We've probably all had it who work in the hospitality trade, particularly if you serve large numbers of customers every day. "Don't go to this place it's rubbish" on TripAdvisor (hopefully surrounded by "do go to this place it's really good" reviews). Or the old chestnut "we've been asked to leave for absolutely no reason whatsoever" on Twitter (because all venues do this don't we? We all ask people to leave for "absolutely no reason whatsoever").
Such things on Twitter and Facebook provide a bit of a dilemma for publicans and restaurateurs everywhere, do you get involved and try and explain your position, or do you let it blow over and let people get their gripes off their chest? My feeling is there's no right or wrong answer, but almost always conducting dialogue of this type with customers on a public forum doesn't end well. Either it drags on and on and other people (who weren't there/don't know the situation) get involved, or the operator eventually loses his rag and launches into the customer publicly telling him "never come back you tosser!". We've all seen such cases played out in the media and in my view it doesn't reflect well upon either party, amusing though it is for the newspapers (particularly if it's a well known chef as it always seems to be) .
As far as being a customer myself who occasionally refers to such sites as TripAdvisor is concerned, I think it's usually important to have a "nutter" filter when viewing potential places to visit. I've always felt that if the vast majority of people really like a venue, the odd one giving a 1 out of 5 review and saying "the place was packed and noisy" or "we had to wait 35 minutes for our pizzas" ought to be taken with a bucket of salt. Equally, I can't get away from the feeling that if said customer was so massively concerned with the noise, or the wait time, or the price or whatever it was, why didn't they take it up with the management at the time, or at least call them the next day to discuss it? That's what I'd do see, if (and it's never ever happened) I was asked to leave somewhere "for no reason whatsoever" I'd leave, then vigorously take it up with the management of the venue the following day. I wouldn't create a scene at the time as that would kind of prove the removers were correct all along, and I wouldn't lower myself to sounding off on social media, I think I'm better than that.
Not that all of this of course means that any complainers or people who mark you one out of five and the like are wrong, of course they aren't. People who complain or aren't impressed ought to be the oxygen which allows a good venue to improve, pointing out deficiencies or indiscretions which the vast majority of customers will also see but usually be too polite to tell you about. "Professional complainers" don't exist, they are a myth of the hospitality trade in my opinion. Also my opinion is that you should multiply the number of complaints you receive in a year by AT LEAST a factor of ten in order to assess how many dissatisfied customers you've had. Most people don't complain, and I've lost count of the times I've been somewhere and despite not being impressed with the whole experience have with a smile told the server everything was "really good". We don't complain as a whole, so when people do we in the trade ought to take them seriously.
But anyway back to Twitter complainers and TripAdvisor marker-downers. I'm pretty sure that as these people have a smart phone and are "savvy" on things in general, they have the ability to find out a venues phone number and/or email address. They have the ability, the intelligence and the nous to make their point to a venue and its management without seeking to publicly embroil them in an argument as well. Ultimately that's the way I feel that such things ought to be played out, and that's why I tend not to get involved if a customer is disparaging on a public forum. I obviously for reasons of professional courtesy wouldn't say to a customer "because you were drunk sir and being a pain in the arse" on a public forum, but I maybe more inclined to do so if he or she popped in and had a word with me. Equally I maybe (or almost certainly would be) more sympathetic to his or her cause if they took the route of actually speaking to us, rather than what they consider to be "the wider world" (even that's a myth, nobody listens to any of us really!).
So anyway there you have it, at the Alex we generally don't get involved in social media spats. We don't think it is helpful. If however you wish to contact us for whatever reason, our email address for reference is alexandra@youngs.co.uk and our phone number is 0208 9477691. My name is Mick, and if you fancy just bobbing in I'll buy you a pint and we can discuss anything you like.
No comments:
Post a Comment