Josh Hurst has encountered his share of angry guests throughout his time at Pies & Pints, a beer and pizza chain with locations in the midwest, interior east, and south.
In the last 2.75 years everybody's stress level has ratcheted up to new heights, and that's made handling angry guests even more challenging (and in some cases more common).
Throughout this time, Josh and his team have relied on the same 5-step process to deal with customers. Here it is:
- Recognize that guests are angry for a reason. It's not your job or the job of your team to determine whether or not that anger is justified. You just need to understand they're upset and for them that feeling is real. (This can be hard.)
- Remove defensiveness by apologizing before you do anything else. A genuine "I'm sorry this happened" can go a super long way—for Josh and his team, a sincere apology turns the situation in a positive direction about 75% of the time. (Prior to Covid this % was higher.)
- Ask the guest an important question: what can we do to make things right? It's sometimes helpful to position this as something you're asking not just for their sake, but also for everyone who comes through the door after them.
- Follow through on what they request. Give them a new pizza on the house. Discount their meal. Provide a gift certificate for a future visit. It's almost certainly worth it, since they'll be more likely to return.
- Figure out what went wrong on your side. Put in as much effort as you need to figure out what happened—sometimes Josh will spend several hours figuring out what went wrong in a single case. And when you figure it out, use the situation as a teaching opportunity (not a punitive one).
Check out the interview clips for more from Josh about angry guests, including how Covid has affected complaints (e.g. oddly, scams have become more common!):
Watch interview clips
