Guest Feedback Collection Checklist

Hosts drop the comment card with the check presenter alongside a working pen. Pre-shift, confirm the card stock isn't last season's menu version — out-of-date cards signal staleness to regulars.

The two-minute check-back and the dropped-check moment are the highest-yield asks. Script: "How was everything tonight — anything we could have done better?" Open-ended beats a yes/no, and the answer goes onto the manager log if it surfaces a complaint.

Open the kiosk app (Toast Feedback, TouchBistro, or whatever survey tool the location uses), confirm Wi-Fi, charge cable seated, and the screensaver prompt is live. A frozen kiosk collects zero data and looks broken to guests on the way out.

File with the POS vendor's support portal and tape a paper backup card to the host stand until the tablet is back. Note the outage window in the manager log so feedback volume dips are explained at the weekly review.

Any complaint a manager handles at the table — comp, remake, allergen scare, long ticket time — gets a line in the book: time, table, server, issue, resolution. This is the raw feed for the weekly trend review and the only record if the guest follow-up call asks "what happened that night?"

Confirm the survey link in Toast or Square digital receipts routes to the current survey form, not a 404 from a deprecated SurveyMonkey. UTM tag the link so the response source is attributable in the weekly report.

Export from Google Business Profile, Yelp for Business, OpenTable, Resy, and TripAdvisor. Note the average star rating and any review under 3 stars — those go onto the service-recovery list regardless of channel.

Instagram Story poll or stickers work better than a feed post for menu-mix signal. Keep the poll narrow — one dish, one question — and screenshot results before the 24-hour expiry.

Delivery ratings are a different signal than dine-in — most complaints are packaging, missing items, or cold food, not food quality. Note any rating drift below 4.6 on either platform; both will deprioritize the listing below that threshold.

Pull last night's covers from the POS guest list and trigger the SevenRooms or OpenTable post-visit email. 24 hours is the response-rate sweet spot — earlier feels intrusive, later and the experience has faded.

Bucket complaints by theme — ticket time, server attentiveness, dish-specific, noise, cleanliness. Three of the same theme in a week is a pattern, not noise, and gets surfaced in the manager meeting.

Anything 2 stars or below, or a survey NPS detractor (0-6), routes to the GM for personal follow-up. Don't delegate this to a host — guests can tell when the reply is a template.

GM calls within 24 hours of the flagged review. Listen first, apologize without qualifying, offer a concrete invitation back — a comped entrée or chef's tasting beats a generic "come back and try us again." Log the call outcome.

Public reply on Google or Yelp after the private call, not before. Short, name-the-guest-if-they-named-themselves, no defensiveness, no comp amounts in public. Future readers are the audience as much as the reviewer.

One-on-one with the server named in the review, not a public callout at lineup. If the complaint is kitchen-side, loop in the sous and pull the ticket time from the POS to see if the cook was within window. Coaching beats discipline on the first instance.

Cover: weekly response volume, average star rating across channels, top complaint theme, recovery calls placed and outcomes, one action item assigned with an owner. Skip the slide deck; one printed page on the pass.

One fix per week, named owner, due date inside two weeks. Examples: re-coach the bar on greet time, swap the chicken supplier after three texture complaints, retrain hosts on the wait-quote script. More than one fix per week and nothing ships.