Synchronisity
The craziest thing happened. The other day I was sitting in my garage with the car running just listening to music, having a glass of wine and thinking about a negative Yelp review. When it occurred to me that I should create a discount card say 5% off when you announce to a restaurant that you are NOT an online reviewer or amateur critic, because you believe in the following things:
1. I believe that I can use my words and communicate when I am disappointed or feel that a situation isn’t meeting my expectations. But I am under no obligation to do so, if I don’t feel like it, that is my choice. That decision does not however automatically mean that I can then deal with an issue later, at a time, and in a way that is not at least at first direct.
Further, It is OK to be honest with a server, or ask for a manager for assistance. If I am asked by an owner or manger if I like things, and I don’t, they need to make an effort to assist me without question. I promise to reply honestly to their face, person to person.
2. When businesses I believe in makes mistakes, because they will, and I’m angry, and frustrated I will not suffer through it. I will make my thoughts known in a way that honors my intentions. If I am rude to someone, I should expect that I may not achieve the results that I am looking for, unless I am looking to offend people.
3. I am a mature adult, I realize that I may be wrong from time to time, and the customer is not always right. While I am always right in my preference of things-For example, I am allowed to order a steak cooked any darn way I want-I am sometimes wrong about assuming other people can read my mind, know how hungry I am, or see a situation as I do.
We’d make it green- the color of intelligence-and restaurants would know that these card carrying members have an interest in speaking to them as if they were people. People in the hospitality business that yearn to make other people happy. Exchanging ideas, observations, critics, surely honors the valuable role restos play in the community, and us personally by helping them come up with ways to make our experiences better.
Amazingly I saw that another guy invented a card the other day too, it was talked about here.
His card is so folks can extort items, and threaten other people into behaving a certain way…
Love it.
A card system that would enable me to talk to the chef or servers with the intention of constructive criticism or appreciation? I love that idea.
Since you mentioned Yelp, I want to ask you what your overall thoughts on Yelp and the rating system is. Also – do you believe that there is a right method for regular people to say ‘Yes, this place is good and worth your time. Go here’ or ‘They don’t even have food here, better moving on down the line’? Which is what I believe Yelp was created for instead of a mini blog/amateur restaurant reviewing platform.
Since we’re an online shop, Yelp won’t let us have a page so I go to established business men, like yourself, with these questions.
Thanks in advance
Chef, I love this, but I searched Yelp, looking for a negative that would have brought you to the car running situation, but I could only find one negative, and she obviously, was on the “mouth transplant”, list….
Ah, Yelp, where the passive aggressive go to resolve their issues. In the old days, if you didn’t bring up the problem to management while you were there, you might call them the next day. Sometimes, you would take a little time and realize the issue wasn’t that important in the first place.