Eat & Tell

The Fifth Floor restaurant in San Francisco, which has one Michelin star, pays Yelp $300 a month for such a sponsorship, said Todd Stillman, its general manager. On the day he said that, Fifth Floor’s top two Yelp reviews, including the sponsored one, were raves. But three others in the top 10 were pans.

Mr. Stillman shrugged it off and said he had used bad reviews to correct staff or kitchen problems, or had e-mailed the reviewer with an explanation. “Feedback is good when you’re in the customer satisfaction business,” he said. “If you don’t evolve in this marketplace, you go extinct.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/dining/05yelp.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Give ‘Em A Bit More Rope… Restaurant Reviews

Recently I mentioned how some restaurant review sites, like Yelp in particular, have been used to bludgeon the unsuspecting restaurateur.

The way this allegedly works is if (and when) a restaurant gets a negative review there is very little s/he can do about it…unless they respond (positively) to a sales rep who coincidentally contacts the restaurateur, shortly after that negative review appears on the site. (I won’t even go into the idea of “who” is writing such reviews….and “why”…but you can figure that one out when you check the two sites I mention below…)

This above article was copied from Restaurant Marketing Journal  a very interesting blog

You can read the entire article by cliking This link

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

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

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.

How to manage your YELP Reviews

http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/operations/article197278.html

When co-founders Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons conjured up the idea for Yelp during a startups incubator four years ago, they didn’t think people would care to review businesses. Now Yelp is one of the most popular online customer review sites. It’s succeeded in translating word-of-mouth to the World Wide Web and has transformed the way people interact with businesses.

The site can be a great way for entrepreneurs to promote their business. Since anyone can enter a business on Yelp, it’s a good idea for business owners to check out the site and see what’s there.

Yelp was launched in 2004 in San Francisco and now covers the entire United States. It includes every type of business imaginable. Users rate a business’ services on a one- to five-star rating system. Eighty-five percent of all its reviews are three stars or higher with 67 percent rating at four or five stars, so for the majority of businesses the feedback is good. For businesses with reviews that seem a little lackluster, there are tricks to boosting your star rating.

Chains focus on more microsites and blogs

Microsites and blogs give marketers a way to communicate with customers that’s more effective than using a standard website or traditional marketing, said Brad Wahl, Krystal’s vice president of marketing.

“There are more and more opportunities [for consumers] to have a conversation with our brand,” he said. “Consumers are demanding it.”

Through behavioral research studies Krystal has learned that consumers who go to one of its blogs or microsites have different behavioral attributes than visitors to its other sites, allowing the chain to tailor marketing messages to them, Wahl said.

By GREGG  CEBRZYNSKI

http://www.nrn.com/article.aspx?menu_id=1416&id=358456

Why you shouldn’t fake reviews ..

The restaurateur confessed to posting the reviews, his rational pointing to stimulating custom, however with any reactive strategy it requires a degree of foresight – and I am not sure he really thought through the wider ramification of posting these “inaccurate” reviews.

Firstly, a warning must be expressed. For example, if someone finds your restaurant or hotel via a positive (fake) review and they have a bad experience, there is a chance that they will post a true review to assist fellow users and generally have a rant. The initial seeding of this true review has the potential to lead to an onslaught of further reviews from other visitors who might not have otherwise posted. Don’t forget the saying “people don’t lead… they follow”.

But how can you manage your reviews and ultimately what your customers are saying about you? Well first and foremost, address the problem(s)!

http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4129.shtml