Just curious if anybody does this. For example I had an experience at Pei Wei last year where they brought my order out to the wrong table and the patron at that table took a bite and then sent it back telling them it was the wrong order. Then I watched them take the dish back to the open kitchen, sit it down on the counter, and then bring it out to me. I wrote a long email to the GM and they sent me a bunch of gift cards. I also send complimentary emails on occasion if I get really good service. I maybe do one negative feedback and one positive feedback email per year, but only when I feel it's very warranted. Now I'm in a situation where I've had a terrible experience with an extremely rude employee and I want to send an email to their manager, but no matter how shitty somebody is it's still hard to think you might impact their ability to feed their family. So just curious if it's because I'm getting old and grumpy, or if other people do this as well.

8/3/2018 3:01:49 PM

I've written compliment emails and complaint emails. I think a lot of businesses only hear negative so if something exceeds expectations I let them know that too

8/3/2018 3:48:32 PM

A manager or owner deserves to know if their employee is garbage. Managers and owners gotta feed their families too, and if their employees are screwing it all up, they'll most likely end up without a job too. I'd guess that at 90% of jobs, most managers will give an employee multiple chances to "get it right" if the employee shows effort and improvement (hiring new people can absolutely be more of a headache than sitting an employee down and asking for more effort.) For all we know the manager is just waiting for a slam dunk reason to fire this employee and you are literally doing everyone else that works at the business a favor.

Just make sure your email isn't an unhinged tirade about how disrespected you feel. Describe the problem and why you felt it was necessary to let the management know.

And make sure you balance this email with some complimentary emails, because Karma is real. When I was in retail we would occasionally get emails/surveys that were complimentary and our manager would bend over backwards to pat employees on the back for those (in various ways). It was a shitty retail job, but it always feels nice to be appreciated and feel like you are doing a decent job.

8/3/2018 4:10:10 PM

I'm more likely to give positive feedback. I'll usually just take my money elsewhere if the service sucks.

8/3/2018 4:14:06 PM

Just don't be a dick and name names. Keep it at "my server". The manager will typically address it to the entire staff and present it as a teachable moment for everyone. Don't get one person fired when they can learn instead.

[Edited on August 3, 2018 at 4:30 PM. Reason : ]

8/3/2018 4:30:06 PM

Yeh I'm not naming names, and this isn't a situation where I can take my business elsewhere. I totally agree about making sure you send positive complimentary emails if you're also going to send emails about a bad experience. This pretty much reinforces what I thought, but no matter how wrong the employee was a part of me feels like a dick.

8/3/2018 4:34:41 PM

that's at least an indicator that you've got some integrity left in ya. if you were a soulless fuck you'd just send it without a 2nd thought. lots of people think restaurants are just big conglomerate machines without understanding that there are real people running the show in the day-to-day operations. as a restaurant industry insider, I appreciate your intent and am happy that you're not "one of those people".

8/3/2018 4:42:32 PM

I've done both, with the most recent being a compliment. But for me to email or call a manager, it has to be really bad.

8/3/2018 5:31:00 PM

If it’s bad enough to warrant me complaining, I’ll typically talk to the manager before I leave. I have called or emailed about good things in the past though.

8/4/2018 10:39:25 AM