Look Who’s Talking About You, Online

People will often write things in online reviews that they didn’t feel comfortable saying in person. Their words may sting or frustrate, says Mr. Morrow of Citysearch, but businesses ignore them at their peril.

“Sometimes local businesses have a hard time hearing it,” he says. “The reality is, if they continue to hear it, [the problem is] there. And unlike the spoken word, [an online review] impacts a hundred more people.”

Ms. Borgman says she learned from poor reviews that her employees needed to be more careful pitching skin products to clients to take home — especially to younger women, who seemed less comfortable saying no. So she did some remedial sales training.

http://www.startupjournal.com/ecommerce/ecommerce/20070719-richmond.html?mod=RSS_Startup_Journal&sjrss=frontpage

Go online to dine

It’s 7 a.m. and you realize that you need to take out-of-town clients to dinner. You don’t have a reservation, and you can’t call at this hour — no one will answer! You can leave a message, but then you might not discover until the afternoon that your restaurant of choice is completely booked. What to do?

There’s a solution that sounds new, but actually has been around since 1999. The difference is that it’s catching on like wildfire now. It’s called OpenTable.com, a Web site that allows you to discover immediately which restaurants are available at the right time, make a reservation online and get confirmation within seconds.

The service began in gourmet-conscious San Francisco, with a rapid migration to New York City. According to a recent New York Times article, it took three years for the online reservations company to seat its millionth customer. Now it reserves tables at restaurants for 2 million people each month.

Ann Shepherd, senior director of consumer marketing for OpenTable.com, said that 800 eateries are registered in New York, and customers can choose from 600 in San Francisco. Hawaii has 41 online (23 on Oahu), which is “double where were at this time last year,” said Shepherd.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/07/18/features/story01.html

A menu with nothing I want and a manager who tells me I’m wrong

J. Mark’s Restaurant & Bar opened near our new house and to take a break from moving boxes, we stopped for lunch.

I’ll never go back for a couple of reasons. It was almost 100 degrees outside and very sunny and my husband was wearing a cap for sun protection. When he goes inside, the first thing he does is switch from sun to regular glasses and then he removes his cap. But while he was switching glasses but before he could get to the cap, the hostess asked him to remove his cap (No caps is the house rule, she told us). Fine, he removed his cap.

But walking to our table we passed a young man wearing a cap backwards….now is this OK???

Once seated with the menu we got a chance to look around. There’s not much to differentiate this place from all the other moderately priced places that serve burgers, seafood and pasta (think Chili’s, TGI Friday’s, J. Alexander’s, Houston’s, Hooters, etc., etc.).

I wanted a simple savory salad but when I looked at the menu, everything was described as having either cheese, candied pecans, avocado or bacon. What I classify as “goop.” Even the soup of the day was a creamy tortilla soup.

I decided to pass on lunch while my husband had a BLT (two layers of bacon, shredded lettuce, tomatoes on fresh pepper and parmesan sourdough bread…yikes) that came with fries. He asked for slaw instead and got it.

He removed his slaw dish from the plate with sandwich. And when he finished his sandwich a woman who looked like a manager immediately whisked his plate away leaving us with a cup of slaw on the table (that always makes me feel rushed). He ate what he wanted of the slaw and pushed it aside.

With that, another manager type came over to inquire if he liked the slaw since he had left some of it. I thought that was very thoughtful, and I was impressed they were trying to get real feedback on their food. I was wrong.

My husband explained he liked the slaw but was full. With that I mentioned that I had had a problem finding something I wanted on the menu because I wanted to eat light.

But instead of listening to my reasoning, the manager started arguing with me by telling me that if I wanted to eat light I should have ordered a salmon salad. It’s described as grilled salmon over field greens with fruit. Well, I don’t like farm-raised salmon which I’m sure they use. I don’t particularly like fruit in salads or with fish. And, I don’t want to pay $13 (it was one of the most highly priced items on the menu) for something that doesn’t appeal to me.

As I said, I didn’t find anything on the menu that appealed, and I won’t be back.

See http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/features_food/2007/07/a-menu-with-not.html

Online, everyone’s a restaurant critic

NEW YORK – Picky eaters used to have few choices about expressing their delight or disappointment over a restaurant meal: Say something to the waiter, tell their friends or fill out that little comment card that comes with the check and hope somebody reads it.

These days, many of them are going home and firing up their computers.

Pioneered by food and restaurant discussion boards like Chowhound.com, a handful of Web sites have taken amateur restaurant critiquing to new levels, giving diners more power than they ever had to sound off on what they like and don’t like. And chefs are taking notice.

Chefs, meanwhile, are taking note of what goes on.

“It’s input and information. We have to look at it,” says Eric Tanaka, who oversees five restaurants in Seattle. “It’s a tool for us. Sometimes it’s flattering, some times it’s not.”

http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_D_onlinefood15.8fd28d.html

Web Site Mistakes That Restaurants Make

If your restaurant is not using email to communicate with customers, then you are missing out on a big opportunity to promote your business and build a loyal customer base. At minimum, you should have a form on your site for customers to sign up for a newsletter or event information. Follow up with regular, timely emails to your list. This is perhaps where many restaurants stumble, yet this is precisely where the most opportunity exists. Contacting your customers on a regular basis with information that they have requested is one of the smartest marketing moves that you can make.

See http://www.restaurantreport.com/departments/biz_mysterydiner.html

Mystery Diners

Awhile ago there was an article about mystery diners written from the viewpoint of actually hiring and paying them. Problem is, quite often when you need a mystery diner, you can’t pay them–that’s why you need them! This article details how you can get the benefits of mystery diners without paying them. I think all restaurants need mystery diners. You may think you know how your restaurant functions and how your customers experience it, but you really don’t. Too often your guests won’t tell you if they’re unhappy, they just won’t come back.

As a publicist I act something like a mystery diner except the staff knows me, of course. But even then it’s amazing how often mistakes crop up. Sitting at one table I can sometimes see something going wrong at another and tell the owner in time to rectify it.

See http://www.restaurantreport.com/departments/biz_mysterydiner.html

Email Marketing – How to Build a Bigger Customer Database

Customers’ e-mail addresses are as good as gold in today’s digital marketing age, and fondue chain The Melting Pot has hit the jackpot. The Tampa, Fla.-based brand’s “Club Fondue” e-mail database boasts more than 500,000 names; since the program’s inception two years ago, both restaurant guest counts and sales have increased.

The secret to building such a rich marketing resource is in offering customers real value for signing up, says Kendra Sartor, vice president of brand development at The Melting Pot. Club Fondue members earn a free chocolate fondue dessert when they join and another annually on their birthdays. Additionally, they receive advance notice of special events and are allowed to make reservations before non-members for special occasions such as Valentine’s Day, when tables are a hot ticket.

Beyond boosting guest loyalty and repeat visits, having the comprehensive diner database creates an even greater opportunity for The Melting Pot: the chance to get direct feedback from its best customers and use their input to craft a better, more consumer-focused brand. That was the idea last May, when the chain launched what it hopes will become an annual e-mail survey to find out how customers use and perceive the restaurants. The project garnered an impressive 28% response rate–thanks to an offer for a free chocolate fondue–which was enough to drive some key changes in the company’s business strategy.

“It really helped us define what the guest wants. We don’t own this brand; our customers own this brand,” Sartor says. “If my marketing strategy is about what the CEO or the president or I want, we’re doomed. It has to be about responding to the guest.”

See http://www.rimag.com/web-exclusives/articles/melting-pot-database.asp

Here are some interesting statistics from TARP

Here are some interesting statistics from TARP (Technical Assistance Research Programs), a Washington-based research firm:

The average business does not hear from 96 percent of its unhappy customers.
On average, a customer who has an unpleasant experience with a business will tell about 10 other people, and about 13 percent will tell more than 20 people.
A customer who has had a good experience with a company will tell an average of five people
For every complaint received, the average business has an additional 26 with problems, and at least six of those are serious.
65 percent to 90 percent of your non-complainers will not buy from you again, and you will never know why.
Surveys show that you can win back 54 percent to 70 percent of these customers simply by resolving their complaints.
As much as 95 percent of this group will become loyal customers again if their complaints are handled well and quickly.
Here’s what you can do to ensure great customer satisfaction:

Solicit complaints, and make it easy for unhappy customers to tell you what their problems are.
Solve their complaints as quickly as possible and with a smile.
Keep records about why complaints occur, analyze how complaints can be prevented and then make any changes to your procedures to ensure customer satisfaction.
Provide incentives to encourage your employees to want to create great customer loyalty.
Trust me: If you start doing things in the mind of the customer and not yours, you’ll see your marketing costs go down and customer satisfaction go up!

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Getting a Handle on Customer Reviews

The risk is obvious: unruly customers badmouthing products with a brand’s blessing. But if giving the public the power to pan a profitable gizmo might seem like a bad idea, some online marketing experts say not giving today’s empowered consumers the chance to speak their minds could be an even worse one. And with people interested in what their peers have to say, these experts add, brands may have no choice but to open up the reviewer floodgates.
And while it’s believed that negative online reviews can harm a product, this appears to be an urban myth. Sam Decker, vp of marketing at Bazaarvoice, which helps marketers set up online customer reviews, says negative reviews are valuable in establishing authenticity and helping customers find what they want, often resulting in less returns. “Consumers are looking for what could be wrong with a product,” he says. “If they can’t find it on your site, they’re going to find it elsewhere.”

Negative reviews also help customers affirm they’ve vetted all concerns before making a decision. As long as the reviews are not overwhelmingly negative, they can help customers pass through purchase paralysis, Decker notes. Regardless, he adds, positive reviews seem to outweigh the negatives: Across all of Bazaarvoice clients, four- and five-star reviews outnumber one- and two-star ratings seven to one, he says. Petco and Fair Indigo executives say they see similar results.
SEE http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/spotlight/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003607537