On a busy Christmas Day, as the night was winding down, I was waved over by some customers in a corner. It was an older couple who were done with their meal. They had a little doggie bag for their leftovers and the man was intensely concentrating on the bill he was holding.
"How much does you the spinach dish cost?" The lady is asking me. I don't know the price off the top of my head.
"Hold on a second, let me get a menu." I go and get a menu and flip to the "Vegetables" section. "It's $12.95."
"Why is it $12.95? I can go and get a bag of spinach at the store for $2 or $3," she retorted. "I have been a loyal customer and always bring new friends. If you value my business, you'd lower the price of the spinach."
"I'll take that under consideration, but I don't think we're going to lower the price."
"I can go down the street to Panda and probably get the spinach for much cheaper."
"I recommend that you go down the street to Panda for your next dining experience if we're not satisfying your dining needs."
"Well, I might do that. Your prices are too high and there's too much food. My husband and I can't finish this much food."
"I am sorry about that. Have a good evening and Happy Holidays!"
"I'm never coming back."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Happy Holidays!"
The lady comes back after a couple of months.
Her husband waves me over, "Is there any way we can get half orders of this dish?" Wife waves to shut him up. "I'm sorry, we don't do half orders."
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Friday, April 5, 2019
My Love/Hate Relationship with Yelp
Everyone knows Yelp! and have used to look for new places to eat at least once.
Having worked at a restaurant, I can see how businesses are at the mercy of sites like Yelp! This is more true for new businesses just starting out. If you're not pandering to the customers, they can make business life tough with threats to give your business a bad review. Some customers will ask for free stuff and threaten to write a bad review if you don't acquiesce to their wishes.
Here's a scenario that totally happened.
This is at a Chinese restaurant. Customer orders takeout. Our takeout containers have a clear plastic lid, so you can see the food that you ordered. Customer orders a bunch of things, picks up the box of 6 orders, pays for their food, and leave. They come back 20 minutes later claiming their "Orange Chicken" is missing. Our staff points out that the container at the top with the chicken is the "Orange Chicken."
"Oh, the one with the broccoli?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"Okay, then we have it."
30 seconds later, the wife or girlfriend of the first person comes back in demanding that we give her an "Orange Chicken" that was ordered, but "missing" in the box of food that they picked up.
"Are you going to give me another Orange Chicken or not?"
"Nope."
"Then you're going to get a bad review."
"Okay."
She storms off. Her friend already confirmed that they have the dish, but she was determined to get another free dish out of it.
I use Yelp! to find businesses for services, like barbers or painters or whatever. I don't really trust the reviews on restaurants quite as much because you have to really sift through the reviews to see whether they are reviewing the restaurant based on food or service or a combination of both or sometimes on something completely arbitrary.
Yelp! is a site that also has run into legal troubles with lawsuits from businesses claiming that they are semi-extorting them for ad revenue. The way it works is like this. You either pay for additional services so they hide the bad reviews or you don't and the bad reviews magically float to the top. It's quite a good racket. I am not sure they do that any more, but that's something to chew on.
Having worked at a restaurant, I can see how businesses are at the mercy of sites like Yelp! This is more true for new businesses just starting out. If you're not pandering to the customers, they can make business life tough with threats to give your business a bad review. Some customers will ask for free stuff and threaten to write a bad review if you don't acquiesce to their wishes.
Here's a scenario that totally happened.
This is at a Chinese restaurant. Customer orders takeout. Our takeout containers have a clear plastic lid, so you can see the food that you ordered. Customer orders a bunch of things, picks up the box of 6 orders, pays for their food, and leave. They come back 20 minutes later claiming their "Orange Chicken" is missing. Our staff points out that the container at the top with the chicken is the "Orange Chicken."
"Oh, the one with the broccoli?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"Okay, then we have it."
30 seconds later, the wife or girlfriend of the first person comes back in demanding that we give her an "Orange Chicken" that was ordered, but "missing" in the box of food that they picked up.
"Are you going to give me another Orange Chicken or not?"
"Nope."
"Then you're going to get a bad review."
"Okay."
She storms off. Her friend already confirmed that they have the dish, but she was determined to get another free dish out of it.
I use Yelp! to find businesses for services, like barbers or painters or whatever. I don't really trust the reviews on restaurants quite as much because you have to really sift through the reviews to see whether they are reviewing the restaurant based on food or service or a combination of both or sometimes on something completely arbitrary.
Yelp! is a site that also has run into legal troubles with lawsuits from businesses claiming that they are semi-extorting them for ad revenue. The way it works is like this. You either pay for additional services so they hide the bad reviews or you don't and the bad reviews magically float to the top. It's quite a good racket. I am not sure they do that any more, but that's something to chew on.
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