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To Respond or Not to Respond to Bad online reviews?

C

CJ_sPizza

New member
Our restaurant just received our first bad online review on UrbanSpoon. We have had two very good reviews before this particular one.

“Decided to try this place after seeing a coupon in the campus special. TERRIBLE decision! The service was awful (waited 25 min for appetizer), along with some very strange employees. After we waited for 25 min the food was completely burnt black. I will never cheat on you again (another local pizzeria” … EVER!”

My question is should I respond to the review and if so what should be the tone of the response.
 
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We have had some extremely bad ones amongst some good.
In particular we had two within 2 hours of the other with similar comments leading me to think it was a competitor etc being vindictive, especially as they mention bad service form a “large” girl who was rude and the same person who was rude and erved this poster 3 - 4 years earlier. Problem is that we have no “large” girls and never had and there is no-one on the counter who has been there the lenth of time they claimed. I responded to both why didn’t they call if it was as bad as they claimed so we could fix or work out a solution. From this I heard nothing from them but a new customer posted giving us rave reviews and said she appreciated our measured response to the bad reviews and decided to her joy to give us a go.
Another review was posted for when we were actually closed for Christmas New Year break, and another claimed the only wood in our shop (claims we advertise as woodfired) iis the bench the microwave sits on. Again false comments as everyhting is stainless steel and we have never intermated we are woodfired let alone advertise it.
I contacted Urbanspoon about removing these posts but they refused point blank even under the threat of legal action claiming the comments are views of the public in a public domain and even though we didn’t sign up for it our shop remains there because the public wants people to know the good the bad and the ugly.
Urbanspoon is known for people posting false and vindictive posts but do nothing about it. What I have found that there is a hard-core group who write many, many reviews and most of them are neagtive. To write about so many food places in the time they do they would need to eat out every second night of the week every week for 2 years. I would bet they have never set foot inside many of the places they have posted about and going by the comments of some where they use “trade terminology” they are probably poor operators who think they can drive customers away from their competitors and to them.
I just don’t respond or look at it anymore because despite the 6 negative replies that would drive customers away our sales are increasing at a rapid rate. I just let my customers tell others how good we are and let more responsible rating pages where they will delete deflamatory posts give the true reviews be it good or sometimes deservedly critical (can’t be always good).
Just concentrate on putting out your best quality product backed by great service and ignore Irbanspoon. People who like your product will tell more people than those who look at Urbanspoon.
Dave
 
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I think in this day and age these types of services will disappear as fast as they came too light. You have unverified comments that as Dave said…there is no possible way they actually applied too your establishment. I would not comment on them as the people that read them are looking for an excuse to complain. Just keep up your level of service to your real and valued customers and they will let you know when something goes astray. Maybe even put together some blind comment cards that include a free pizza when returned. Give out a couple a week to a dine-in and a take-out customer. Get some realtime feedback from people you at least know were there. :idea:
 
If you feel you must comment on the review, I suggest you keep it simple like, We encourage our customers to let us know when there is a problem so we can deal with it immediately.
More than likely this was just a vindictive post and does not deserve the time you have already spent on worrying about it.
 
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Yeah

I think, in the next few years, so of these posters who slam an establishment WILL get sued. Some lawyer will do some research and piece together some sort of pattern of bashing places and win a law suit. I think THAT would put an end to this stuff. I LOVE the review ability the nets allows, but there is DEFINATELY some reputation wrecking going on.

You gotta remember there are MANY, MANY people who HATE success, and that attitude is being CHAMPIONED right now in our society. Succes used to be EMULATED, now, not so much.
 
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I can top all that, we got a review that said we ate there last night and it was Horrible, goes on to trash us…well the review was when we were closed! we closed down for a week to a new location so we werent even open…
I think this leads me to another thread idea…what about each of us post our urban spoon link here and we all LIKE our colleagues places…not asking anyone to write a review but just help out our friends and even out some of these because I for one know several of my competitors have UN-liked me.
 
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I have made more friends than enemies by responding to negative posts. I write a very sincere apology with absolutely zero excuses. It took people on this forum to make me swallow so much crow, but in the end, it is the right move.

Thank them for taking the time to review you. Explain that many people who are dissatisfied do not take the time and simply do not come back. But they are different b/c they obviously care enough to tell you what you’re doing wrong. Then offer to have them back as YOUR personal guest. etc. etc.

pC
www.nextdoorpizza.com
Local Pizza Tastes Better
 
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I’ve had good luck contacting the bad review writers, and asking them to come back in, have a meal on us, and tell us exactly what’s wrong with our food. I tell them we depend on customers like them who take the time to let us know something is wrong.

The two times I’ve had complaint writers take me up on my offer, they’ve reversed their opinions, and wrote good reviews, with no prodding from me. One of them even came in, and took pictures of my place, and food, then posted them on urbanspoon.

I like urbanspoon myself. At least it leaves the good reviews on our site, even though we are non-paying members…unlike that friggin’ yelp.

As for Ron’s idea of posting our links, and us “liking” each other’s urbanspoon site, I’m all for it. If it’s a go, here’s the link to ours:

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/40/1513542/ … Plainfield
 
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