Fact: On a weekly basis myself and our team, read and reply to 100’s if not sometimes thousands of customer reviews from diners who’ve eaten out at a restaurant. From reviews and comments on social media pages, to third party review sites, people that send emails or messages, and we also as have google alerts set up (so if anything is said anywhere we know about it).
Customer data should be of the utmost importance to anyone that is invested in / looking at ways to improve their offering, guest experience or just generally give a shit about what’s going on within their business. Given our society holds so much value on the opinions of others, and what their peers have to say, to be oblivious in this space (and say you don’t care what people are saying about you) online is business suicide.
If you’re a smart business owner and operator, not only will you want to get your hands on this information, but you’ll relish and seek out feedback in all forms. Here’s why; It allows you to reward and recognise your team or improve things when an issue may arise. Yes, shit happens and things can certainly go wrong. If anyone knows about that, it’s me. Ugh
Sometimes the issues may be minuscule, other times catastrophic. If it’s happened, I’m certain I’ve dealt with the fallout on both ends of the spectrum. So, what has this taught me? That owning up to your mess and being accountable is key. Plus share in and relish the wins when they come along too. Bad reviews though – It’s important not to be afraid to put your hand up when you’ve fucked up, and apologise when necessary. On the other side of the coin though, be as brave and empowered to to step up and defend yourself – calling out poor behaviour or lies, when people are jerks too.
One thing I’ve observed though, is a common ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t” mentality in reading and responding to online reviews. If the restaurants and venues don’t reply or action, they are seen to be disinterested, are being gutless or aren’t taking accountability. Yet when they do step up, defend themselves and call people out, they are seen to be the bad guy and then sometimes said customers get upset and then complain further, or the comments and posts turn into an all out war and place for anyone/ everyone to jump in on the topic and comment. What is up with this?
I’ve commented about customer complaints online before, and you can read more here and also here for my thoughts, comments and general rants. So I guess this is part 3, in what’s shaping up to be my continued plight, cause, challenge or life’s mission?
Within the last 12 months, we’ve seen a massive increase and shift where customers behaving poorly, writing scathing online reviews (where they hide behind the comfort and safety of their keyboards) or are just down right pricks is becoming more and more commonplace. More so, there are a large number of companies and sites permitting and encouraging their diners to remain anonymous – even insisting that this process be in place – is this not encouraging poor and negative behaviour? .
Being anonymous allows people to say whatever they like, without us and the venues being able to look into their claims and allegations – therefore preventing further investigation. Not only are we not being given the ability by some sites to have access to these diners details (other than the bare basics), we can’t even take steps to remedy the situations because simple information is not made available. Frustrating right?
The purpose of all reviews is not only for the prospective customers to be equipped with relevant information, but also for businesses who want to know what their consumers are loving, and where they need to strive for improvement. By disallowing businesses the ability to really understand their feedback and customers, how are they supposed to improve? The task becomes impossible. It’s like someone saying they’ve a secret, but yet can’t go into the specifics of it with you. Worst!!
You may think though, just because these people aren’t sharing their names or other key information and details it doesn’t exist. It does I assure you. If you’re an anon reviewer or commented your details are there FYI, there are just restrictions in place to protect your privacy. Go figure.
Not only is the idiom of “the customer always right” being fostered (which is already I feel an outdated and bullshit premise), but now we’re letting (in some cases encouraging) people to hide and say whatever they like. With no way to hold anyone accountable to what they have said. These simple reviews have the potential to damage the careers, livelihood and business’ of often good and hardworking people. In some instances these comments are bordering on the line of slanderous with mal intent. For a better idea of how people are taking advantage of and acting out when given the option to be anonymous, look no further than this article on Fortune.com. It provides us with several examples of sites closing comments, plus apps being removed (due to the negative impact anonymity had on the forum).
Customers are being put on a pedestal more and more, where they think they can extort, blackmail and threaten venues so if they don’t get something for free they’ll take to the online space and “leave a bad review”. It’s online trolling, it’s people not putting their money where their mouths are and in some cases daylight (or nighttime) extortion. Robbery. In general it’s people (often real shitty people) thinking they have the knowledge or authority, to comment on a business’ practice (where in fact most of the time they know jack shit) or inner workings of what it takes to actually takes to run a restaurant or business.
We aren’t the only ones that are upset about this either, with people reaching out to me about this regularly, oh and look another piece and article. This article on “Retailwire” goes into some opinions and their own research, around anonymous reviews; including court cases about defamation, calling for sites to “moderate their users and to ask for proof of their visits to our establishments.” This article is just one that supports us, proving sometimes things being written are more than ‘just words’.
If you’ve got this far, thanks for reading and what’s to be done you say? What’s your plan?
Enough is enough is what I say. I think I can speak for myself and many others (largely operators vs customers) in that we’re sick of some customers having the ability to create a one sided dialogue which at times is laced with malice, exacerbation of the truth or straight out BS.
Why can’t society be like that Episode of Black Mirror, where your actions affect your social standing and how you’re treated and viewed from other members of society and or business’. Well China are paving the way, and it seems this is where we as a society are headed. Is it only a matter of time before like Uber, restaurants are permitted to rate the diners. If they’re disrespectful, rude, or outright unruly – why can’t we say that about them, cautioning other venues about them. Our rating, and rankings should affect whether a venue permits them the privilege to dine at their establishment, instead of it just being the other way around. I mean it’s only fair right?
Something needs to give and I’ll leave you all with this. A friend of mine and industry colleague had this to say and I quote – “It’s about time we take a stand and pioneer for things to change. Uber has it right, because fuckwhits that behave poorly catch taxis”.
So, what to you think of this? As an owner, as an operator, as a review site or as a diner…. Is it time for things to change, or shall I expect a barrage of comments and hate on this post – contributed to by ghosts hiding behind their keyboards 😛