It’s tempting to dismiss online reviews of your business

After looking up her spa for the first time on Yelp Inc., a popular Web site where urbanites rate local businesses, Peggy Wynne Borgman nearly headed for a steambath herself. Four out of five reviews of her business were chilly or lukewarm.

Ms. Borgman, the owner of Preston Wynne spas in Saratoga, Calif., decided to try to do something about her “miserable” 2½-star rating.

Using Yelp’s email system, she typed out messages to each downbeat reviewer to find out more about what went wrong — and to try to make it right. And she sent a thank you to the happy customer. Then she added to her email newsletter a note encouraging regular clients to get online and share their good experiences. Several stressful months later, the spa’s rating had climbed to an acceptable four stars.

“It’s personal and it’s painful, a public flogging like that,” Ms. Borgman says. But today, Yelp is an important source of new visitors for her two California spas, she says, “which is funny, considering I originally thought it was the tool of the devil.”

Proprietors of service businesses like Ms. Borgman are facing a new challenge from the increasing popularity of Web sites that feature consumer reviews of local establishments. Though good customer service and reputations have always been keys to success for smaller players, never before has news — good or bad — traveled so far, so fast, or been so long-lived and accessible.

Please, waiter, just let me finish eating

Jo McDonald of Auburn Hills writes: “Before I am finished eating in restaurants, waiters and waitresses frequently ask, ‘Are you still working on that?’ Are they trained to ask this question? Can’t they see I am not yet finished? What does ‘working on that’ mean?”

Dear Jo: I think it’s intended to be facetious — or anyway, that’s what’s intended by people who pay any attention to the words that come out of their mouth.

See Full Story -

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20070610/FEATURES01/706100579/1026/FEATURES01

Diners sound off on wait staff’s words

Note the words like “hate,” “offensive” and “very upset” in the patrons’ complaints below. It’s a two-way street.

Also note that I received a number of messages like “I liked your article on pet peeves in restaurants. I concur with all of them. I can only hope that restaurant owners read it and pass the peeves on to their employees.”

So, restaurant staff, listen up. Every one of the complaints below was made by more than one person — some of them by many more than one.

That and space considerations are the reasons I haven’t quoted my correspondents by name this week.

“My most hated comment is ‘Do you want your change?’ ” one reader wrote. Another echoed him and added: “Of course I want my change! Don’t you want your change when you buy something? If I am leaving the change for a tip, I’ll tell you.”

See http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/FEATURES01/706240547/1026

Hotels really do listen to their guests

Believe it or not, hotel companies do pay attention to guest comment cards and suggestions. Don’t like the bedding? Say so. Can’t figure out how to set the clock radio on the bedside table? Let the hotel know. Think those free cold breakfast options are awful? Don’t be shy. Fill out a card at the hotel or respond to e-mail surveys that many hotels rely on to get feedback.

Surprising to me, the upgrading of hotel mattresses, clock radios, free breakfasts and myriad other changes at hotels all came about because guests made their gripes known and offered suggestions. It would seem that guests know what works and what doesn’t in hotel rooms, more so than the people who designed them in the first place.

See … http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0624insiderjun24,0,3581459.story?coll=chi-travel-hed

Soliciting Customer Service Feedback: Motives Matter

When the check arrived it came with two comment cards, encouraging our feedback. [But] the only way to give your feedback was to give the card back to the server. I could walk up and hand it to the host; but perhaps I would like to have mailed it in? There was no address (or email address)…

… if I was to have given negative feedback (I didn’t, the food and service were terrific) and drop that card back in with the check, what’s to stop the server from tossing it in the trash? If this restaurant, or any other establishment, really wants feedback – good or bad – it should make it easy and comfortable to give it.
See http://trustedadvisor.com/blog/170/  

 and

http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2007/06/do_you_really_want_my_feedback.html#more

Joining Web 2.0

It’s clear that blogging, which continues to gain momentum as a serious medium for expression for anyone with a keyboard and internet connection, has reached the mainstream when McDonald’s shells out money to create a corporate responsibility blog.

With the growing popularity of blogs, wikis, and other interactive and user-generated content, a trend dubbed by some as web 2.0, a Canadian company called iUpload has stepped in to help some of the largest corporations in the world create online communities for both internal and external communications.

The company’s Customer Conversation System provides large companies with a variety of tools to set up what iUpload founder Robin Hopper calls “communities of interest” inside and outside the organization.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/tools/103/iupload-1.phtml

Do you REALLY want my feedback?

 recently received a customer satisfaction survey in the mail. It arrived in a nondescript, white envelope without any indication of the sender.   Normally I would place this on top of my paper shredder but curiosity got the best of me.

It turned out to be a customer satisfaction survey, which for the lack of better words, was extremely mundane.  However, my interest level was instantly peaked after reading the cover letter. I had endured a recent customer service experience that was far from stellar so I was eager to provide the company with a few remarks.

As I paged through the survey, my frustration level grew. Listed were the three typical “satisfaction” categories- extremely, somewhat, and not very satisfied, followed by three blank lines for additional comments.  I assume the extra space was supposed to be a kind gesture.  At this point, you begin to wonder…is the company really interested in my feedback.  If so, why are their questions so pointed? If the survey is solely directing me to check off one of three choices based upon satisfaction levels, they really aren’t asking for my true opinion. And in reality, what is satisfaction? Was I satisfied with the employee interaction? Was I satisfied with the product? Concurrently, some customers may wonder if the company is strictly sending the survey out merely as an act to show that they are “customer-focused” or value “customer feedback.” There are so many crucial variables that this survey blatantly disregarded.

See http://blog.vovici.com/vovici_blog/2007/06/do_you_really_w.html

Restaurants vs. Bloggers

(6/11/07) – Ten years ago, in dining destinations like San Francisco, Chicago and New York, restaurant critics at newspapers and magazines reigned supreme as the final arbiters of who served up the richest foie gras, the most interesting wine list and the overall best dining experience.

That was then. Today, foie gras is practically illegal, if not politically incorrect, sommeliers have been replaced with brew masters and computer screens have become the go-to source for what’s what on the dining scene. With nothing more than a keyboard, a camera phone and a lot of opinions, a group of bloggers — often not professional writers — are revolutionizing restaurant reviewing one post at a time and the movement has some chefs and restauranteurs angrily realizing that the only credential required to publicly flog even the most well-established hot spot is a high-speed Internet connection. “What makes a lot of these restaurants feel special is the feeling of exclusivity and privacy and almost like a secret society,” Adam Roberts, better known as “the Amateur Gourmet,” told ABCNEWS.com. “Because of blogs and camera phones, anyone that comes to your restaurant can take pictures and can write about it. & That stuff is kind of not there anymore.”

See full article http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=sci_tech&id=5388017

Guide to … Connecting With Diners

This year’s ivy award winners share not only a commitment to serving the highest-quality food, they also agree that cultivating excellence requires close contact with guests. That means different things, from formally soliciting feedback to simply walking the dining room to look, listen, talk and respond.

“If someone has a half-full plate and their fork is down, I’ll go up to the table and ask if they’re enjoying their food, if everything’s all right,” says Ming Tsai, chef-owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass.

“It’s going out there and finding out what your customers really like,” says Ken Cardone, associate dining-services director and executive chef at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The college’s dining staff also solicits input through comment boards, but personal contacts yield good ideas and convey the staff’s interest in understanding and responding to students.

See http://www.rimag.com/archives/2007/05a/tmm-customers.asp

‘Yelpers’ review local businesses

Nathaniel Uy, managing partner of Mondo Gelato, a San Diego ice creamery, however, is so obsessive about reviews that when he received a 4-star rating (out of 5) from a customer, he wrote to her.

“I asked if there was anything we could do to improve,” he says. “She’s since come back and turned into a loyal customer.”

Nick Kokonas, managing partner of Chicago restaurant Alinea, says his customers are doing more than just posting reviews of his establishment, which opened 18 months ago.

“From the very first day, we’ve had three or four people taking pictures of our food, and posting them on sites like Yelp and Flickr,” he says. “We attract passionate people who love food, art and culture, and they go online and want to tell people about what they’ve discovered. If we try to suppress it, it will look like we have something to hide.”

See http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/2007-06-12-yelp_N.htm