Word of mouth is a restaurant's best form of advertisement — even one bad review from a customer can prevent their friends and/or family from visiting your establishment. One of the most effective means of preventing those bad reviews is to correct unfavorable guest experiences by obtaining customer feedback early and quickly responding to the issues. There are several means of obtaining customer feedback including mystery shoppers, manager visits to individual tables, toll-free numbers and comment cards. JTECH Communications Inc. has developed an electronic comment card system that doubles as a check presenter and interfaces with an (optional) pager. The system can be customized with surveys that suit your operation. Customers answer questions at their table and the manager can be notified immediately, via the pager, if the customer's answers reflect that they are dissatisfied.

FISR spoke with Sean Guffey, managing partner for Bare Bones Grill and Brewery in Port Salerno, Fla., where JTECH's electronic comment card has been used for the past six months.

FISR: What method did you previously use for guests to comment?

Guffey: Person to person — managers visiting tables.

FISR: Why did you switch to the electronic version?

Guffey: Most of the time when you go up to visit a table, the guests aren't always forward with their comments if there is something they want to say or that's bad to say. If the table is quiet, you can either assume that it isn't good, or that they're just quiet. It's a real ambiguous way of getting feedback. The electronic comment card gives a way for someone to give anonymous feedback without someone looking over their shoulder — although it's not anonymous after the fact because I go up to the table if I'm paged. And it's a novelty-type item that everybody is interested in using. It's a new technology. There's only been one customer, so far, that did not fill it out.

FISR: What was the cost to implement the system?

Guffey: The initial cost of the system is about $4,500-$5,500 depending on which system you get. I probably spent a few thousand dollars in my time and the time of my staff in order to make it happen. And the training is so minimal because it's so easy to use. I used to pay a secret shopper $125 per visit plus his meal, so $175 total, to come in once a month. In just a few years, I'm paying for the electronic comment card system in secret shopper costs alone.

FISR: Is there a certain number of comment cards that you get with the initial set-up?

Guffey: Yes. It just depends on the size of the restaurant. I have ten comment cards, and that's perfect for me.

FISR: What is the average time it takes the customer to answer all the questions?

Guffey: It depends on the day, and which questionnaire I use — from 1.5-4 minutes. There is one question per screen, so when a question is answered, it automatically takes the user to the next page.

FISR: Which features did you customize for your system?

Guffey: I started off with a generic questionnaire: How were the hostesses; how was the drink service; how was the food service; was it prompt; rate the quality of your food between one and ten; rate the quality of your service between one and ten; and rate the value of your food. Then I got into a lot more specific questions such as "Did you have a special tonight?" If they answer "no," it would go on to the next question, "Rate the quality or preparation of your food." But if they answered "yes," then it would ask which special they had, and [they would choose from] a list of our specials. Then, once they answered that, it would ask if the portion size was large enough, and how the quality of the food was. I can get very detailed with the questions: How were your surroundings; was everything clean? I was getting low beverage scores when I first started to use the system. So, I would go over to the table and say, "I understand your beverage service is slow. Is your server not taking care of you?" and they would answer "No, it's great. It's just very busy at the bar, and it took me a long time to get a drink at the bar." So now every one of my surveys that has beverage questions included asks the customer to rate beverage service at the bar and beverage service at the table.

FISR: If a guest fills out their comment card and answers a question unfavorably, are you automatically paged?

Guffey: Yes. Since this is a high-end restaurant, I get about $25 per person at dinner. Any score less than an eight on a scale of 1 to 10, and the system pages me to the table. I don't expect average ratings.

FISR: Did you customize that aspect also?

Guffey: Yes. You can customize the scale to any degree. I stay with the 1 to 10 scale because it gives me a real barometer of how we're doing. It gives customers a chance to give me the score that they feel is right.

FISR: If you don't opt to buy the pager that comes with the system, can another pager interface with it?

Guffey: Well, no it can't. You have to use [JTECH's], but if you didn't get the pager than you wouldn't be able to get to the table and try to cut off any problem that may have happened. It would still give you a ton of good feedback, but I think that the extra few hundred bucks that I paid for the pager is worth a lot more of return business because I get to "touch" a guest if there is a problem.

FISR: What type of customized reports can be generated from this system?

Guffey: Anything that has to do with the questions that I have — I can rate and set up specific reports. It has a report writer as part of the program. I can also do time frames. For example, I can run a 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. report on just beverage service. Or I can do my 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. report with just table service. Or, because I don't have as many staff on late night, I can run a 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. report for just food quality.

FISR: Have you found since using the system, that it has improved guests' visits?

Guffey: Absolutely — it's like getting 100 secret shoppers per night, every night. It allows me to get a plethora of information about every aspect of the restaurant. I've changed a number of aspects based upon the information that they've given. For example, when I received several low beverage service scores, I added on a bartender during peak times.

By H. Rae Gibbons

Lori Runkel
Editor
301-990-3452
Hostec Events