A cornerstone of our business model is matching an enthusiastic, passionate and positive customer with an experience that we can execute honestly at a high level each and every time. Your happiness while in our establishment is a partnership between us and you. While we are not perfect, the effort to provide this will always be there. And if there is an issue where we have unintentionally missed the mark in some way, communication in our partnership should always lead to a happy ending. Unfortunately, there will be times that the match doesn’t work and therefore a partnership cannot be achieved. It isn’t that customers who are not a good match for what we do are bad people, most of the time they are very good folks just with expectations we are not designed to meet. Our systems in terms of explaining clearly what to expect when you visit the Diner help to eliminate most, if not all, potential conflicts. Every part of our model is designed to best serve our customer base, as a whole.
Generally, I’d say 99% of the time, we mesh wonderfully with those who are good enough to travel the distance necessary to share a diner experience with us. The other 1% can be quite an interesting study in human nature. The vast majority of the 1% realize that although we are running a good business, it is not necessarily for them and they seek their food pleasure elsewhere. Some however decide to take the nasty route. This is where the conundrum of social media comes in. Social media continues to help build our customer base in a very positive way. It also allows us to have spontaneous conversations with our customers relative to our shared passions. However, and at the same time, it provides those who choose to take the other route a platform to spew venom and act in a general bad manner.
We have always taken the approach to not engage this type of person. It never leads to a rational exchange. Instead, we have faith that our existing and target customer base will be able to assess the tone, intent and voracity of such reviews. Therefore, when customers who exhibit bad behavior at our Diner decide to go on the social media attack we will post a link to this general statement. While I do not want to give these “reviews” more attention than they deserve, it ultimately comes down to principle. Life is too short. The Delta Diner will not accept bad customer behavior in any respect as the right of the customer even though that type of customer tends to react badly when told no.
Thanks – Todd