Antisocial Media - A Case Study

Recently a local restaurant owner had customers in her restaurant that brought an infant child into the restaurant. The child obviously didn't want to be there, and cried and screamed the whole time. The incident itself is repeated every day all across the world. What sets this one apart is that the owner posted a lengthy complaint about these guests on her Facebook business page. In the post, the owner stated that other customers were disrupted, and that she overcharged the customers for their meal to compensate for her staff's trouble. Unfortunately, the subject of the post turned out to be a fan of the page.

If you don't think social media matters to your business, try doing something like this. Social media is a phenomenal tool - and can also be a nightmare. For businesses that want to increase word-of-mouth traffic, spreading their message across social media is worth its weight in gold. The benefit of re-posts recommendations and sharing is that your business is being introduced into the lives of your customers' friends. In essence, your customer is working for you. The downside, of course, is that one blunder can spread worldwide in a matter of moments. Social media, like the Internet itself, is perpetual. Everything you've ever done online, every mistake you've ever made, every embarrassment, is forever captured and cataloged and archived.

Let's start with the basics - never, ever, ever post a complaint about a customer anywhere. Don't even send it in an email. If you can help it, don't put it in writing. The customer may not always be right, (and quite often isn't), but they're your boss. Social media gives us the feeling of invulnerability - the same feeling we have when we're in our car. But like driving our cars, accidents happen when we're careless. And for crying out loud, don't post it on your business page. Especially if the person you're posting about is a fan of your page.

The business owner had the ability to salvage the situation at several points. First, as the owner of the business, she had a responsibility to the majority of her clientele who were being disrupted. Much like the captain of a ship, the business owner has absolute authority in a situation like this. Simply explaining privately to the parent that the child's unhappiness was disruptive to the other guests and asking the parent to quiet the child or come back another time without the child would likely have solved everything. At worst, the restauranteur would have lost one customer instead of the dozens she now has lost.

Second, the business owner should never in a million years have posted the customer complaint. Once the customer commented on the post and the comments began to fly, she should have immediately removed the post. She should then have called the customer directly and offered a full apology. Offering a free meal or two wouldn't hurt, either. Although the customer was originally at fault for the disruption by not listening to the needs of her child and having the common courtesy to leave the situation without disrupting everyone else around her, the business owner made cardinal mistakes in handling this situation. (And I know many people will argue that point, that the customer was at fault. But as a business owner, you are responsible for the satisfaction of everyone, not a single person. As a customer, you need to recognize when your behavior or the behavior of those in your party - whether they are capable of stopping the behavior or not - is disruptive. And as a parent, your responsibility is the well being of your child. If your infant child is incapable of handling a high stress social situation, it is your responsibility to remove your child from that situation. Unfortunately, your social life goes on hold in many ways when you are the parent of a small child. It doesn't last forever.)

I didn't hear about this story firsthand. A friend reposted the link. As did many others. A relatively small circle of people suddenly grew into a huge group of people with most now having a strong negative opinion of the restaurant. Social media travels fast. Impossibly fast.

The best way to avoid negative publicity is to not do something that will cause it. Never complain about customers, even on your personal social media pages. If a customer is unhappy, make them happy. No matter what. It is far easier and less expensive to give away a few meals than to have to undo catastrophic damage. If you're at fault, make it right. Make the solution exceed the problem. Make the customer remember the solution.