I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
You’ve Been Served
If you don’t know, Atlanta restaurants are being dragged all over social media these days.
The beefing began when very popular TikTok food reviewer Keith Lee came to the Big Peach and couldn’t get served at several restaurants.
I'll admit that I like Lee. His reviews are always respectful, never snarky or mean. And, Lee himself is humble and grateful for his followers and the very real impact they have made together on small, independent restaurants from his hometown of Vegas to LA, Chicago, and beyond.
Lee's video explaining how and why his family did not get food at well-known eatery The Real Milk and Honey, which includes a run down of the restaurant's ‘house rules,’ set the ATL ablaze.
A day or two later the restaurant’s owner drops a video of his own, claiming not to know who Lee is and saying that people don’t go to restaurants for the service, they go for the food.
Woosh.
The backlash is so swift and severe that the restaurant takes down the video and issues a vanilla non-apology apology statement, which just pours more gasoline on the situation.
Hopefully, we can all agree that quality of service plays a critical role in the whole dining experience and is something any restaurant owner should care quite a lot about.
But this isn’t just true for restaurants and storefronts. It’s true for all businesses. No matter what you sell. No matter who your customers or clients.
If you’re not paying attention to the quality of your customer experience at each touchpoint, you’re missing opportunities to build and deepen loyalty and trust and so much more.
The situation that is still burning on social media is a great reminder that all it takes is one bad experience for someone to damage your reputation.
And, if they’ve got any kind of following, things can turn ugly fast, setting off a firestorm that can burn down your business before you even realize the match has been struck.
One way to protect yourself and your business is with a Reputation Management Plan that includes:
- Active reputation monitoring across all media.
- Brand values, principles, and content guidelines to govern your content creation and build your loyal following.
- Mechanisms for encouraging, collecting, and sharing positive reviews, testimonials, and feedback.
- Specific actions to address dissatisfied customers, complaints, and negative feedback or reviews swiftly.
- A crisis communication plan that is quick and easy to implement. The quicker the better.
None of us wants to be the center or subject of badmouthing or PR, which is why your plan should focus on both building and managing a great reputation in addition to how you'll respond to any threats.
It's also not a bad idea to have a reputation management consultant on your speed dial so you can engage a professional if things really do hit crisis level.
Of course, if you need help crafting your reputation management plan or something else, I'm here for you.
Until next time,
PS - If you missed it, last week I advised you and your AI to Take a Breather.
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Easily Said & Done
I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
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