Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Wow. Customer service/Social Media FAIL
This link was posted on Facebook by an author that I like (Jen Lancaster). The blog author is one of her best friends. They both live in Chicago. Bolding mine.
http://theginaspot.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/bad-customer-service-and-privacy-violations/
Bad Customer Service and Privacy Violations
So, you guys know me by now, and therefore you know I call this The RantSpot for a reason. I had an unbelievable exercise in poor customer service today, so here we go:
An open letter to Flavor 180
I found you online during a moment of starvation. I was supervising work being done in my house and I hadn?t grocery shopped that week. I perused GrubHub for new delivery ideas, having grown tired of the two options that I called so frequently that they know me by name.
I had heard of you. You?re located in the South Loop, which isn?t so far from me. Also, few of my fellow Six Brown Chicks had sampled your food and thought it was tasty, with the bonus that it was a black owned business, which we try to support whenever we can. I was excited to give you a try.
I perused the menu, happy to find options that my boyfriend and I could eat, as we are both ?special needs? with all of our dietary constraints/self-imposed health-related restrictions.
I ordered a goat cheese turkey burger, among other things, and waited anxiously for my order. And waited. And waited. And motherfucking waited. Before I made the decision to hold a telethon for my personal hunger, fearful that I would develop a distended belly and that flies would begin buzzing around, I decided to lob a little tweet saying that I was about to die a slow, painful death waiting for my GrubHub delivery.
GrubHub was on their game. They direct messaged me on Twitter, wanting to know the customer order and how they could help. They immediately offered a coupon good for 15% off of my next order, humbly hoping that there would be a next order. They offered to call you to see if they could find out more information about my order, and then they reported back when they received information.
And that, Flavor 180? Is what a company does who has interest in attracting and retaining new business.
You, on the other hand, were apologetic, yet somewhat haughty. You explained to me that you were busy that day, but if I were to place another order, you would make it worth my while.
A week ago, I did just that. I decided to give you another chance. I occasionally get accused of being unyielding and unforgiving, so here I am, making the valiant effort. This time I engaged my boyfriend, and I was correct in my prediction that he would be interested in the salmon burger and sweet potato fries. I opted for turkey tacos.
I placed the order through GrubHub again. They had given me a coupon, and they deserve my business. And again I waited. And waited. And motherfucking waited. Lee took a nap. I cleaned my entire linen closet (no small feat for a girl who loves monogrammed towels and Egyptian cotton, but I digress). No food. No call.
I wrote a few tweets about how I should never order for delivery again, and how I didn?t remember what I ordered, but it had better be hot on arrival.
One hour and 45 minutes later, I placed an irritated call to you (I think Lee can vouch that when I?m hungry, I?m not to be fucked with).
It?s St. Patrick?s Day, you told me, and everything was crazy. The truck should be there soon. And then you told me that 90 minutes was a standard delivery time for Hyde Park. I reminded you that I don?t live in Hyde Park (a fact that you knew very well, as I would find out later). You said, well . . . it?s an hour. Longer on busy days like St. Patrick?s day. You told me that you couldn?t give me a discount on this order because I had ordered through GrubHub, who takes 17% of any orders placed through their site, but that you would somehow make it up to me.
The food was delivered, once again tepid. But, Lee still managed to enjoy his salmon burger and fries, while I secretly wished that I had ordered another turkey burger in lieu of the tacos. Again, I digress.
I waited until my blood sugar had returned to its original level to see if was still irritated before lobbing another tweet. As I suspected, my ass was still chapped, and there?s nothing I hate more than having my time (and stomach) hijacked. I tweeted: ?Oh, Flavor 180, with your 90+ minute delivery policy to an address that?s 10 minutes away, I?m sorry, but our relationship is over.?
You tweeted back to let you make it right, and somehow managed to reference my high school in the tweet. Your first inappropriate reference. I ignored it and moved on.
And our relationship was over. Until today.
Lee and I were lazing around again (are you noticing a pattern here?), and we were mulling over our lunch options. He reminisced about the salmon burger from the week before (having slept through the eternal wait for delivery the last time). I told him that if he wanted to order from you, the choice was his, but that he would have to call and place the order. I also advised him to inquire about the delivery time.
He called, and gave the requisite information ? his phone number, his name . . . and the address that we unofficially share. He then asked about delivery time, and was told an hour. He asked your delightful order-taker why it would take so long. He was told about your 2 trucks, the 6 orders ahead of him, and how ?people? called the week before complaining about slow orders on St. Patrick?s Day. He decided to cancel the order, but your cordial phone-answerer hung up on him mid-sentence.
Lee?s normally extremely nice, but not when he?s pissed off. So he tweeted about it. And then it was your turn to get pissed off. And you diabolically linked the address that he submitted to mine. You remembered my previous complaints, and you made the executive, stupid ass decision to tweet the following: ?@ginaspot @djleefarmer Why don?t you and Gina B*** come pickup food or get someone else to deliver to xxxx S. xxxxxxx from downtown quicker? (redacted)
Mind you, I hadn?t placed a call to you today. I had already learned my lesson. I didn?t deserve to have my full name and personal addressed blasted on Twitter. So now you?ve managed to anger both Lee and I to a level so high that we were rendered speechless. We are two people that you don?t want to aggravate because we both have anger issues, and neither of us gives a ***.
Quite frankly, when I saw it there, sent out to your nearly 900 followers, I had to squint and do a double take. And then I had to prevent myself from getting up from my comfortable roost, putting on some clothes, and driving 20 blocks in about 5.5 minutes (which is, on average, about one hour and forty minutes less than it takes YOU to travel the same distance), and beating the dog *** out of whomever decided to violate my privacy and display my personal information.
But because I?m way more refined than that and far more intimidating verbally than I ever could be physically, I decided to call you. For the first time today.
The first time I called, I asked to speak to your twitter guru. The cook answered, and I informed him that if a certain tweet was not removed immediately, I would take action.
Five minutes later, the tweet was still there. I called back. This time your manager/whatever answered. He apologized profusely, and I swore up a storm, telling him that that *** had better be down in minutes, and added that this was the most unprofessional display that I had EVER encountered. He told me that he was accustomed to dealing with MBAs and attorneys. I promptly told him that I don?t give a *** who he deals with. The unprofessionalism was ever-present irrespective of his affiliations. He said that it had been posted by his publicist. I inquired as to who that might be, and he refused to say. He only said that he had severed ties with that person.
I checked again, and the tweet had been removed.
But that wasn?t good enough for me, and it wasn?t good enough for Lee. Because what you don?t know about us is that we have reach and an expansive network. He?s in entertainment and I?m in media. We have a collective mailing list of 15,000 people (not including the collective reach of the Six Brown Chicks, OR my readership on ChicagoNow), and we?re not afraid to use it for special occasions.
In case you?re wondering . . . this? Is a pretty *** special occasion.
Once Lee?s descriptive email went out to the masses, asking them not to patronize your business because you obviously lack regard for customer service and have a serious affliction of social-media-retardation, you called me. You were irate. You wanted to know why an email had been sent, even after you apologized. I tried to explain my perspective. You continued to cut me off, and insisted on providing extraneous bits of information that I don?t care about. The only rebuttal you had was that Lee hadn?t been hung up on, and you know this because the person who answered the phone is your frat brother and you know his character.
Our conversation was going nowhere, but before you hung up on me, you informed me that our destructive efforts wouldn?t be felt by your business because our mailing list was clearly comprised of black people, and your client base is 70% Caucasian/other.
So, since I couldn?t get a word in edgewise, I?m taking the time here to convey the business lessons that I wanted to impart. Even if my dollar, as a black person, doesn?t mean much to your bottom line. By the way, as a consultant who charges a lot by the hour, please know that I?m providing these lessons to you free of charge, and I really hope you heed them going forward.
Business lesson #1: Your customers don?t care about your personal circumstances. Let?s play a little bit of Jeopardy, shall we? I?ll be Alex Trebek, and the topic is ?Things Your Customer Doesn?t Give a *** About? The $200 answer is the relationship between you and the person answering your phone. The $400 answer is holiday traffic. The $600 answer? That?s right . . . your relationship and percentage negotiations with your vendors. I should not know the percentage that GrubHub charges you, yet here we are. The $800 answer is your logistics. Can?t say that I really care how many trucks you have or where they are. The daily double is the amount of orders ahead of mine. You are in business, hopefully, to have a lot of business. If you can?t handle that business, shutter your doors.
Business Lesson #2: You have a contract with your customers. Here?s the agreement ? the customer agrees to pay you, and you agree to provide a high-quality product in a timely fashion. If you can?t honor your agreement, you need to inform the customer, and let him/her make the decision whether or not to proceed. If you had said that you were running behind on orders, I wouldn?t have been chomping at the bit for my food. Communication is key.
Business Lesson #3: This one could escalate into a legal problem. It is in no way, shape, form or fashion EVER okay to reveal your customers? private information to any entity without the customer?s agreement. This goes double for social media. Your tweets don?t just go out to your 800+ followers. There?s a potential that they could reach all of their followers as well. Within seconds. Twitter blasts are more prolific than the most rampant STD. There are laws that protect customers from ***-ass retaliation like this, and I intend to get a quick education from a professional.
Business Lesson #4: The best way to get good reviews is to provide great service. Every dollar is important to you, regardless of the gender, race or political affiliation of your customer. Really?? Shame on you.
Best luck to you,
Gina B.
Re: Wow. Customer service/Social Media FAIL
Open letter to the blogger friend of Jen Lancaster:
Get off your lazy butt and go buy some food.
I don't agree with her needing to get off her lazy butt and get some food. In the city of Chicago (and presumably most large cities, but I can only speak for Chicago), it's quite common for people to use GrubHub/to order out the old fashioned way. It's not like there's a large grocery store on every corner. One of my friends practically lives on delivery since she doesn't own a car and she works long hours.
It is not common, nor is it acceptable for a business to treat a customer like that. I can't believe they posted her address and that she didn't sue the fcuk out of them.
When I lived in Center City Philadelphia, it was nearly impossible for me to drive somewhere to get takeout, if I wanted to be able to park my car when I got back, especially on a weekend.
Good Lord that was wordy. Gina B, you need to figure out a way to edit.
This is just one more nail in the coffin as to why twitter needs to die a quick death.
I can't wrap my head around why she went back a 3rd time? And why, after being told delivery would take more than an hour that third time it came as a surprise? Or why anybody would get worked up about the same.
But hey, once you've got a twitter account, you can rule the world, right?
This will backfire on both her and Lee in some way, shape or form. I don't live in Chicago, so my business is not lost on the restaurant. But if she is truly in 'media' and he is truly in 'entertainment', should I ever catch wind of an exchange like this with a small business, I would avoid both of them like the plague in any business dealing.
This is where I'm at. Why didn't she call first and tweet later? Not that the business handled themselves any better.
Exactly how I felt. She needs to own up to her part in this pissing match.
Did you read the whole thing?
She didn't place the third order, her husband did. He inquired about delivery time, was told an hour, and he was about to cancel his order when they hung up on him.
This has to be the worst argument ever. They ordered food from a food delivery service. The whole point of a food delivery service is to deliver food to you. This is like saying nobody should ever complain about anything in a restaurant because they should just get off their lazy butts and make themselves food.
While I think the business was terrible for being immature and posting her private information on Twitter, I think it kind of sucks that she's gone so much out of her way to ruin this business. Maybe I'm too nice but I tend to give places the benefit of the doubt and if I get bad service, I just don't go back. I don't see why it is necessary to cause a huge backlash and potentially shut the place down over it.
Although the comments about black customers would probably really tick me off too.
My Blog
Regardless of her behavior as a customer, her address/personal info should never have been posted on twitter.
I find her behavior to be immature. Her continuous ranting in efforts to bring down this restaurant makes me think she's incredibly selfish. She is the most important customer in the world. Service her, people!
The company absolutely shouldn't have tweeted her address, no question about that. But if you've ordered take out from a place twice and it was over an hour both times, then why would you order from it again and not expect it to be that long again?
The author comes off as very entitled, but that doesn't really surprise me if she's good friends with Jen Lancaster (who also comes off as incredibly entitled).
Hi everyone. It's Gina, the author of the blog in question. I ran across this stream, and felt that I should explain a few things in defense of my actions.
First, yes the blog is way too long. It's not an article; it's a vent on my personal blog, so it's devoid of my typical chop job and need to "get 'er done" in the requisite 650 words or less. People read it, and reposted. My apologies for the wordiness, and thanks to all for taking the time to read.
Next, I had to laugh at the suggestion that I "get off my lazy butt" and get some food. I order delivery a lot, and I don't think it's too much to ask that I receive my food in an hour. Many other restaurants can do it within 45-60 minutes. Not that this warrants explanation, but I was stuck in the house during the first order and at the mercy of delivery. The second time was St. Patrick's day, and parking in Chicago is notoriously treacherous on that day.
Also, I only mentioned mine and my boyfriend's media reach because I was angry at the audacity of the owner. I think we all want to flex a little muscle when we're messed with, and to air my private information on Twitter was a violation of my privacy and a potential endangerment of my safety. I don't know who their followers are, but they now know me and where I live. As entitled as you think I might sound, I do think I'm entitled NOT to be exposed for an order that I did NOT originate or complain about. And how am I selfish? I'm selfish because I want them to deliver on what they promise? Is our bar really set that low?
Finally, I have no intention of ruining anyone's business. That's not my goal. Nowhere in my blog did I advise people to stop going there. I even said that I enjoyed the food. I'm only aggravated that the owner felt that he could do anything he wanted without retaliation. Even more aggravated that he felt that my audience doesn't matter. I respect his right to make money, but I also respect my own right to privacy.
I wish everyone a good night and great week.
The address thing is inexcusable. I would be livid. And his race related comments? Holy cow.
But yeah, I do not get the need to tweet every thought you have.
Gina Bee, the explanation/clarification you offer does not bolster your image. You have added nothing of substance and by coming here (a place I am guessing you have never been before) to defend yourself against what can only be described as benign criticisms of your blog post complete the picture of a self-important blogger with an entitlement complex.
FFS, really?
The woman was pissed off because she was treated terribly by a company whom she paid to provide a service. She posted a comment about it on twitter (i'm guilty of doing that, too, to get a company's attention), and then was treated even worse, culminating in the company RELEASING HER PRIVATE INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC!
You can find her blog response over-the-top (i generally view blogs as putting thins in writing that you'd complain to your friends about it, so I personally think it's fine), but please don't try and tell me you'd be perfectly fine with a company releasing your name and address to the world.
::eyeroll::
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
Thank you.
People seem to have something personal against her for some reason.
I agree. I would be livid if a company blasted my information across the internet as did this company.
I think everyone agrees that posting her personal information was terrible and inexcusable. Full stop.
That being said (and in no way am I saying she is at fault in any way for the aforementioned violation of privacy), I don't understand why she kept tweeting about her food being late instead of just calling the restaurant directly. That is just mind boggling to me - just pick up the phone and talk to a real person! Stop with the incessant tweeting, people.
Do you not tweet often? Because reaching out to companies via twitter is ENTIRELY acceptable, and something that I and other people i follow on twitter use often. Twitter is just another method of communication - and from their response, it definitely seems like they pay attention to it.
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
I agree with this.
The blogger escalated her dissatisfaction with the delivery time to twitter before engaging the business directly. Nevermind that a third party was involved for the simple transaction. Another case of social media muddying what should be a direct business relationship.
I also side-eye those who are 'in media' thinking that their privacy has been invaded (not defending the restaurant's actions mind you) when they tweet and blog and facebook and internet everything. Anyone who thinks they have actual privacy in this day and age is a bit deluded.
The privacy involved her home address Sibil. Even public figures are permitted to keep their home addresses private - and most work very hard to do that.
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
Precisely this.
Twitter is just like any other form of social media - it's a method of communication. Complaining that she opted to use this form of communication rather than another seems off to me.
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho