Home Social Media Food Poisoning? Twitter and Your Reputation
August 31, 2010 10 Comments

Food Poisoning? Twitter and Your Reputation

Recently I received an email from a client regarding a conversation she had read on Twitter. The conversation took place over several days and was between a local restaurant and a customer. Apparently the individual tweeted the restaurant to let them know that their entire party had gotten sick after eating there the night before. The restaurant responded that they were very sorry and asked the customer to contact the manager. Unfortunately the conversation did not end at this point. The restaurant continued to tweet the customer for several days checking to see if they were ok and if they had followed up with the manager. So you ask, “what’s wrong with this? It’s good customer service.”

It may have been good customer service, but it was not good for the restaurant’s reputation. To continue a conversation online about a negative experience sets the business up for more and more negative impressions with other possible customers, which is not good for a businesses reputation. It is clear that this restaurant did not have any type of protocol or policies regarding how to manage negative issues online. It is also clear that the individual who was tweeting was not a trained marketing and social media professional. A trained community manager would know that it is imperative to take the conversation offline as soon as possible.

Relationships are imperative for businesses to survive and thrive. In the case of a restaurant, food poisoning can damage not only the relationship with the person who was poisoned, but with potential customers who hear about it. When someone tells you on Twitter something negative about your business it is ok to apologize immediately via Twitter (this shows everyone you care), but then take it offline. Get in touch with this customer and make it right. Do not try to resolve the problem online in front of everyone. For tips on managing a business Twitter account come back tomorrow for a new post: Get it right or risk or reputation! 10 tips to Managing Your Business Twitter Account.

No related posts.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged:

Want more content like this?

Sign up for Free blog posts by email.

Genesis Framework for WordPress
  • http://twitter.com/marcseyon Marc Seyon

    Too many people managing online communications like Twitter for their business/employer have no training in simple communication skills. They’re great and blushing and smiling and busily retweeting every single positive mention, but woefully unprepared for the slightest negative comment directed their way.

    Burying your head in the sand (ignoring/refusing to respond), or attacking/insulting the source of the negative comment are generally not good ideas.

  • http://twitter.com/qutequte qutequte

    Yes, too many people ignore something as basic as “customer service”. Text messages don’t get replied. Bosses DON’t call back. Continue hiring people who can’t COMMUNICATE over the phone (taking orders wrongly etc). Everyone can talk, but not everyone communicates.

    Listening is not enough anymore. Are you pro-active (in your business)?

  • http://www.bigpictureweb.com jlbraaten

    I can see how the restaurant in your example was inclined to continue to reach out to the affected tweeter. In a brick-and-mortar situation the customer would be right there and any business owner would talk themselves blue in the face until the customer accepted the apology.

    Bringing that behavior online manifests itself as the constant tweeting your referenced in your post. You bring up an important distinction with social media, though. You can certainly continue to appeal to customers, but do it offline once the bleeding (i.e., negative tweeting) has stopped. The medium affords you that opportunity… take it!

    What a great social media tip to incorporate into any overall strategy!

    • http://www.socialnicole.com/ Nicole Harrison

      Thanks, You are right, in real life they would talk blue in the face and online it does not work the same way. I like how you said once the bleeding stopped to take it offline…that is a good point. Also, as a manager of conversation understanding when to participate in the online discussion and when to step back. If a customer continues to go on and on venting it takes sophisticated relationship skills to know at which point to step in or sit back.

  • http://tokyotombaker.wordpress.com/ Tokyo Tom Baker

    In addition to “take it offline,” here is another hint for dealing with negative news about your company on its official Twitter page: “Don’t leave it on top.” After posting your apology tweet, try to tweet about something else more positive (even — or especially — if it is completely unrelated) so that over the hours or days to follow, a mention of a problem is not the first thing people see when they come to your page.

    • http://www.socialnicole.com/ Nicole Harrison

      That is an excellent point…don’t leave it on top, I like that! Thanks for adding that!

  • http://www.corpgrowingpains.com Geoff Barbaro

    Can’t say I’m completely on board with this approach. With your approach, I would see a problem and an apology but no resolution. If I’m interested in this restaurant, if I’m interested in any organisation, I also want to know about actions to make sure the behaviour matches the talk. In this case, it seems the restaurant is trying to take action, but is getting no response. I see an organisation trying to resolve a problem, and the lack of response makes me wonder whether there was in fact a problem in the first place.

    I understand the issue of “dirtying the brand” but offline resolutions to public problems only resolve the problem for the individual, not the reputation problem generally. Actions speak louder than words.

    It seems we say a lot that organisations should be open and accountable. I believe this restaurant is being open and is trying to be accountable, and all power to them. I agree that we don’t need all details in the public domain, but I’d suggest that revealing details of the actions you are trying to take is no bad thing in this situation. I would see this as genuine care and concern, and an adherence to the values of the restaurant, all good foundations for managing reputation issues.

    cheers, geoff

    • http://www.socialnicole.com/ Nicole Harrison

      Hi Geoff,

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Although I understand what you are saying, transparency shows that the restaurant is in deed taking action, the problem is that in being this transparent the restaurant continues to remind everyone that they indeed did give this person food poisoning. The issue at hand was not that the individual was not responding to the restaurant, they were responding. It is that the restaurant continued to go on and on. Did you call our manager? Did you call the department of health? Etc. I think to acknowledge, apologize and set forward towards resolution is a good online approach but going on and on does nothing but remind the customers reading of the issue at hand. To this day, since reading this tweet, I can’t get it out of mind that this restaurant gave that person food poisoning. I think about it everytime I drive by the restaurant and cannot get myself to go in there, even though I know food poisoning happens throughout the business.

      Overall, I think continuing to discuss a negative thing online eventually leaves your customer with a negative impression. No matter how hard the restaurant tried to get it right, and how good they were at following up, what do I remember from the whole exchange – they gave him food poisoning and I don’t want any of that.

      Again thanks for your comments, good food for thought! :)

      • http://www.corpgrowingpains.com Geoff Barbaro

        Ahh, my bad, I misunderstood the situation. As described in your response, you’re quite right, and I would also say that given the tenor of the responses, the restaurant seems to be putting the onus on the customer … did you … rather than driving the response.

        So yes, I still want to see the apology and the ultimate resolution through action, but not the whole saga with detail, and not anything that could be construed as shifting responsibility.

        Cheers, geoff

  • http://profiles.google.com/adamsandlar12 adam sandlar