the month. I called around 2:30 pm, so it was between lunch and dinner. Spoke with the manager, told her the issues I was having from the last several orders, how the district manager called and discussed my issues, etc. She took the time to make sure she understand what I wanted in my order, made sure to discuss it with her cook before I paid for my meal and my credit card was charged. I was finally going to get a delivery of food and it was going to be correct.

Then the order arrived.

Honestly, my pizza order is not that difficult. At least this time the driver showed me the pizzas before he left. He showed me the first one, looks good. He then went to hand me the second pizza and I went to open it. I’m looking at the pizza and something doesn’t look correct. I ask “where are the jalapenos?”. The driver looks and says he doesn’t see any. I get the receipt and it shows jalapenos. I then reopen the first pizza and it does have jalapenos.

At this point I am at a loss for words. The general manager takes the order and assures me that the order will be correct and I get an incorrect pizza. The driver takes the pizza back with him and says he will return with a correct pizza shortly, which he does bring a correct pizza. I then look at the receipt and try to figure out how she entered everything into the computer and I see that instead of being charged for extra extra cheese on the cheese sticks, I an charged for extra x4 for the cheese. She charged me $15.59 for the cheese sticks, which is actually more than what I paid last time when they rang in two single orders ($15.18). So last time it was $2 for the extra cheese, this time it was $4 for the extra cheese.

I then waited a few hours to see if the manager was going to call and apologize for the error or anything, and I received no such communication. Having spoken with the district manager previously, I sent him a text message letting him know that I spoke with the manager as he suggested but it didn’t help. He apparently didn’t save my number in his cell phone because his response was “who is this”. After explaining who I was and how he contacted me to try and make up for the errors, I apologized for contacting him directly, but thought he would like to know the results of his suggestion. As of the writing of this post, I have not heard from anyone else at Pizza Hut. Good thing I am moving from the area. This pizza hut cannot seem to get an order correct. I questioned whether this was impacting the food cost and the reason why the pizzas have become so expensive. Only time will tell if they survive for much longer here in Flagstaff.