Help with Yelp
A woman came into my shop the other day and asked for a coffee: dark and cold, sweet but not too sweet, and asked if I had any flavors - which I don't. I knew she wanted an iced drink. I mentioned three different coffees that were relatively dark for my list of medium to medium dark coffees. Then I let her know I can make an iced latte, explaining the milk will make the drink sweeter. My whole presentation took less than 30 seconds - which is long but I was not certain what she really wanted.
She said, "Just give me an iced coffee". So I did, with my darker roast, Japanese style. I have several regulars that really like the way I make iced coffee. Everything is weighed and measured for consistency.
Shortly after, I get this bad write up on Yelp. She complained I lectured her on iced lattes, basically wasted her time, and her drink was just OK. I sent her a message apologizing for the confusion and offered her a free coffee if she was not satisfied with the first one.
I had a previous customer complain on Yelp about a drink having a chemical taste, and wrote her as well. She is now a happy regular customer and since updated her Yelp report.
How would you deal with this?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dustin DeMers on
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Ya its f ed up, they will move pour reviews to the back pages or delete them. Which totally compromises the whole point of yelp, which is honest, unadulterated reviews. Apparently the better business bureau does basiclly the same thing(extorting business's that is)
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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on
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I think it's perfectly acceptable to register on Yelp and discuss things from your side. The environment at Spro can be very intimidating to the first-time visitor, as such we work very hard to welcome our guests and make them feel at ease. Sometimes, things don't work out. Sometimes, those people post to Yelp. The key is to handle the situation with calm and grace.
Here's our Yelp page:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/spro-coffee-baltimore#hrid:qmqdSXOLDjAOqXRZ...
A year ago, we had a "reviewer" come in an essentially bash us in the Baltimore Sun food blog. Normally, I am one to allow people to come in and say their peace about their experience - because if we've screwed up, then we screwed up and deserve the lashing. However, in this case, the "reviewer" made a complete nuisance and spectacle of herself to our staff and wrote many incorrect things. It was the one instance where I actually went head-to-head with the article in the comments section:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/reviews/blog/2...
As you read through the comments, there are some difficult remarks, as well as a posting from someone masquerading as myself (you know you're on to something when you cause this kind of reaction in people). However, once the pertinent details of the article were addressed, I chose to stay "above the fray" as John Piquet puts it.
Every once in a while, I spend a little time exploring the Internet to see what's being written about us (good and bad) and include it in our website's media page:
http://sprocoffee.com/hampden/media.html
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Permalink Reply by Melanie Logan on
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I'm an avid Yelper and see a lot of this in Minneapolis. I'm also getting ready to open my first cafe'. I've been told by a few people that I'm going to need to really grow a thick skin when it comes to the Yelper mentality that often resembles the worse of high-school tweenies. It's really your only choice if you don't want to keep chasing your tail with people who will never get what you are trying to do.
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