More Reasons to Pay Attention to Consumer Review Sites

Also, think through your policy for how you intend to respond. Any business owner who disparages a customer for speaking his or her mind, is likely to find it blowing up in their face. Smart business owners will understand that even the way they respond to negative complaints is being judged by consumers. They will use their response rights wisely.

If a review is inaccurate, keep the response fact based and unemotional. If the review is negative but accurate, use the feedback to improve the weak areas and set out to improve your ratings through better service and/or better products.

One thing is true for every consumer-facing small business — ignore reviews at your peril.

http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/04/13/more-reasons-to-pay-attention-to-consumer-review-sites/?campaignid=OF2_ola_sb

Tracking guest satisfaction through feedback helps restaurant operations

http://www.rimag.com/article/CA6634984.html

Just as there are multiple forms of expression, there should be multiple ways in which guests can reach out to restaurants. For many operators, this means allowing for a combination of comment cards, online feedback forms, phone calls, letters and personal conversations.

At Ivar’s Mukilteo Landing, general manager Michelle Dobaran uses a variety of data-collection points for customer feedback. Her staff is trained to gather feedback holistically by talking with guests in the restaurant’s dining room. Guests can send comments through Ivar’s Web site via a Web-based tool that is managed by a third party. And when a table receives its check at the end of a meal, guests also receive a paper comment card.

“I’m constantly amazed on how many people take the comment card with them when they leave, then spend the 42 cents to mail it back,” says Doboran, adding that she receives about 50 comment cards a day.

Restaurants, thou shalt heed these tips

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0305-commandments-vettelmar05,0,5943482.story  by By Phil Vettel | Tribune critic    pvettel@tribune.com

5. Hearken to thy feedback. Worse than any service misstep is the sense that complaints are being ignored. If a customer has a valid complaint, own up to it, make amends and do whatever you can to turn this negative into a positive. And pay attention to other customer comments. “The best thing to happen to us is the customer comments from OpenTable.com,” says Alex Dana of the Rosebud Restaurants Group. “They send them in like you wouldn’t believe, and I hold my workers accountable.”

Dunkin’ Donuts gets Feedback from Facebook Fans

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006931

Mr. Tryder: What stands out is that customers are interested in engaging directly with the brand in a relevant and honest way.

We got a lot of great feedback in the conversations about the DDSMART menu items—and customers liked the fact that Stan was there answering questions.

Quite honestly, that’s not a big “Aha!” I mean, every brand wants to establish as close a relationship to its fans as it can—the question has always been how do you do that cost-effectively, in a meaningful way that doesn’t just look like more advertising?

This proved that we could do that.

No Yelpers’ Says One Local Cafe

\\  The story can be found here  //
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=no+yelpers&aq=f&oq=

Businesses shop for feedback

Restaurant Video Feedback

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/bestbites/feedback/index.html

Yelp’s servings could use a dash of candor

But is Yelp also a shakedown racket for merchants? Some restaurant owners say the San Francisco company is unusually aggressive in trying to get businesses to pay hundreds of dollars in monthly “sponsorship” fees to improve their ranking in search results and to move their most positive review to the top of the page.

They also say paying Yelp is often the only way to counter negative reviews posted by rival eateries — a common digital-era practice, business owners say, in the highly competitive restaurant industry.

“We felt like we had no choice,” Jamie Inzunza, owner of Mamma’s Brick Oven Pizza in South Pasadena, said of the $350 she pays Yelp every month. “We decided that we had to spend all this money to protect ourselves once the bad reviews started appearing.”

http://www.rimag.com/articleXML/LN924908269.html?nid=3458&rid=289885021

a whopping 77 percent of e-mails containing customer feedback are ignored.

While many customers are vocal about technology they like and don’t like by posting their thoughts on the Web, it seems vendors aren’t really paying attention. At least that is the evidence from a new study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, an organization that caters to marketing executives.

The study, based on a survey of senior marketing professionals, found that only 16 percent of participants monitor online message boards and social Web sites to collect feedback from customers.

If you don’t think that’s bad enough, consider this: The study also found that only 23 percent of participants track or measure customer feedback e-mails.

Take a moment to process that. What it means is that a whopping 77 percent of e-mails containing customer feedback are ignored.
Real whole article
http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Commentary/Listen-Up-Dont-Ignore-Customers/

NY Restaurants Get Feedback With Response Cards

“We benefit a lot from it,” said Chris Paraskevaides, general manager for Be Our Guest. “In this business, when 95 percent of the people don’t complain, [unhappy customers] don’t come back. This gives us an opportunity to formally apologize by mail and retain a guest.”

http://www.dmnews.com/NY-Restaurants-Get-Feedback-With-Response-Cards/article/58474/