Outside Look

I recently had breakfast at Sally’s restaurant in San Francisco, and was not impressed. My meal was sub-par, so like any young (ish) geeky net type guy, I put it on Yelp. I was going against the stream - most of the reviews were great, and I did assume I had a one off, lousy experience, or my expectations were too high.

But then, something amazing happened. The owners sent me messages on Yelp, and they were entirely apologetic, ready to make things right - they won a repeat customer. They snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and used social media to do it. Critically, they did not diminish the validity of the review, in fact they acknowledged the problem and shared the steps to improve it. This is in sharp contrast to a few stories I’ve heard of proprietors bashing a negative reviewer.

So here is the point, the Net isn’t going away, social media isn’t going away, and companies can either participate and win customers over, or chose to ignore it and lose customers due to lack of responsiveness and participation. I upped my review from 2 to 3 stars on Yelp purely for the effort to respond and personal attention that went in to the response (not a canned email). I am also now far more likely to come back, and soon, as the owners have demonstrated they care and are invested in their business, and by extension my experience there. In fact, I’ll make an effort (after my meal) to talk to the proprietor(s) if I can and thank them.

Another great example is Get Satisfaction - I hold no love for Comcast, but they are active on Get Satisfaction and Twitter to resolve customer problems. Companies large and small who embrace and leverage these tools will be much better off. You can bet Gen Y and younger will be expecting it rather than surprised and elated when they do.

“Times they are a-changin’” embrace it an grow, ignore it and wilt. I can say that I will be back to Sally’s in San Francisco sooner than later, will further update my Yelp review, and will certainly tell others the owners give a damn and recommend that others go there on that alone.