If you’re not a Food Network fan, Guy Fieri is the spikey-blond-haired guy with the smoker’s rasp that most famously leads the country toward hidden gems on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. On his cooking show, Guy’s Big Bite, Fieri’s food is described to be “as fun, fearless and fundamental as his larger-than-life personality.”
New York Times reviewer Pete Wells agrees with one part of that — the food is certainly fearless. If it wasn’t, Wells wouldn’t need to ask whether Fieri has ever eaten at his own restaurant and whether panic gripped Fieri’s soul as he “stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu.”
The nicest part of his review, which was written as a series of thirty-five consecutive questions, asks, “Why is one of the few things on your menu that can be eaten without fear or regret — a lunch-only sandwich of chopped soy-glazed pork with coleslaw and cucumbers — called a Roasted Pork Bahn Mi, when it resembles that item about as much as you resemble Emily Dickinson?”
Could the watermelon margarita at Fieri’s really taste like “radiator fluid and formaldehyde”? Was it necessary to say the nachos were dribbled with “thin needles of pepperoni and cold gray clots of ground turkey”? If Wells was looking to make readers sick at the thought of Fieri’s new Times Square restaurant, he certainly succeeded.
Any small business who’s ever received a scathing online review (Yelp or otherwise) might share in the pain of this attack. At the least, you surely know what it’s like to read a review that sounds more like someone had a bad day than a bad meal.
Lucky for Fieri, fellow Food Network host Alton Brown came to the rescue,tweeting that he’d be visiting Guy’s restaurant and calling New Yorkers “snooty.”
I am planning on visiting Guy Fieri's NYC eatery this weekend because it can't be as bad as all those snooty New Yorkers say. #wishmeluck
— Alton Brown (@altonbrown) November 14, 2012
Unfortunately for small business owners, unless you’re lucky enough to have a famous friend to back you up, the burden is on you. And no matter how many amazing meals you serve, that one terrible review will continue to stare you in the face.
To avoid getting review whiplash, try implementing the following safeguards:
Extract bad reviews from Yelp and use that data to improve your weak points.
Companies pay thousands of dollars for consumer research, while Yelp’s 20 million users give feedback away for free.
Instead of raising an eyebrow at every customer who takes out a smartphone in your restaurant, first, prevent angry customers from leaving your business unhappy. Then, spend time behind the monitor really analyzing what people like and dislike about your business.
Carin Galletta Oliver, a consultant that works with restaurants, warns business owners to take complaints seriously. “Frequently we have clients who, after reviewing Yelp reviews that point out consistent flaws, prefer to ignore the issues and blame the guest, instead of using it as a learning opportunity.”
Begin by mitigating negative reviews with a positive response. Then create a spreadsheet that includes key or consistent feedback, and what you plan to do about it.
Give customers numerous ways to complain before they leave.
Asking “how was your meal?” isn’t enough. Train waitstaff to keep an eye on their tables mid-way through the meal. Tell them to inquire about the customer’s satisfaction if someone appears to be poking at their food or is barely touching it. If they don’t like the meal, get them another one. Train waitstaff to ask guests if there was something wrong with the dish if someone didn’t finish their plate. Most importantly, train them to do this with a smile that makes the customer feel less uncomfortable about their complaint.
Comment cards may be out of style, but a manager who visits at the end of every meal is not. Neither is giving your customers your email address and phone number. Even at the register, you can provide this information with a big and bold sign that tells guests you’ll make them happy. And when they inquire, follow through on your promise.
Train your staff to be accountable for their actions.
Prominent name tags, server names on receipts and a customer-happiness-driven environment will help safeguard your restaurant against angry customers. If your staff knows that you have a zero-strike policy on customer service, they’ll be more cautious of bringing bad attitudes to work.
Chef and author Steven W. Siler from Bellingham, Washington, says, “the challenge is to have servers and managers realize that you can have boring menu offerings, sub-par food, or worse yet, the opposite in an exciting menu and world-class food, but it matters very little in light of the customer service.”
Siler describes a time where customer service saved the day: “I watched a server take a steak back twice to a kitchen. Wrong temperature. Wrong side items. Poor presentation. And within 20 minutes, the server, through incredible service, had “saved” the table, earned a 25% tip and a manager recommendation. Amazing.”
Sweep up the mess promptly and tactfully.
Even with the above precautions, some unhappy customers save their dissatisfaction for the Internet. When someone goes public about their bad experience, you have little recourse for erasing public thought. You do, however, have the ability to reach out to unhappy customers and make things right. Kill them with kindness: thank them for taking the time to send feedback, own the mistake, explain that it is not the norm and offer them something they value for free.
Many business owners reach out to reviewers and offer them a re-do: a gift certificate to visit the restaurant again. Many won’t take you up on the offer for fear of being “outed” or having their food tainted by the chef, but if you write a heartfelt apology, they may delete or otherwise soften their review.
Do something unexpected; add a surprise twist.
Have you ever watched a movie that just wasn’t that good until the “twist” happened? Suddenly your satisfaction with that movie goes up, and you want to tell people about it.
You can do the same thing in your restaurant.
Give your most enthusiastic employee the added title of “loyalty enthusiast,” and let them pitch ideas for increasing customer happiness. This person can focus on figuring out ways to make you stand out from the crowd, by, for example, delivering the meal check in a card that says “Thank You.” The key to word-of-mouth is to surprise customers with something pleasant, like Bokx109 in Newton, Massachusetts, who surprises guests with a bowl of cotton candy with their checks.
Create a loyal community that will back you up like Alton Brown.
Can’t change the review? No worries. If you can build a loyal community, they’ll back you up. There are countless reviews on Yelp by loyal customers who interject with, “I don’t know what XXX was talking about, I thought the XXXX was amazing! I love this place!” Those are your Alton Browns, and they will save you from those online reviewers who turn constructive criticism into a hateful art form.
Has your business ever been tainted by an online review? What did you do to turn it around? Most importantly – did it work?
Photo Credit Courtesy of the Food Network