Week 2 Part A: Communication Between Business & Consumer

 

    Communication has grown so fast! What once took pen, paper, the postal service and about a week or so can now be done with a few swipes of your fingers. These days you would be hard pressed to find a business that didn't have a social media page. With this being the case it is now easier than ever to reach out to a business. Most businesses have a dedicated team watching their social media making sure to reply to questions or concerns in a very timely manner. Gone are the days of mailed letters and even e-mails really. Today you can just simply send a direct message on a businesses instagram or leave a comment on their Facebook. 

    Having a culinary background I was interested in researching reviews on restaurants. What I found, unsurprisingly, was that at the majority of places the reviews were mostly good. Then you would have those couple of nasty reviews that made you wonder if they were reviewing the same place as everyone else. I find that restaurants in particular are more prone to the nasty review. I say this because there are so many factors going into the customer experience. The food might have been good but the service lousy, or the service great and the food was over cooked. These are just a couple of examples of the many things that could make someones experience dining out a bad or a good one.

    Personally I'm not real big on leaving reviews, especially if its a bad review. It would have to be a really really bad experience for me to go out of my way to leave a bad review. If I expected a good experience at a business and that's what I got then I don't usually leave a review either. I'll leave a good review when a place exceeds my expectations and I truly want people to know that they too should check them out. I feel like if everyone was leaving good reviews for just an 'ok'experience then it does a disservice to that business in a way.

    One thing I have come across in the reviews I've seen is the angry response from the business owner. Although rare it does happen and it just looks so bad for them. I personally would try to respond to all my reviews, good and bad. To the good reviews I would express my gratitude and thank them for their business. To the negative reviews I would always apologize for the fact they didn't have a good experience and I would figure out how to make it right with them. Sometimes all it takes to win over an angry customer is to show them you want to make it right. 

    Most recently I left reviews on two Etsy shops and a review for L&L Hawaiian BBQ. To the Etsy shop owners I wrote how much I appreciated their quick responses when I asked about the items before purchasing them. Then after they arrived I wrote saying that the necklaces far exceeded my expectations. I made sure to let people know who were reading my review that if they were on the fence about purchasing a necklace from these shops that they could rest assured they were beautiful pieces. As for the review I left for L&L Hawaiian BBQ, I simple wrote that every time I order from L&L their food brings me back to living in Hawaii, ordering a plate lunch and enjoying the beach.