By: Erika Stevens

If you knew me personally you would know that one thing I truly love is food.  I love cooking, baking, eating out, grocery shopping, menu planning, talking about food – I love it all.  Trying new restaurants may be my favorite pastime even though my wallet certainly wishes it wasn’t.  In the past year I have become addicted to Yelp.  Yelp is not exclusively for restaurants as it includes a number of businesses with reviews and tips.  I navigated my entire San Diego trip with my mom and brother using only Yelp as our guide to great eats.  For the most part our fellow Yelpers didn’t let us down.  We relied on Yelp to find the places off the beaten path and get the insider scoop on what items to order. 

Yelp is only one of the many ways that customers can voice their opinions online.  With social media there are a number of applications and online services where customers can review and write tips about businesses instantly which has changed the way businesses receive feedback.  I can think of a certain local business close to my house that has a tip on Foursquare that simply says “don’t go here.”  Every time I drive by this business I think of that review.  It only takes a customer a few seconds to write a review – good or bad that can potentially be seen by everyone on a social network or even when customers Google your business.  While businesses can monitor and delete comments with some social media like Facebook, others like Yelp and Foursquare do not give businesses that power.  

One way that I see using your loyalty program to combat some of the negative feedback from social media is to have a way for your customers to give you feedback directly.  If you have a loyalty database you have your customer’s data and communications preferences at your fingertips and track points or purchases so you know when they are visiting.  Make it a part of your loyalty program strategy to constantly engage these members by asking for their feedback on recent visits.  I have written about the importance of asking your customers for feedback regarding your loyalty program and this is yet another way you can involve your loyal customers.   With social media dominating the way we communicate if you are not asking for customer feedback you are missing an opportunity to potentially intercept negative feedback that could make its way to your Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare and anywhere else customers can write about their experiences.  

I have had two experiences at restaurants where I felt strongly enough to voice my opinion online.  Personally the two times I have publically complained were instances where concerns were escalated to management and still ignored. Which brings me to my second point: the way you treat your customers will always be important.  To improve your customer loyalty, you need to make them feel special.  This includes dealing with complaints head on and seeking resolutions.  The customer service you give at your business is the most important loyalty strategy that you can implement.  New best practice may just be to treat every customer as if they were going to instantly write a review on Yelp or Foursquare.