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EVERYONE’S Agetactive CRITIC soundcheck
How websites like Yelp and Trip Advisor are changing the local service industry. startingpoint Social media is more powerful than ever. Facebook and Twitter let the masses steer public opinion on everything from movies to world events. Meanwhile, sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor turn average folks into fiercely opinionated food and travel critics. And while in the past an upset customer might yell loud enough to scareoff a waiting six-top, an online comment can scream at the whole world — allowing one person’s experience to stain a business’ reputation for years to come.
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“Seven years ago we got a bad review on Trip Advisor,” says Michael Montiel, owner of Kitty Hawk’s Rundown Café. “It stayed up for two and a half years before it was finally bumped off.”
Montiel had clearly explained to her that the restaurant did not take reservations, specifically for that reason. Still, she went on Trip Advisor and wrote horrible things. “It was heartbreaking,” Michael says, “because we did nothing wrong.” And it’s more painful when you consider just how much of an impact one angry client can have. A Harvard Study from 2011 determined a one-star decrease in a business’ Yelp rating leads to a 5.9 percent drop in revenue. And research by Convergys found a single negative comment on Twitter or Facebook can cost as many as 30 customers.
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Montiel explains that the in the middle of summer, a woman called with a “headsup” that she would be bringing in 16 people for dinner around 7pm. When 7:30pm rolled around and the group had not arrived, he opened the section to seat waiting patrons. Shortly after, the woman arrived. She was upset there was no room for her party after she had made a “reservation” — despite the fact that
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In her defense, maybe the woman didn’t hear Michael’s no-reservations rule when she placed the call. Maybe she didn’t realize how the restaurant business works — or that one summer no-show can wreck a night’s numbers. Maybe she’s just
impossible to please. We’ll never know. But neither does the average person who reads any online opinion. All they get is an individual’s take — positive or negative — letting the total output determine a final score and a supposedly objective review. Perhaps in a big city the format works. With thousands of restaurants and millions of residents, customers are more informed of their options and the law of averages is more likely to balance out. But in a visitor
destination like the Outer Banks, where the number of first-time consumers rotates on a weekly basis — under summer conditions that are inherently challenging — crowdsourcing criticism is a whole new animal. In fact, it represents a subversion of our whole food culture paradigm.
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