What a truly wonderful weekend. The Ironman event in Weymouth was exhilarating and that was merely as a spectator! Swimming, cycling and running, there were over 2,750 entrants and whilst it was a bit damp at the beginning...it didn’t matter because that coincided with the swimming!
The final stage along the esplanade and harbour involved several laps of the course, with the large crowds cheering everyone continuously in the pleasant sunshine of this wonderful Indian Summer we’re enjoying. A great family day and just another reason why, almost 20 years ago and having already been coming to Weymouth for over 20 years at that point, I decided to put down roots for later in life. This doesn’t mean any form of retirement by the way, just a lifestyle change! Competitors came from all over, but the Welsh lilt of my paternal grandmother was very much in earshot.
Coming back to the domestic agenda, it was also a great weekend for common sense.
Having owned pub, hotel, restaurant and catering outlets for the last ten years, I am well aware of the benefits and disadvantages of Trip Advisor and, on balance, I think it’s a bad thing.
In Saturday’s The Times, Andrew Ellson exposed some of its faults, while also touching on the way customers can seek to hold outlets to ransom. It can be far worse than that. In the hospitality business you do get to meet some wonderful people and make great friends, but, as in so much of life, the minority spoil it for the majority.
Andrew’s article talked rightly about the way the unscrupulous operators pile praise on themselves and slag off their competitors. I met a young man at a reception some years ago who proudly told me about “his people in the East” who worked tirelessly on fake reviews for anything and everything. We never indulged in such things but did suffer from it. We always knew who was doing it, but never bothered to challenge it. We were better than that, better than them in what we did and I looked at it as a form of flattery, but I know how damaging it can be.
Coming back to the domestic agenda, it was also a great weekend for common sense.
Having owned pub, hotel, restaurant and catering outlets for the last ten years, I am well aware of the benefits and disadvantages of Trip Advisor and, on balance, I think it’s a bad thing.
In Saturday’s The Times, Andrew Ellson exposed some of its faults, while also touching on the way customers can seek to hold outlets to ransom. It can be far worse than that. In the hospitality business you do get to meet some wonderful people and make great friends, but, as in so much of life, the minority spoil it for the majority.
Andrew’s article talked rightly about the way the unscrupulous operators pile praise on themselves and slag off their competitors. I met a young man at a reception some years ago who proudly told me about “his people in the East” who worked tirelessly on fake reviews for anything and everything. We never indulged in such things but did suffer from it. We always knew who was doing it, but never bothered to challenge it. We were better than that, better than them in what we did and I looked at it as a form of flattery, but I know how damaging it can be.
However, there was one source of bad reviews that Andrew didn’t mention and that was of disgruntled staff and, in particular, disgruntled ex-staff. You can pick them out a mile off. Sometimes a new contributor does a few reviews close together, even one of your establishment and often saying how good that particular member of staff is/was, and then…the killer punch! In a later review, they’ll then say how bad it’s become since that person left! These type of reviews can grind on for months.
The worst kind though, are those customers who come in with the express intention of not paying. The threat of bad reviews is always part of that. I remember one instance when two couples were eating and one of the ladies didn’t like her starter. Nothing wrong with it, just didn’t like it. When I visited the table, she complained bitterly about the way the Restaurant Manager had handled it. “But we changed it without charge?” I responded and, seeing the dirty plates, knew one of the others had had the same starter and so I asked him how it was, “Lovely!” he replied.
Recognising the type and speaking to the Restaurant Manager, I told him to be careful and – sure enough – later the same complainant told him how wonderful he was and that, this time, “his boss” needed to learn how to treat people! The whole story is too long for here but the lady later offered to tell me how to run a “really good catering establishment” (all while stroking my hand) as she had “experience” and had “won a lot prizes”.
I had to leave about 9.30pm that evening as my wife had just come out of hospital, but people who knew us and who had happened to be sitting at the next table that night, later told me that the table of 4 who had been complaining had said to each other, “We’re not going to get away with it here” – so it was clearly a regular trick of theirs, but one that wasn’t working with us.
All small business is tough, but when customers set out to steal from you – because that’s what it is – it just makes it that much harder.
And it’s not just restaurants, either. I’ve owned a dry cleaners as well, where some people (again, a minority) try to blame the cleaners for damage which was missed when the garments were brought in. Sathnam Sanghera delved into dry cleaners in The Times on Saturday as well, but the bit I liked best in his Notebook referred to sell-by dates and cavemen! The tide is, thankfully, turning towards doing what my old Nan did; if it smells alright, eat it!
The worst kind though, are those customers who come in with the express intention of not paying. The threat of bad reviews is always part of that. I remember one instance when two couples were eating and one of the ladies didn’t like her starter. Nothing wrong with it, just didn’t like it. When I visited the table, she complained bitterly about the way the Restaurant Manager had handled it. “But we changed it without charge?” I responded and, seeing the dirty plates, knew one of the others had had the same starter and so I asked him how it was, “Lovely!” he replied.
Recognising the type and speaking to the Restaurant Manager, I told him to be careful and – sure enough – later the same complainant told him how wonderful he was and that, this time, “his boss” needed to learn how to treat people! The whole story is too long for here but the lady later offered to tell me how to run a “really good catering establishment” (all while stroking my hand) as she had “experience” and had “won a lot prizes”.
I had to leave about 9.30pm that evening as my wife had just come out of hospital, but people who knew us and who had happened to be sitting at the next table that night, later told me that the table of 4 who had been complaining had said to each other, “We’re not going to get away with it here” – so it was clearly a regular trick of theirs, but one that wasn’t working with us.
All small business is tough, but when customers set out to steal from you – because that’s what it is – it just makes it that much harder.
And it’s not just restaurants, either. I’ve owned a dry cleaners as well, where some people (again, a minority) try to blame the cleaners for damage which was missed when the garments were brought in. Sathnam Sanghera delved into dry cleaners in The Times on Saturday as well, but the bit I liked best in his Notebook referred to sell-by dates and cavemen! The tide is, thankfully, turning towards doing what my old Nan did; if it smells alright, eat it!
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