][1]Has anyone else been following this story about the blogger who gave Claude Bosi’s Hibiscus restaurant a bad review?
Mr Bosi wasn’t chuffed and responded on Twitter with a string of four letter insults at the blogger. As is often the case on Twitter, other people weighed in – in this case other high profile chefs, one of whom suggested that Bosi should ‘smash’ the blogger.
Madness
Bosi may have had some genuine grievances with the blogger but venting on Twitter wasn’t the most sensible way to try and sort them out. Calling a paying customer a ‘c***’ on a public forum is madness and not the best way to endear yourself to any potential customers.
Bullies
The end result is that Bosi looks thin-skinned and ill tempered while his fellow chefs come out as thuggish bullies.
Twitter can be a great way for a restaurant to engage with its customers but, as many footballers have already demonstrated, it can also be a great way of shooting yourself in the feet with a bazooka.
Countless chefs and hoteliers have complained that too many web review sites are open to abuse. Malicious reviews, inaccurate reports from people who haven’t eaten at the restaurant they review and even sabotage reviews posted by rival restaurateurs are all cited and with some justification.
The offended chefs and restaurateurs are just going to have to suck it up. Review sites aren’t going to go away but the smart restaurant operators will develop strategies to manage bad reviews and address the complaints. Swearing at your customers is not the cleverest way forward.
5pm reviews
Some review sites are more responsible than others. On 5pm Restaurants, users are encouraged to leave a review and rate their experiences at 5pm member restaurants but only after they have booked in for a meal through 5pm and eaten at the place they review.
The reviews are moderated for inappropriate content but they are not censored. There are bad reviews in there along with ecstatic and middling reviews. The point is that the consistently good places will accumulate high ratings and the consistently mediocre places won’t.
The result for the consumer is an accurate picture of what a restaurant is like formed from dozens if not hundreds or even thousands of reviews.