Guest Feedback Capture Form & Triage Flow (Template & Playbook)

Purpose

This one-page template and playbook help capture guest signals, triage them quickly, and convert complaints into recovery opportunities and organizational learning. Use the printable in-person form at the host stand and the short digital variant on receipts, QR codes, or your website. Pair this template with a simple triage routine so nothing important falls through the cracks.

How to use this template (quick start)

1. Place the printable form at the host stand and give managers a small packet to carry for in-person reports.
2. Publish the short digital form via QR codes on receipts, table tents, order confirmations, delivery bags, and your website.
3. Train staff to capture feedback immediately and to apply the categorization and severity rules below.
4. Follow the triage flow to assign ownership, acknowledge the guest, investigate, resolve, and log lessons into a shared file or dashboard.
5. Hold a weekly short review huddle to act on trends and close improvement loops.

Printable One-page Feedback Form (In-person)

Design to fit a single printed page. Keep required fields minimal so staff complete it during or immediately after the interaction. Leave space for a quick sketch or note if needed.

Digital Short Form (QR / Receipt / Website)

Keep it under six fields to maximize completion rate. Offer one optional text box and an opt-in checkbox for follow-up contact. Configure an immediate auto-acknowledgement after submit.

Categorization & Severity Rules (Triage)

Short, shareable rules help staff triage consistently across shifts.

• Critical — Immediate escalation. Examples: suspected foodborne illness, allergic reaction, injury, severe hygiene failure, or any situation that could cause regulatory or legal exposure. Action: Manager-on-duty notified immediately; provide guest care if needed; preserve evidence (dish, plate, photo); notify safety/operations per policy.
• Major — Significant service or quality failure that materially affected the guest (e.g., hot food served cold, major billing error, large order incorrect, delivery that failed). Action: Manager contacts guest within SLA; recovery offer considered (refund, replacement, voucher); incident logged for root-cause review.
• Minor — Small complaints, suggestions, or praise that do not require escalation. Action: Acknowledge within SLA; log for trend analysis and continuous improvement discussions.

Suggested SLA & Targets (tune to your operation)

• Digital submissions — immediate auto-acknowledgement: within 1 hour.
• Critical issues — manager contact: within 1 hour (ideally immediate onsite response).
• Major issues — manager initial contact: within 12–24 hours.
• Major issues — resolution attempt: within 72 hours.
• Case closed and lessons logged: within 7 days.

Escalation Matrix (example)

• Staff (server/host): capture and notify on-duty manager for all Major/Critical items.
• Manager-on-duty: investigate, offer immediate recovery where appropriate, assign owner, and update the case record.
• Area/Operations Manager: notified for repeat Major incidents, unresolved issues beyond SLA, or any Critical event.
• Director of Operations / Safety Lead: notified for serious safety/legal exposure or per policy.

Triage Flow (simple step-by-step)

1. Capture: staff records the feedback (paper or digital). Attach photos when helpful.
2. Categorize: apply category and severity rules immediately.
3. Assign: assign an owner and set a response SLA target.
4. Acknowledge: send a quick acknowledgement to the guest (automated for digital; manager for in-person when contact info is provided).
5. Investigate: owner gathers facts, interviews involved staff, checks POS/orders and CCTV where appropriate.
6. Resolve: offer recovery (refund, replacement, voucher, sincere apology) and document actions taken.
7. Follow-up: confirm guest satisfaction when permission is granted; close case after confirmation or after defined contact attempts.
8. Learn: log root cause, corrective actions, and add to a shared knowledge file or shift debrief agenda to prevent recurrence.

Sample Messages

Data Fields, Tags & Tracking

• Capture date (system timestamp), location, category, severity, owner, response times, resolution, and guest outcome (satisfied/unresolved).
• Use tags for recurring themes (example tags: "burnt-burger", "order-mixup-lunch", "delivery-late").
• Keep an internal dashboard showing open cases, time-to-first-response, top categories, and trending root causes.

KPIs to Monitor

• Number of feedback items per week by category
• Average time to first response
• Average time to resolution
• % of dissatisfied guests who receive a recovery and then return
• Top recurring root causes and reduction over time

Implementation Checklist

• Print and place in-person forms; add digital form links to receipts, QR codes, and website.
• Train staff on capture, categorization rules, and immediate escalation triggers.
• Set SLA targets and publish the escalation matrix.
• Configure auto-acknowledgements for digital submissions and route Major/Critical cases to on-duty managers.
• Hold a weekly feedback review huddle to surface trends and assign improvement actions.
• Log root causes and update standard work or menu items when appropriate.
• Review privacy and opt-in rules for storing guest contact information and marketing.

Privacy & Safety Notes

Only collect contact information with explicit permission for follow-up. For safety or allergy reports, escalate promptly and preserve records per your internal policy. Do not promise regulatory or legal outcomes in guest communications — escalate such cases to your safety or legal team and follow formal reporting procedures.

Where this template helps most

Small teams and multi-location groups can use the same form and triage rules. Local managers handle immediate recovery; operations teams track trends and systemic fixes. The form supports faster recovery, better learning, and fewer repeat mistakes.

Optional: Turn this template into a platform Interactive Form

To make capture and triage immediate and auditable, implement the short digital form above as an InteractiveForm so submissions are saved automatically to the platform (hunContentItemData). Below is an example InteractiveForm definition you can import or use as a reference. Implementing this connects each submission to a timestamp, supports auto-acknowledgements, dashboards, and makes weekly reviews effortless.

InteractiveForm JSON (example)

{
  "Title": "Guest Feedback Capture",
  "IntroductionHtml": "
Use this short form for guest feedback (QR codes, receipts, website). Fields marked required help us respond faster. For urgent safety/allergy issues, call the restaurant immediately.
",
  "SubmitLabel": "Submit Feedback",
  "SuccessMessage": "Thanks — your feedback was received. A manager will review this and contact you if you gave permission.",
  "DataType": "guest_feedback_submission",
  "SchemaVersion": "1.0",
  "Fields": [
    {"Key": "location","Type": "text","Label": "Location / Station","HelpText": "Store code or area (e.g., 'Downtown', 'Kitchen Line 2').","Required": true},
    {"Key": "team_member","Type": "text","Label": "Team member recording (optional)","HelpText": "Name or initials — helpful for follow-up.","Required": false},
    {"Key": "feedback_type","Type": "select","Label": "Feedback type","HelpText": "Choose the best match.","Required": true,
      "Options": [
        {"Value": "praise","Label": "Praise"},
        {"Value": "complaint","Label": "Complaint"},
        {"Value": "suggestion","Label": "Suggestion"},
        {"Value": "safety","Label": "Safety"},
        {"Value": "allergy","Label": "Allergy"}
      ]
    },
    {"Key": "category","Type": "select","Label": "Category","HelpText": "Pick a category to help routing and analytics.","Required": true,
      "Options": [
        {"Value": "food_quality","Label": "Food quality"},
        {"Value": "service","Label": "Service"},
        {"Value": "cleanliness","Label": "Cleanliness"},
        {"Value": "wait_time","Label": "Wait time"},
        {"Value": "billing","Label": "Billing"},
        {"Value": "online_order","Label": "Online order"},
        {"Value": "delivery","Label": "Delivery"},
        {"Value": "allergy","Label": "Allergy"},
        {"Value": "safety","Label": "Safety"},
        {"Value": "other","Label": "Other"}
      ]
    },
    {"Key": "severity","Type": "radio","Label": "Severity","HelpText": "Use triage rules: Critical / Major / Minor.","Required": true,
      "Options": [
        {"Value": "critical","Label": "Critical"},
        {"Value": "major","Label": "Major"},
        {"Value": "minor","Label": "Minor"}
      ]
    },
    {"Key": "short_description","Type": "textarea","Label": "Short description","HelpText": "What happened and when? (one short paragraph)","Required": false},
    {"Key": "permission_to_contact","Type": "yesno","Label": "Permission to contact","HelpText": "Check yes to allow a manager to follow up.","Required": false},
    {"Key": "contact_info","Type": "text","Label": "Contact info (optional)","HelpText": "Phone or email if permission granted.","Required": false},
    {"Key": "immediate_action","Type": "textarea","Label": "Immediate action taken (if any)","HelpText": "What did staff do right away?", "Required": false},
    {"Key": "tags","Type": "text","Label": "Tags (comma-separated)","HelpText": "Short keywords for trend analysis (e.g., burnt-burger, late-delivery).","Required": false},
    {"Key": "assigned_owner","Type": "text","Label": "Assigned owner (name/role)","HelpText": "Who will follow up?", "Required": false}
  ]
}

Notes on the example JSON above:

• When implemented as an InteractiveForm in the platform, submissions will be stored via the platform storage capability (hunContentItemData) and include a created timestamp.
• Configure auto-acknowledgement text to include emergency contact instructions for Critical submissions.
• Integrate or map the "location" and "assigned_owner" fields to your internal location and staff master data for routing and dashboards where possible.

Implementation & Capability Suggestions

To make this template most effective in a live operation, consider the following capabilities and integrations (requires platform configuration):

• Implement the short digital form as an InteractiveForm so submissions are saved automatically and can be reported on.
• Use platform Data Collection to store submissions and support dashboards (time-to-first-response, open cases, trending categories).
• Set up an auto-acknowledgement workflow for digital submissions. For Major/Critical items, route an immediate notification to the on-duty manager (email/SMS/push) depending on your tools.
• Map form fields to your POS/location codes and staff directory for faster assignment and consistent reporting.
• Consider a simple daily or weekly alert to operations managers when Major/Critical cases trend above a threshold.

Where to begin

Start with the digital short form and auto-acknowledgement. Collect several weeks of submissions and run a weekly 15-minute feedback huddle to identify one improvement to pilot. Use the printable page for in-person capture until digital channels cover most guest feedback.