Customer Service and Social Media
My wife and I recently had a day of lessons in customer service. Sunday, we wanted to celebrate reaching a major weight loss milestone (51.8 pounds each!), so we planned two movies with dinner between them. Little did we know, we’d see how a national company responds to bad feedback on a public social media forum.
First, some background. About a month ago, my boss had invited the team (total four people) to lunch to celebrate reaching a major milestone – yes, there’s a pattern here. He suggested Zea Rotisserie, which has some of the most amazing meat in Mobile. Or, they used to. We sat, ate, and about halfway through lunch I’d swatted away about a dozen fruit flies, and my boss noticed something moving on the table… a roach decided it wanted to share our lunch with us. He managed to get it trapped, and the server took it away. The other three finished eating – but I couldn’t touch my food anymore. A few minutes later the manager comes by, apologizes for the disturbance and walks on. That’s it – no offer to replace food, no new table, no compensation. Just, “sorry about that.”
The above story was related by myself and my boss on the Zea website’s customer feedback area; I probably said something on Twitter as well. Within hours, we each received the most sincere apologies from regional management and the local general manager, who cancelled the charge, even baked cookies and brought us gift cards worth double the original bill. This was seen by all as a positive response. I decide that a month is long enough, and they should have the bug problem fixed, especially if corporate management was sincere in their outrage.
So, Sunday, I finally convince my wife, who refused to eat there for two years, to give the place another shot. We were greeted and seated promptly and politely, as customers from a table next to ours were finishing up. I noted the time as 3:57 because the lunch specials ended at 4:00 and didn’t need a full dinner serving. For 20 minutes, a server just two tables down came to visit that table six times, each time saw us and ignored us. Nobody else was visible except for the diners at five tables. After those 20 minutes, my wife wrote them the most polite-yet-admonishing note possible and we left. I tweeted. She tweeted, eviscerating them 140 characters at a time. We made sure to include @Zea_Restaurants so that their PR people would see the local management had royally screwed up.
Nothing. Silence. Not a word on Twitter. They didn’t give a ratatouille. So today, three days later, I get an email from the same area manager that emailed me a month ago. She’s embarrassed and disappointed in the situation and offered me another form of compensation. She also promises to fix the problem. My thoughts are double-edged… first, I appreciate the response and definitely think it’s in Zea’s best interest to try to keep me happy. Why? Because I, a customer, interact with people, and have already helped several others choose an alternate location. Zea has already lost $500 or more in income due to this incident. How they handle it as a business will determine how much more they lose due to my influence. Second, why did it take three days? The @Zea_Restaurants account was manned and talking to people just before my rant. Not a single tweet of theirs is in reply to a displeased customer, as if to highlight only the happy fluffy perfection (PR/marketing spin). This is not reality. Every company encounters negativity, and they’re judged publicly by their response to it. A simple, “Sorry you had that happen. Please DM me and we’ll discuss” is a common approach that shows forward thinking in using social media to solve bad PR.
Sure, there are bad ways to handle interacting with angry customers in a public forum. The worst is to refute their claims or encourage a public rant. A better approach is to show the world that you’re taking them to a corner one on one to discuss the matter in private. The problem is being addressed, instead of ignored. Until this blog post, none of my 1,000+ Twitter followers and 200+ Facebook friends have a clue that Zea even cares. Zea is therefore relying on me to go the extra mile to inform everyone that I’m only half as pissed as I was on Sunday. Believe me, I was pissed. A once-in-two-decades celebration was marred by this event.
By the way, do you know who came to the customer service rescue? Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Greeted in seconds, smiles, fast service and predictable Five Guys quality. Then later that night, we went to Chili’s and split an appetizer. Walked in at 9:40, they’re scheduled to close at 10:00… not a bit of resistance. Seated, served, etc, and we left around 10:30 without feeling like the employees wanted to kick us out. Our $12 was the most important thing in the world to the people closing that night. And that’s how it should be.
I will not be going back to Zea of Mobile, AL for a while… perhaps ever. I may try another location but only after scrutinizing reviews and recent personal experiences. I will likely return to Chili’s more often.
How sad. Zea is typically so good. The fact that their PR ignored it on social media is not good as well. We do influence each other, especially on Twitter. I watched your tweets on Sunday and wondered if anything had been done. It’s ridiculous that you were overlooked.
Congratulations on the weight loss! That is definitely an accomplishment that was worth celebrating.