I like reviewing businesses on Yelp. I also like to read reviews before I go to new places. Recently, I reviewed a restaurant on Yelp as honestly as possible. I was disappointed with the entire experience and the food and I made that clear. Soon after the review went up, I received a private message from a man stating that he was the restaurant manager and he wanted me to come in and try the restaurant again on the house, meet the management, introduce me to their style of cooking and change my negative perspective.
I thought, wow what a great example of customer service. A restaurant taking full responsibility for changing the customer perspective as opposed to a business hell bent on staying the same and arguing that their product is the best. Wouldn’t it be cool if more organizations did things this way? I even told friends about how I really appreciated the attentive customer service. So we chatted in messages on Yelp, then all of a sudden I logged in to check the status of what was happening and the person disappeared altogether. The account was closed. So I wondered, was this person really even affiliated with the restaurant? Was the opportunity even for real? What in the heck happened? I Googled his name and everything and he IS listed as one of the owners. Possibly, someone else was posing as him? All strange.
I thought about calling the restaurant and letting them know about it. Then I decided that I wouldn’t do anything. The main reason I wanted to go back to the restaurant was because I thought this was a great example of using social media to improve the customer experience that I could share with readers on my blog and in my career as an example of a social media triumph.
What would you do?
