Mike had little to rant about this week (shock!) so our pal Rob decided to vent instead. Enjoy!
Rob drew this.
I have good reason for saying this. Review sites are a great resource for customer decision making. I use them myself when finding places to check out. They have also, however, become a forum for passive-aggressive criticism. Many of the complaints you see on these sites could easily have been resolved if customers would simply grow a pair and say “Excuse me, waiter, my soup is cold” or “Hello manager-type person, I received poor customer service and I’m unhappy about it.”
Instead, people put their head down, stew over what made them unhappy, and write a scathing review on a website later. There are two severe problems with this.
1. The perceived anonymity of writing online reviews (without a person’s face to look into) allows people to say things they’d likely never say if they were addressing their complaints to a real person. This makes the reviews much worse and the situation often blown out of proportion.
2. Many owners/managers/etc simply do not have time to keep up with online reviews, so the complaints either go unaddressed or the company is in a perpetual state of damage control. This mars a company’s reputation with something that could have easily been corrected on the spot.
Self-centered foodies and wannabe food critics aside (there’s no pleasing you guys anyway), if there’s an issue with a business, give them a chance to fix it. If they don’t, then take your review to the people of the world and rant away.
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