Should Customers bully a business?
A friend of mine works for a restaurant, actually 2 restaurants. He tells me about customers who post to Yelp. It confirms what I’ve always thought, that it empowers people to bully the restaurants and other retail shops they populate. I certainly don’t mean to say that all of the “reviews” are wrong or mean spirited, but you have to read carefully to know the difference.
Customers at this particular restaurant have reviewed how dreadful the food was. Some even gave a crappy review after skipping out on the bill. They had complained and the management had decided to comp the meal but the customers ran out on the bill. Do you suppose they mentioned that they had done that? Of course not. Other customers complained to the manager that they were disgruntled about their server having cleared another table. The manager said, “well, then their working as a team to get the job done just as they’ve been trained.” And then the customer slammed the restaurant for the server doing their job. It hadn’t caused a delay, the customer just wanted to bitch. They must have felt that it gave them some kind of power. Hmmm.
There are lots of retailers who works their butts of to do a great job. And there are others that deserve a bad review. The way to balance out the real posts from the bully posts on Yelp is to review your experience with actual events as opposed to making negative stuff up. If we don’t add our positive voices then the bullies win.
And when somebody is negative about their service, just try to imagine who’s saying it and why.
I have on many occasions make suggestions to the president or CEO of a company. Each time I explain that I’m telling them about my experience because I, as a former CEO, realize that if someone doesn’t share customer experiences with the head man or woman then they will likely never know about it, and that it’s information that I would have wanted to know about if I were in their position. You know, every time I’ve done that, it was appreciated. I hope it helped their businesses. It never helps to give a negative review. Say something that can be helpful when you review. Make a difference.
Russell Palmer
Agent, Realty Executives Tucson Elite – GV
520.275.5454