We have just come across one particular case where the owner chose to not follow the process, so they have become caught in a frustrating dead-lock with the reviewer, after failing to communicate appropriately.

Below is a summary of the events that  actually happened, and lessons learnt.  Which we hope will help other restaurant owners to not fall into the same trap, even if they feel suspicious that there has been a ‘fake review’ – there is so much you can do to manage the situation.  Just follow the process.

***

Hi Charn,

RE: Your restaurant’s negative reviews on MenuMania

Cristian from MenuMania here.

I’m worried about how you’ve ended up feeling frustrated.

I have reviewed the entire case, and can see where your plan to communicate with your reviewer ‘Angela’ went awry.  Unfortunately, 5 months ago you chose not to make contact with the reviewer directly even though we recommended you do so privately.  The first feedback she heard from you about her review was yesterday.  However, the nature of your private messages didn’t follow the recommendations about approaching the customer to resolve the issue with an attitude of deep concern.

The main tool that we strongly emphasise to restaurant owners (you’ll recall our email to you many months ago), is to thoroughly read and follow the Review Guidelines.

MenuMania has a process in place for how to manage reviews on MenuMania of which you were made aware promptly the first time you contacted MenuMania.

In your first email to our Reviews Team, you raised your concerns with MenuMania in regard to reviews posted by Amanda, Angela, and Rangimarie on your MenuMania page.

MenuMania advised you of MenuMania’s process on how to manage your reviews.

You started off really well with managing the negative reviews – you sent a private message to Amanda as per MenuMania’s guidelines. Your private message to Amanda was in a non-threatening manner where you introduced yourself, showed that you care and and that you listen to customer’s feedback and you assumed that the reviewer is a genuine customer.

Amanda did not respond to your polite private message asking her to reply back to you with further details, so you notified us and MenuMania investigated and filtered out the review (MenuMania expects diners to stand by their reviews when the owner politely seeks further details about the reviewer’s experience at their eating establishment).

You also posted an Owner’s Comment to Rangimarie’s review, a day after the review was posted on your MenuMania page. However, you never sent a private message to Rangimarie as per MenuMania’s process.  However it appears you chose to ‘take this one on the chin’ and simply demonstrated to other diners by writing a public ‘Owner’s Comment’ (instead of communicating with her) how sincere and passionate you are about your food, your customers, and your business as a whole – great!

You handled another complaint really well from ‘Rhonda’ – with a thoughtful ‘Owner’s Comment’.

But then, unfortunately, on 20th November 2012, when you posted an Owner’s Comment to Angela’s review 4 days after the review was posted, you did not send a private message to Angela as per our process until 5 months later.

The classic Customer Service approach was missing in your Owner’s Comment, and also by not contacting her directly.  Unfortunately, you chose to send your first private message to Angela 5 months after the event, but you did not express any concern for her situation, and made it clear that you were insinuating that she was not a genuine customer. You bluntly started pointing out some of the statements in her review that you believe are false. In your message you requested Angela to call you or come to your restaurant to show evidence of receipts and discuss the matter.  To avoid any confrontation, no customer would ever bother to call or ever want to go back to a restaurant they did not enjoy, and even less so to engage with an angry owner who showed no concern about their bad dining experience.

Within hours of your first private message in April 2013 to Angela, you sent a pretty blunt second private message in which you asked her to get back to you within one week with evidence that her claims were true.  To this, Angela responded very promptly turning down your invitation which was not surprising given your bluntness and brushing off the validity of any points she made about her negative experience at your restaurant in her review.

A few hours later you sent another very blunt and rather threatening third private message in which you gave Angela no incentive to respond. No one responds well to threats and from a 101 Customer Services point of view it’s a very unprofessional way to treat customers.

It’s clear that your handling of Angela’s review has come short and although you have ‘gone public’ with your frustrations against MenuMania, we feel that you do need to take responsibility for not following correctly our guidelines and process of how to handle your reviews.  MenuMania cannot be held accountable for your poor handling of an unhappy customer and for this reason MenuMania cannot remove Angela’s review as you’ve requested.

MenuMania does not take sides when it comes to factual disputes because MenuMania can’t be the judge and we stand by that. It’s up to the owner to follow the review process correctly in a professional and non-threatening manner.

Also, we believe that it’s dangerous to have the default perception that a reviewer is fake… what if a reviewer is a genuine customer? (So many times we’ve had restaurant owners coming back to us ‘eating humble pie’ after realising that their anger was misdirected and that the reviewer was 100% their genuine customer).  That’s why MenuMania has built the Reviews Process for managing a negative review the way we have.  The main aim is to draw the reviewer out and generate a two-way communication between you as the owner, and the diner. Typically, the reviews team needs to see that you’ve followed the process through correctly.

Filtering the review of a genuine customer could do more damage to your business, than solve anything… because that customer could go to some other medium to vent:  Keep in mind that it’s really a good thing that your customers post their comments on MenuMania – where you have the ability to communicate with ‘real people’ who work at the website about the reviews, rather than the reviewer posting something negative on Google or Trip Advisor or their Facebook pages/ Twitter…. where you have absolutely no control!

This is a great article I found that reinforces some of these ideas: http://www.marketingfirst.co.nz/2012/02/how-to-handle-negative-reviews-about-your-business/

We wish you all the best with your business.

Kind regards

Cristian.

Supreme Winner: The French Café
Runner-up: The Engine Room

Top 10: Cocoro, Depot Eatery & Oyster Bar, Kazuya, O’Connell Street Bistro, Ortolana, Sidart, Te Whau, The Grove

Best Fine Dining: The French Café
Runners-up: Sidart, The Grove

Best Casual Bistro: Depot Eatery & Oyster Bar
Runner-up: Ortolana

Winner of Best Casual Bistro at the 2013 Metro Restaurant of the Year Awards! (Blue cheese mascarpone & as always Salash Delicatessen prosciutto!)

Best Smart Dining: O’Connell Street Bistro
Runner-up: Cocoro

Best Upmarket Bistro: The Engine Room
Runner-up: Te Whau

Best Chef: Simon Wright (The French Café)

Highly commended: Ben Bayly (The Grove), Nick Honeyman (The Commons), Michael Meredith (Merediths), Sid Sahrawat (Sidart) , Makoto Tokuyama (Cocoro) Kazuya Yamauchi (Kazuya)

Best Service: The French Café
Runners-up: Soul, Kazuya

Best Rural: Te Whau
Runners-up: Bracu, Casita Miro

Best Asian: Cocoro
Runner-up: Ebisu

Best Italian: Totó
Runner-up: The Refreshment Room

Best Drinks List: Cocoro
Highly commended: Clooney, Molten, Number 5, The French Cafe

Best Short Drink List: Ponsonby Road Bistro
Highly commended: Eight.Two, Depot, Sidart, Sunday Painters

Best New Restaurant: Kazuya
Runner-up: Ortolana

Best Value for Money: Mexico
Highly commended Kazuya

Personality of the Year: Ganesh Raj (The Tasting Shed)

With his mastery of the cuisine, Daya, together with executive chef Chandan, have created a varied menu of upscale, authentic a la carte dishes.
With the motto; simple, fresh, flavorsome and colorful food that appeal to all five senses, the crew at Taj believe that you should not have to miss out on taste just because you follow a special diet. Taj also caters to special diet groups like vegetarians and vegans. They also serve Halal meat and gluten-free delicacies. The unique and inventive interior design has been kept a closely guarded secret only to be revealed on the grand opening night in early March.
With themed nights planned for the coming weeks, including entertainment from local artists, Taj Bistro offers a ‘destination restaurant’ where people can come and stay for the whole evening enjoying a relaxed, romantic Indo-Chinese atmosphere.
Taj Bistro has a capacity for 40 settings in three separate areas; one relaxed dining area for couples, one Indo-Chinese lounge and an outside tiered decked space. The Taj has something for everyone especially those who delight in new dining experiences in elegant, ambient settings.

TAJ Bistro & Bar is unique in the area as the only Bistro to offer two separate menus; ,Fusion and contemporary Indian cuisine.
The “Lassi Bar” will be worth a visit on its own, with a drink list consisting of more than 20 brands of beer, stouts, brown, pale and light ales and premium lagers from all around the world as well as some of the most exclusive and best selections of vodkas, rums and gins. We bet we have some cocktails on the list that you’ve never tried before.
Contact Daya below to find out more and get your private invitation to the grand opening.
Taj Indian Bistro & Bar

Daya Shanker

Mixed Vegetable Platter - Mixture of vegetable Samosa,Palak Rolls and onion bhajis (Vegan) at Taj Bistro

http://www.menumania.co.nz/restaurants/taj-bistro-auckland

Stan Walker rocks in Mt Zion. My excuse for raving about this great new NZ movie on MenuMania, is that if you’ve ever enjoyed a good hangi, you’ll enjoy this movie  I saw it last night, and Stan can act. And the music in it made my soul sing (thanks Shane McLean; and Andy Gibson too).  Anyone who loves good music, and a bit of NZ Maori culture will love this. Go see it when it comes out on 6 February 2013.  Director Tearepa Kahi has done every Kiwi a favour here, with this beautiful piece of storytelling. I absolutely loved it. Karen at MenuMania.

Check out the trailer here.

By the way, click here to read a proper review by Scott Kara of NZ Herald, 1 Feb 2013.

With around 400 cafés involved in the nationwide competition and more than 20,000 public votes, it is Warkworth, Timaru, Te Kuiti, Napier, Greymouth and Gore which host some of the country’s most popular small eateries.

In its inaugural year, the NZ Café of the Year competition pits cafés from the length and breadth of the country against each other.

The top three café finalists in the five regions are:

Upper North Island: Chocolate Brown (Warkworth), Urban Soul (Botany, Auckland) and Paper Moon (Mairangi Bay, Auckland).

Central North Island: Bosco Café (TeKuiti), Capers Café (Rotorua) and Corogate Café (Thames).

Lower North Island: Mega Café (Masterton), Café Ahuriri (Napier) and Macfarlanes Café (Inglewood).

Upper South Island: Maggies Kitchen (Greymouth), Artisan by Rangiora Bakery (Rangiora) and Luciano Espresso Bar (Christchurch).

Lower South Island: The Roost Café (Oamaru), Jagz of Village Green (Invercargill) and The Green Room Café (Gore).

An expert team of judges, organised by the Restaurant Association of NZ, will now begin the judging process and select the overall winner.

The winning café claims the title of NZ Café of the Year 2012 and will feature on the popular primetime TV segment Food in a Minute.

Screening across two weeks, the Food in a Minute episodes will be filmed on-site at the winning café and will showcase their award-winning beans and bacon dish, the creation of which was one of the key entry criteria for the competition.

In addition, the winning café has its recipe emailed to the Food in a Minute database of more than 100,000 fans. The dish also features on recipe cards in-store at supermarkets. It also appears on the Food in a Minute and Café of the Year websites and Facebook pages.

Some rather creative bacon and bean dishes are among the finalists including Warkworth’s Chocolate Brown “Kiwi Special”. It features Wattie’s Baked Beans, crispy Kiwi Bacon, home-made potato rosti, soft poached egg, fresh herb salsa verde and watercress.

Another clever creation comes from Café Ahuriri in Napier with its classic dish with a twist – a filo shell filled with Wattie’s Baked Beans with an egg cracked over the top, finished with a dusting of Grana Padano cheese. It is baked in the oven until crisp and served on a bed of crispy streaky Kiwi Bacon and topped with mascarpone cheese and spring onion curls. The dish is finished with a watercress pesto drizzle.

“We’re delighted with the calibre of the cuisine we are seeing in this competition,” says Kristy Blackman, Kiwi Bacon senior marketing manager. “There are some truly classic dishes coming through and one of them is set to be enshrined as a Kiwi favourite.”

Public voting determined the 15 regional finalists and now the cafés are being judged on appearance, atmosphere, service, meals and overall experience by an expert team of judges.

The overall winner of the 2012 NZ Café of the Year competition will be announced on November 12.

The Food in a Minute segments featuring the winning dish are set to screen on TV1 and TV2 from 26 November.

For more information go to www.nzcafeoftheyear.co.nz.

Source: http://www.foodnews.co.nz/29552/regional-towns-dominate-cafe-of-the-year-competition-2/

Cuisine NZ Restaurant of the Year Awards 2012 Winners:

RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR 2012: The Grill Auckland

Equal Runners-Up Best New Restaurant:
Roxy, Auckland
Depot, Auckland

Best Metropolitan Restaurant: The Grove, Auckland
Runner-Up Best Metropolitan Restaurant: The French Cafe, Auckland

Best Regional Restaurant: Palate, Hamilton

Best Specialist Restaurant: Martin Bosley’s Restaurant, Wellington
Runner-Up Best Specialist Restaurant: Cocoro, Auckland

Best Winery Restaurant: Pegasus Bay Restaurant, Waipara
Runner-Up Best Winery Restaurant: Terrôir At Craggy Range, Hastings

Chef Jinu Abraham wins NZ Vegetarian Dish Challenge 2012 – Celebration Dinner 28 July.

To celebrate Jinu’s success, Heritage Auckland is holding a vegan winter celebration dinner at 6.30 PM on Saturday 28 July in Hectors restaurant, lobby level of Heritage Auckland at 35 Hobson Street (http://www.menumania.co.nz/restaurants/hectors-restaurant)

Before the dinner is a brief cooking demonstration of the winning dish by Jinu followed by a three course vegan meal for $55 GST inc. per person including a glass of vegan wine.
Bookings are essential on 09 9797434 or visit www.heritagehotels.co.nz

Jinu Abraham the executive chef of Heritage Auckland has been announced the winner of the inaugural New Zealand Vegetarian Dish Challenge 2012 organised by Vegetables.co.nz

Nationwide, chefs and caterers where invited to submit their favourite recipe featuring fresh New Zealand grown vegetables. Jinu entered a vegan dish from his extensive repertoire to win out over 200 other entries.
The Vegetarian Dish Challenge culinary judges decision was unanimous in awarding Jinu Abraham’s entry of baby vegetables with olive, celeriac, candied walnut and macadamia cheese, the winner. The dish will feature on the Hectors restaurant menu this winter.

“I am truly honoured to receive this prize. It’s great to be rewarded for what I love to do every day. The vegan menu development at Heritage Auckland has been a journey and this win is a very exciting milestone on the way,” says Jinu Abraham executive chef Heritage Auckland.

‘Vegetables.co.nz was delighted with the innovative and inspirational use of fresh New Zealand grown vegetables and will make this award a regular event on the culinary calendar,” says Pip Duncan of Vegetables.co.nz.

The editor of Cuisine, Sarah Nicholson, says determining which restaurants would secure the coveted 50 places was tougher than ever.

“A number of new restaurants have really raised the bar this year – we have eight first-time entrants to the list, including an impressive six in Auckland,” Nicholson says.

The finalists are drawn from throughout the country, from Dunedin to Whangarei, encompassing everything from smart new fine-diners to established neighbourhood favourites.

Now in its eighth year, the highly regarded Cuisine Restaurant of the Year is the only nationwide restaurant competition. Previous supreme winners include Auckland’s Merediths, North Otago’s Riverstone Kitchen and Wellington’s Logan Brown.

Kerry Tyack returns as the head judge for the awards in 2012. Tyack has been writing about and judging food and wine for more than 20 years, making him eminently qualified to oversee the judging panel of food and wine professionals.

Judges from throughout New Zealand have spent the past few months establishing the finalists, judging outside their local regions to ensure impartiality. Pairs of judges will anonymously visit all Top 50 restaurants and the top scoring restaurants will then be revisited to determine category winners.

A number of new categories have been introduced this year, including the Vittoria Coffee Chef of the Year Award.

“New Zealand has some truly world-class chefs and we wanted to recognise their innovation, creativity and skill,” says Nicholson. “I’ve no doubt that it will be a fiercely contested category.”

The full list of categories for the awards are:

• Cuisine Restaurant of the Year
• Chef of the Year
• Best Metropolitan Restaurant
• Best Regional restaurant
• Best New Restaurant
• Best Winery Restaurant
• Best Specialist Restaurant
• Restaurant Personality of the Year

The Cuisine NZ Restaurant of the Year winners will be announced at an industry event on the evening of Monday 6 August at the Auckland Art Gallery.

The following is a list of finalists in the Cuisine NZ Restaurant of the Year Awards 2012

Northland
À Deco

Auckland
Antoine’s Restaurant
Café Hanoi
Cibo
Clooney
Cocoro
Coco’s Cantina
Depot
District Dining
Ebisu
Kitchen at Hotel DeBrett
Merediths
MooChowChow
O’Connell Street Bistro
Ponsonby Road Bistro
Roxy
Sidart
Soul Bar & Bistro
The Engine Room
The French Cafe
The Grill
The Grove
TriBeCa Restaurant & Bar
Vinnies Restaurant

Waikato/Bay of Plenty
Palate Restaurant
Chim-Choo-Ree
Victoria Street Bistro

Hawke’s Bay
Black Barn Bistro
Elephant Hill Estate & Winery
Terrôir at Craggy Range

Wellington
Ambeli
Arbitrageur
Capitol
Hippopotamus
Logan Brown
Martin Bosley’s
Matterhorn
Ortega Fish Shack & Bar
The Larder
The White House Restaurant

Marlborough/ Nelson
Hopgood’s Restaurant & Bar

Canterbury/ Christchurch
Edesia
Pegasus Bay Winery Restaurant
Pescatore

South Canterbury/ Oamaru
Riverstone Kitchen

Central Otago
Amisfield Bistro
Wai Waterfront Restaurant
Wakatipu Grill

Dunedin
Pier 24
Two Chefs Bistro

With the MenuMania App for Windows 8, you can:

• Search by cuisine type, venue name or other keyword and find venues nearby, or at an entered location.
• Discover places to eat near you.
• Pin your favourite restaurant to start screen.
• View photos of culinary delights and the venue.
• See venue information including a map showing the location of each restaurant, for easier orientation. One-tap  launches the Maps application for driving directions.
• Read reviews from an active community of locals in the know before you make a reservation.
• Easily share eating places on Facebook and Twitter .
• Get the very best of MenuMania at your fingertips, putting you in touch with great places to eat wherever you are.

For feedback or feature requests let Thivy know on his Twitter page at http://twitter.com/#!/thivy

Conscious Consumers, who ran the event, released the following press release about the events below:

Three cafes in Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington had customers spilling onto the streets today, as nearly a thousand people mobbed the businesses in support of their Fairtrade coffee. For every $1 that was spent by customers the cafes donated 45-70 cents to fund a solar-power system for a Pacific Island coffee farm.

“The events were a great success”, said Ben Gleisner, the National Director of Conscious Consumers (the social enterprise that organised the Carrotmobs). “Over $2200 was raised, which is more than enough to set up a solar power system for the coffee farmers”, he said. Speaking from the Auckland event, Angus Coull, Marketing and Communications Officer of Fairtrade Association of NZ, said “I know that the Neknasi coffee farmers in Papua New Guinea will be delighted with the effort from the kiwi Conscious Consumers to help provide them with a sustainable energy source”.

Auckland’s Carrotmob was the first ever in that city. Owner of Cosset Café in Mt Albert, Kellie Gray, was totally blown away by the interest in the event. “It was awesome to see such massive support from conscious consumers and loyal Cosset customers, but also from lots of generous strangers who donated cakes and books”, she said. Anna Lowe, who organised the event in Auckland, was “really stoked” by the turn-out of nearly 500 people, and wanted to say thanks to everyone that came. “It was great to see so many people getting together for such an awesome cause”, she said.

In Wellington, the event attracted nearly 200 people to Celcius Café in Petone. Stephanie Fry, owner of the café, commented that “it was an absolutely fantastic day. I am totally blown away with the number of mobbers. Everyone was having such a great time – it was infectious! We are thrilled to have raised more than enough for the farmers”. The organiser of the event in the capital city, Melissa Keys, speaking from the sun-soaked café said “the second Carrotmob in Wellington was even better than the first! It was an amazing day, with lots of generous people enjoying great coffee in the sun”. Matt Morrison, who brought a wheelbarrow full of Fairtrade bananas from his company All Good Bananas, was having a great time in a gorilla suit. “There is a growing movement of people that want to support Fairtrade practices, and the turn-out today demonstrates that” he said.

Hamilton’s Just Food Café had a really festive atmosphere with live music from two local bands. Kirsty Proctor, the Waikato Coordinator of Conscious Consumers, was impressed with the numbers of people that attended. “It was such an amazing event, and everyone had so much fun” she said. “It is totally cool to get people together for such a worthy cause” she said. Manager of Just Food, Robert Moore, was “run off his feet”. “We are totally excited about the opportunity to be on-board with this” he said.

Conscious Consumers plans to organise more Carrotmobs in the future to support businesses that are members of their ethical accreditation programme.

Contacts

Ben Gleisner

0275162942 or info@consciousconsumers.org.nz

Anna Lowe (Auckland Coordinator)

021399109

Links:

www.consciousconsumers.org.nz

www.carrotmob.org

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpH8VKwZcYk