Positive effects of social media [General]
2011 Aug 12
@Mark, well no one wants a negative review to go viral online . . . and I keep that in mind too when I read negative reviews of restaurants . . . a hundred satisfied customers will remain silent, but one with a bad experience will have the motivation to post negatively. So reviews are inherently biased towards the negative, IMHO.
This doesn't seem to affect the cell phone companies like Rogers and Bell though. They have the worst possible ratings at the BBB and they still post billion dollar profits every Q. How do they do it? . . . no real competition. :-(
This doesn't seem to affect the cell phone companies like Rogers and Bell though. They have the worst possible ratings at the BBB and they still post billion dollar profits every Q. How do they do it? . . . no real competition. :-(
2011 Aug 12
Merkat la Planxa is my favorite place in Chicago, and glad they were so proactive to keep you satisfied. They do an outstanding breakfast too.
I think businesses that care about their success will always put the focus on service, and I hope that's more from a desire to provide a good product or service than a fear of being reviewed badly.
I do, however, think effective use of social media can really help keep a business front of mind. I don't live anywhere near Art-is-in bakery, but when I get a Facebook message that they are doing rum cured foie gras, or duck confit BLT, or something else new and tasty, it routinely causes me to change my lunch plans and drive across town.
it's nice too, to see on Ottawa Foodies that sometimes when people negatively review a restaurant, the establishment will respond here with an explanation/offer to the customer to make things right. That always impresses me, and that kind of mitigation is something that only social media can enable so effectively.
I think businesses that care about their success will always put the focus on service, and I hope that's more from a desire to provide a good product or service than a fear of being reviewed badly.
I do, however, think effective use of social media can really help keep a business front of mind. I don't live anywhere near Art-is-in bakery, but when I get a Facebook message that they are doing rum cured foie gras, or duck confit BLT, or something else new and tasty, it routinely causes me to change my lunch plans and drive across town.
it's nice too, to see on Ottawa Foodies that sometimes when people negatively review a restaurant, the establishment will respond here with an explanation/offer to the customer to make things right. That always impresses me, and that kind of mitigation is something that only social media can enable so effectively.
mark_ottawa
1) We ate at a very nice Catalunyan tapas place on S. Michigan (Merkat), and the seating configuration was not ideal--my partner kept getting jostled (politely) when they delivered food to two adjacent tables. With it being a tapas joint, these were frequent interruptions. He mentioned it to the server and the manager came over immediately and apologized, comping both our desserts and our after-dinner drinks.
2) We ate at another more informal tapas joint (Cafe Ba Ba Reeba) and were sitting on a covered patio during a severe thunderstorm. The drainage got overwhelmed, and we ended up getting minimally sprinkled (literally a few drops), and we had to move our table about 8 inches away from the wall to avoid getting wet. One corner of the room did experience Niagara Falls, but they moved before it really let loose. We were amused, not inconvenience, and we actually laughted tabout it with the server. Still, they ended up comping our entire meal...food and drink...and served the mother of all sherry flights (about 8 oz in total--I couldn't finish it). We were delighted, of course, but this seemed a little excessive under the circumstances.
In the past, far more egregious or systematic problems didn't even merit an apology, much less such largesse with the bill. My hypothesis is that this is an effect of social media--has anyone else noticed that service failures are getting taken more seriously these days?
Interestingly, I don't think that the service itself has improved, really. Just that they are getting better at trying to make it right when things go wrong.