Guests get their say quickly and easily with electronic aids

Second-generation Web comment pages at the website of 52-unit Tumbleweed Southwest Grill of Louisville, Ky., www.TellTumbleweed.com , which management said has netted more than 6,000 customer exchanges since January 2007.

Mass electronic-survey results passed onto operators, including O’Leary of Chas & Chas, by providers of ancillary restaurant technology services. Notable among such service providers is the OpenTable.com online-reservations support group of San Francisco that earlier this year added a diner-feedback tool that already reportedly records more than 200,000 responses monthly.

The chain previously used a mystery-shopping service, but management wanted more reports per store and viewed guest self-surveys to be a more cost-effective way to reach that target.

“Right now, we’re getting about 60,000 customers a month telling us what they think of our services and products,” Kenney said

Read the whole story http://www.nrn.com/article.aspx?menu_id=1398&id=356590

Manager’s Guide To … Tracking the Guest Experience

Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard, upstairs/downstairs Union Square Hospitality Group properties in New York City, cater to slightly different audiences with similar menus of barbecue and comfort-food specialties from across the country. Blue Smoke is the more family-friendly of the two venues, while Jazz Standard boasts nightly live music. Feedback gathered from guest comment cards reflects the audiences’ varying needs and has spurrred small but important changes in the concepts, notes Managing Partner Mark Maynard-Parisi.

At Blue Smoke, the kids menu was updated to address parents’ requests for more healthful options, says Maynard-Parisi. “Parents were telling us, ‘Hey, we’d love to have a seasonal vegetable, that’s what we feed our kids at home,’” he says. Now, Blue Smoke’s youngest guests can opt for grilled salmon with a mixed salad or a tuna sandwich with a seasonal vegetable, in addition to having such traditional choices as grilled cheese with french fries.

Read Whole story below

http://www.rimag.com/article/CA6601032.html?talk_back_header_id=6565083#talkback

Was Food Critic Beaten Over Review?

Barnes and a friend were exiting a new restaurant on Oct. 17 when they noticed two young males “walking quickly and purposefully toward” them, as Barnes says. The two men then attacked them, but took nothing and said nothing while punching, choking and otherwise pummeling Barnes and his friend. Little did they know, Barnes would document the attack on his blog, and that it would become a national news story. Now, he’s talking with AOL, and has some words for his attackers.

Credit: Joshua Carr (left) / Steve Barnes (right)

Albany Times-Union food critic Steve Barnes is shown the night of an attack outside a restaurant, left, and the following day. Barnes said he thinks there’s a chance the attack was retribution from an angry restaurant owner.

Barnes tells AOL News exclusively that there’s a good deal of speculation that this is more than a rogue attack. “It could have been random, but we’re thinking I was targeted,” Barnes said. One possible scenario among many is that the attack could have been in retaliation to one of Barnes’ restaurant reviews.

http://news.aol.com/article/was-food-critic-beaten-over-review/218397

Five Questions For… Bill Roehl of LazyLightning

Readers of LazyLightning can rely upon creator Bill Roehl for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: His sometimes blistering reviews of restaurants have earned him both ire and reader loyalty. He views his style of reviewing as tough love:

“If the owners and managers don’t know that their restaurant is not meeting the expectations of their current and potential customers how are they to know when they need to make changes?” Roehl asks. “The truth hurts, but going under hurts a whole hell of a lot more.”

BILL: Many new restaurants have opened in the last three years helping to fill the empty storefronts which litter the South Metro, but as everyone knows, very few even make it to the one year mark. Take for instance Bucky’s Homestyle Diner. The owner took the time to listen to her customers and revamped the entire menu to become a great little eatery filling a niche that Apple Valley so desperately needed — a diner. Unfortunately the change came too late and shortly thereafter they closed their doors for good, without warning or fanfare.

There was also Danny Sarno’s second South Metro venture, Two Guys from Italy, which offered mediocre food and a confusing counter ordering format. It gave me no reason to return after my first visit. It is rumored to be closed for good several months after a sign appeared on the door that it would return with a new Italian theme.

Full Article here -  http://blogs.citypages.com/food/2008/10/five_questions_2.php

Hey Businesses! Social Media Users Want Your Attention

It seems that users are actually receptive to the idea of companies getting involved on social media platforms and interacting with them while there. Out of the 85% of users who want companies to have a presence in social media, 34% want companies to actively interact with them and 51% want companies to interact with them as needed or by request. 8% think companies should only be passively involved on social media and 7% think companies should not be involved at all.

This desire for business-to-consumer interaction goes beyond simply offering customer service via Twitter. Although 43% would like to see companies offering customer service through social media, 41% would like companies to solicit feedback and 37% would like companies to provide new ways to interact with the brand via social media. These numbers could not be more clear: these consumers are practically begging for businesses to get involved in social media.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/majority_of_social_media_users_want_businesses_attention.php

Using Online Restaurant Coupons – Audio Expert Interview

http://www.runningrestaurants.com/articles/20080311

RunningRestaurants.com talks with Nathan Gilder from Restaurant Revolution about using online restaurant coupons as part of the marketing and promotion strategy. The conversation also ended up covering a number of other valuable marketing topics.

In the call we hit on:

• Nathan’s “CSER” system
• Why “BOGO” is dead
• What a “clever coupon” is
• How to think about and do email list building
• Why tracking results is key
• Calculating return on investment
• Lifetime value mentality
• New way vs. the old way
• Challenges of “same-ness”
• Relationship building through email
• Secret method to having a wildly successful Tuesday night
• Why “hyper-responsive” customers are so important

i-Spy with my little eye a rude waiter and soiled tablecloth

I-Spy Hospitality Audit Services has been in business six years and uses a squadron of anonymous testers to rate restaurants on dozens of criteria, ranging from food quality and temperature to details like whether a server refolds a napkin when a patron goes to the restroom.

It’s a mystery shopper for restaurants.

“I am the restaurateur’s extra set of eyes and ears, their ‘internal affairs,’ if you will,” said i-Spy owner Marc Kravitz.

I-Spy counts among its clients Cuba Libre, Lacroix at the Rittenhouse and restaurants owned by Stephen Starr, among others. It has clients in Philadelphia, South Jersey, Allentown and New York.

I-Spy has been hired to help restaurants get a better return on their investment, but also to get better reviews from critics.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2008/07/07/story9.html

Feedback site gives doctors chance to see how their work rates with patients

Dr. Steven Feldman views patient complaints as a gift.

Web sites that allow patients to go online and rate or comment on experiences with doctors are popping up more frequently. Some in the medical community are skeptical about their legitimacy, worried that disgruntled patients will be emboldened by anonymity and post false information that could harm their practices.

But, as a dermatologist and professor at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Feldman found his feedback from hand-written surveys helpful. The only way to improve medical care, he says, is to learn what patients don’t like and make it better.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2008/09/01/smallb1.html

All you have to do is ask

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=30771

But nothing, experts say, replaces firsthand feedback. “I say this all the time — you need to get out of your office and talk to your customers,” Ms. Darragh says. “You need to understand where their pain is and solve it.”

How not to reply to a diners feedback

http://www.gcfoodguide.com.au/blog/index.php/category/restaurant-advice-tips/

A Brisbane restaurant, Casa Flemenco has earned itself some unfavourable publicity by rudly replying to a patron who had emailed through some feedback after dining there.

Insulted by the restaurants response, Lorraine Pacy forwarded her original email along with the restaurants reply to several friends who in turn emailed it on to other friends which has resulted in the email gaining international notoriety. The Courier Mail has even covered the story!

We received the email this morning – read Lorraine’s feedback followed by the restaurants response below. I don’t understand why the restaurant responded so immaturely as Lorraine was providing valid, constructive criticism.

From: lorraine_pacey@hotmail.com
To: casaflamenco_restaurant@hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:18:04 +1100

Hi

I saw your ad in the city news last week and dined with 8 friends last
night. I wanted to pass on some feedback regarding our experience at
your restaurant. As someone who has experience in restaurant marketing
I applaud your concept of 50% off the total bill – it will certainly
get people in the door to try the restaurant. However, if you are
going to retain them as regular customers who will not only return to
the restaurant but tell all their friends and family to go to your
restaurant you need to make the first visit memorable. Here are my
suggestions;

1. Staff. We were the only table dining last night so the fact
that there was only 1 staff member working should not have been a
problem. The waiter was a sweet, friendly guy but he was not properly
trained in waiting. He was unable to explain the menu when questioned.
He did not regularly check back on the table to take drink orders, he
left the menus on the table after we had ordered and didn’t bring out
the cutlery before dessert arrived. He was obviously a little nervous
which didn’t help the cause either.
2. Food. The food was good, we enjoyed it but it was not enough
and it took far too long to arrive. We had ordered the chef’s tapas
selection which the waiter said was good. It was good. However, it
took over 1 hour to arrive on our table after we had ordered and the
dishes that were meant to be served hot were cold by the time they arrived.
Also, I would consider paying $36 or so for the size and contents of
the platter brought out but if I was paying $55 I would have been very
disappointed (in fact I think I would refuse to pay!). I had assumed
that the ‘chef’s tapas selection’ would also have included at least a
salad and some breads for the price so we didn’t order any. After we
had devoured the food in a very short time as we were starving we
decided not to ask for breads or salad as we assumed they would take
too long to arrive also. We actually assumed that the platters
brought out were going to be followed by a second platter based on the
quoted price on the menu. Really, for $55 I would be expecting that
platter to be supplemented by 1 salad, some bread and perhaps some
olives, calamari and prawns also. We also ordered dessert (cr?me
brulees and cr?me
caramels) because we were still hungry after the tapas- the cr?me
caramels were okay but the cr?me brulees were lumpy and inedible.
Again, if we were paying $15 each for them we would have been very
disappointed. I was disappointed enough paying $7.50 for them. Also,
the coffee was brought out after dessert was served and was not good coffee.

3. Value for Money was awful. We ended up paying around $30 per
person for our meal which was okay for what we got. However, should we
have been paying full price I would not have been happy at all. There
simply was not the variety or amount of food served for the money that
the menu quoted.

I am afraid that my experience at Casa Flamenco was very disappointing.
I am not seeking any recompense here – I think you have a good
concept in the restaurant and your website shows you are passionate
about what you do. The fact that you are offering diners a 50%
discount to try the restaurant out shows that you are keen to attract
new customers. I do hope you take my feedback into account and use it
constructively to improve your customers’ experiences. You are doing
the right things in your marketing to attract customers. However, the
key is to retain these new customers and keep them and their friends
coming back for more. To do this you will need to improve your service
levels and your value for money substantially from what my friends and I experienced last night.

Thank you for your time,

Lorraine Pacey

The restaurants reply:

From: casaflamenco_restaurant@hotmail.com
To: lorraine_pacey@hotmail.com
Subject: RE:
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:50:38 -0500

Dear Lorraine,

your are an idiot we dont need your feedback.