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/

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

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