Archive for customer feedback
August 13, 2006 at 7:18 pm
· Filed under article, customer feedback, free, internet, restaurant reviews, web site
excerpt:
“Chowhound.com, a popular online message board devoted to those in search of good food and drink, has banned mentions of a Cambridge restaurant from its site.
Chowhound alleges it was receiving a suspicious number of rave reviews of the 4-month-old Conundrum in Harvard Square, many of them coming from the same computer connection.
“We’ve had a blitz of postings with rapturous praise for Conundrum from many, many posters, all of whom are utter newcomers to the site, and our users have been complaining that it seems like we might be getting played,” Chowhound co-founder Jim Leff said. “I’m not trying to do anything but run an honest food discussion, and it’s my job to defend that discussion when we feel like it’s being taken advantage of.”
source: “Chowhound: Rave reviews’ smell suspect” by Donna Goodison (Boston Herald, Aug.12, 2006)
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July 22, 2006 at 10:12 am
· Filed under article, blog, customer feedback, food, internet
excerpt:
“To some camera-happy diners, food is so gorgeous, so sensual, that it just has to be photographed — and posted on a blog.
…”If you look at the photography, the very loving manner in which these photographs are shot, they are meant to tantalize and titillate the viewer,” said Jarrett Byrnes, a graduate student who lives in Sebastopol, Calif., and runs Food Porn Watch, a Web site with links to almost 1,000 food blogs around the world, most with extensive food photography.
…And if diners can go to a Web site like eGullet and see that the mozzarella dish comes as, say, a cheese balloon filled with tomato foam, or some such delight, it’s a little like learning the ending of a thriller before heading to the movie.
Then again, Achatz admits to checking out food blogs before heading to a restaurant, and allows that in some cases, photos of the food can generate excitement in an establishment for reluctant diners.”
source: “What A Dish!” by Trine Tsouderos (Chicago Tribune, Jul.20,2006)
related link: Food Porn Watch
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June 30, 2006 at 1:22 am
· Filed under article, customer feedback, customer service, managers, pricing, seating, waitstaff
excerpt:
“Calls continue to come in re garding customer concerns and complaints over common dining challenges. Challenge is polite lan guage for a whole parcel of often appal ling and outra geous situa tions.
Because there’s usually some measure of “he said, she said,” some of these calls and e-mails are edited. The concerns still stand – and so, I hope, do my observations.
Loud, noisy restaurants
Why do restaurant owners equate dining, both fine and moderate, with frenzied? We frequently feel as though we are sitting inside a steel drum that is being played on our heads…”
source: “The bad aftertaste of dining out” by Joe Crea (The Plain Dealer, Jun.28,2006)
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June 22, 2006 at 11:01 am
· Filed under article, blog, customer feedback, food, internet, managers, restaurant reviews, web site
excerpt:
"When Nell Ingerman recently discovered that her favorite neighborhood restaurant — a Mexican place in Manhattan called Baby Bo's Cantina — had boosted prices and swapped enchiladas for wild salmon, she was outraged. She planned to collect complaints and present them to the manager.
But she didn't have to. The restaurant's owner, Bo Quijano, emailed her and promised to bring the old menu back. He'd read a message she'd posted on a popular foodie Internet Web site called Chowhound.com. He even posted an apology, confessing that in a good-faith effort to improve the menu, "I simply got carried away."
To the chagrin of some restaurants and professional food critics, a lot of the most influential — and opinionated — advice on where to eat these days comes from Web sites and blogs…"
source: "Laptop Critics:Where the Web's Foodies Dish" by Steve Stecklow (Wall Street Journal, Jun.17,2006)
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June 13, 2006 at 12:40 pm
· Filed under advice, blog, customer feedback, customer service, managers
excerpt:
"About 80 percent of the complaints I get about restaurants from readers have to deal with how they're treated. Here's one example sent to me earlier this week:
If I have a bad or subpar experience at a restaurant, what is the best way to handle it?"
source: "When complaints fall on deaf ears" by Michael Bauer (Between Meals, Jun.10,2006)
Update 6/14/06: A follow up post by Michael Bauer on the subject:
excerpt:
"Saturday's post about a reader whose letter went unanswered, sparked several responses from people in the business. The theme is: They want your complaints, they really do.
As a restaurant critic, I feel like I'm straddling a line, with the restaurants on one side and the consumer on the other…"
source: "Complain at your own risk" by Michael Bauer (Between Meals, Jun.13,2006)
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