This is page 3 of:
Retail 2.0: The Social Restaurant
What if you monitored Yelp for negative reviews and sent “We’re sorry” gift cards to those customers who had a bad experience? What if you then flagged those cards to alert the manager when they were used so she could apologize in person? (I actually know of a restaurateur doing this today, and I think it’s awesome.)
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. None of these ideas would be outrageously expensive to implement. The biggest hurdle is getting people used to the idea of exposing this information to everyone—customers and staff alike—in the restaurant. It’s one thing to fret over a negative review on Yelp. It’s quite different to see a screen showing that 70 percent of the people in the dining room aren’t happy with the service they just received.
It’s an intimidating thought for sure. But if you think about it, wouldn’t the impact be positive? If there is a tweet on the screen complaining about a dirty bathroom, don’t you think someone would rush in to clean it? If the guests are complaining about slow service, the manager can act on that real-time feedback. (Editor’s Note: What if this feedback impacted bonuses for managers and the employees responsible? What if they received a reward for maintaining a satisfaction rating above X?)
The point of this new world of social tools and transparency is the understanding that nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. What is important is how you deal with those mistakes. Your customers will forgive most problems if they believe you take them seriously and addressed them.
The other consideration is to make sure you don’t overreact. The news is littered with examples of companies overreacting to negative sentiment in the social world: people pulling ads or even scrapping packaging because a small group of people objects. There will always be “haters” and “trolls.” As long as you approach feedback with a level head, things should be fine.
Term Of The Week: “Me-tailers”—Retailers that understand a solid social strategy requires having a unique relationship with each customer and interacting with each customer on his or her own terms. “We have implemented a social CRM system to be a better Me-tailer by understanding our customers at a much deeper level.”
What do you think? Leave a comment, or E-mail me at Todd.Michaud@FranchiseIT.org. You can also follow me on Twitter: @todd_michaud.
Would you believe I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles)? You can follow my Ironman training at www.irongeek.me.
-Marc
October 14th, 2010 at 9:50 am
When you look at the history of innovation, there are key events that dramatically shift the normal flow of life (airplanes, semiconductors, microwave ovens, …). In the months before these introductions, we could not fathom the possibilities (I can cook a potato in 20 minutes instead of an hour).
Todd has in this article identified one such future situation that today we are skeptical about — in just the same way as with those earlier events. I think we are only just beginning to understand the effects of the Social Networking concept, and it may not be until those who are most familiar with it come of age to start their own businesses that exploit it.
Dynamic restaurant service performance tracking is an interesting concept, and I suppose it will take some owners to try it — succeed in some areas, fail in others — before we know how it best works (e.g. customer survey codes & links on receipts). But isn’t that the way all new ventures start out? For what it’s worth, I would opt for a dashboard style feedback display; after seeing the way people comment on news articles, it may be best not to readily post raw comments.
October 14th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
James,
Thanks so much for your comment! What is interesting is that a large part of user adoption has come prior to the financial benefit being maximized. This is backward to traditional concepts and traditional thinking. There is so much possibility of how these tools can be implemented for financial gain, I’m just not sure everyone sees it.
Thanks again!