Criticising Local Businesses

[p1p]

I'm fine with criticizing businesses, whether or not it hurts them. It's called capitalism -- y'know? -- based on the idea that competition on the open market encourages players to improve in order to make more money. You're supposed to criticize them, and the smart ones will use that feedback to get better, while the dumb ones will ignore it and probably get worse.

Ok, sometimes customers have unrealistic expectations ("I wanted fried chicken!" "Sir, this is an auto dealership."), and you can't do anything about that, but if the criticism is reasonable, a wise business listens.

I'll patronize a business that annoys me if it's the one closer to my house, or they have something unavailable anywhere else, but in general I avoid bad ones. I don't want them to flourish.

Thank you - Nice post very much along the lines I believe in.

From personal experience (and I don't want to get people's goat or start a flame war here). I find that all sincere, caring businesses tend to appreciate criticism. Those that get uptight are frequently either insecure in their abilities to provide a quality service or product, insincere or just plain dishonest.

(Note: Criticism is not the same as libel, slander or plain abuse. There is no excuse for those. You can rightfully say you dislike a business because XYZ. To simply say it is Fugawful is not the same thing.)

[Ulysses G.]

From personal experience (and I don't want to get people's goat or start a flame war here). I find that all sincere, caring businesses tend to appreciate criticism. Those that get uptight are frequently either insecure in their abilities to provide a quality service or product, insincere or just plain dishonest.

(Note: Criticism is not the same as libel, slander or plain abuse. There is no excuse for those. You can rightfully say you dislike a business because XYZ. To simply say it is Fugawful is not the same thing.)

Well that sounds good anyway and sincere criticism can be helpful, but my experience is that most customers have no understanding of my business, but think that they do (they think that I buy most of my books from customers for a pittance). When I get a complaint, I usually end up lecturing someone about taxes, duties, transportation costs, bringing the best books from over seas, what books are popular and hard or easy to get (so cheap or expensive) . The customers believe me, or they don't.

The other problem is competitors and their freinds who pretend to be sincere about problems that they post on-line, but are just making up excuses to slag off a rival business. A lot of my competitors resent the advertising that I do because they are too cheap to advertise themselves, but they are perfectly happy to post a BS complaint about my shops as long as it is for free. That is one of the reasons that TV has to have the rule about trashing advertisers.

[Johpa]

I, for one, am happy to even belatedly read that the Pickle King got his comeuppance and hopefully sold his business at a loss, a big loss I do hope. He was one of the most odious characters to inhabit the Thai oriented forums on the Internet, and along with a few other more anonymous characters, responsible for the perhaps inevitable decline of the soc.culture.thai newsgroup.

[cnxmike]

I don't kow about the book business. But in the hospitality business a honest critic might be helpful. There might be small things, which the people, who run the place never noticed. But which disturbed a lot of customers. Without a hint they probably wouldn't change anything and lose a lot customers.

In my opion a customer feedback is important to run a business successful on the long run.

An example how customer complaints shouldn't be managed: Many years ago, I had a meal at a restaurant. Afterwards I was asked whether I enjoyed the meal. I dared to mention that I didn't enjoy it completly and gave some reasons. Then the waitress got really mad and started to argue with me. After that I'm always saying now: "Yes, great", and if I didn't like it, I don't go there anymore.

Edited November 5, 2007 by cnxmike

[Ulysses G.]

Some people talk a lot of trash about Ron at Chiang Mai Saloon, but my experinces with him have always been good.

He knows that I think that his bacon, cheeseburgers (with imported Aussie beef) are pretty consistantly the best in town and last night I tried one in his new location over near the Irish Pub. To be perfectly honest, everything was fine except for the beef. It had that same funny "meatloaf" taste that so many bad burgers have around here.

The place was full, but after I paid, Ron came over and asked how the burger was. "It sucked," I told him, and he went off to the kitchen to see if the beef had gone bad. I wasn't really angry because I think that it is really difficult to control food suppliers and staff around here, and you are going to get some duds no matter how you try to do a good job.

Anyway, he came back and told me that his latest shipment of imported beef hadn't arrived yet and his staff had substituted cheaper local beef.

To make a long story short, he gave me back 100 baht over my objections and insisted that I take it.

There is a good reason why his businesses are such a success!

[ThaiPauly]

From personal experience (and I don't want to get people's goat or start a flame war here). I find that all sincere, caring businesses tend to appreciate criticism. Those that get uptight are frequently either insecure in their abilities to provide a quality service or product, insincere or just plain dishonest.

(Note: Criticism is not the same as libel, slander or plain abuse. There is no excuse for those. You can rightfully say you dislike a business because XYZ. To simply say it is Fugawful is not the same thing.)

Well that sounds good anyway and sincere criticism can be helpful, but my experience is that most customers have no understanding of my business, but think that they do (they think that I buy most of my books from customers for a pittance). When I get a complaint, I usually end up lecturing someone about taxes, duties, transportation costs, bringing the best books from over seas, what books are popular and hard or easy to get (so cheap or expensive) . The customers believe me, or they don't.

I cannot imagine WHY people would compalin about a bookstore UG?

The only reason I can really think of is that I would be exceptionally annoyed if I brought a book and there was a page missing or something, otherwise I can't think of anything, Are their normal complaints about the price?, which IMO is pointless, if you dont like the price of something don't buy it!

[Ulysses G.]

I agree with you completely and if a page is missing, or something of that type, we either replace the book or give a full refund immediately.

Let me say that most of my customers are very nice and I don't have problems often, but the ones I do get are usually real nuts.

Most of the complaints I get are from people who "didn't like" the book and want their money back and they can be quite adamant about it. I have had people scream dirty names and throw the book back at me and run out in front of the shop yelling at people on the street not to go there because I would cheat them.

Some other problems are people who bring a book back after four or five days and claim that they have not read it and want their money back and of course there are the people who buy guidebooks, go somewhere and copy it (which often breaks the spine of the book), and then demand their money back.

I have also had local expats bring back books that they have owned for several years and gotten all dirty and yellow and ripped to shreads, but they insist that I have to buy them back for half price because we do this for books in good condition within a few months of being bought. One shrew kept coming in the shop when I wasn't here and yelling at the Thai staff until they bought a pile of old beaten-up books (that we had to throw in the garbage) just to get rid of her!

Other than dealing with people like this, selling books - for someone who has always loved them - is not a bad gig!

Edited November 6, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[Nienke]

Most of the complaints I get are from people who "didn't like" the book and want their money back and they can be quite adamant about it. I have had people scream dirty names and throw the book back at me and run out in front of the shop yelling at people on the street not to go there because I would cheat them.

Some other problems are people who bring a book back after four or five days and claim that they have not read it and want their money back and of course there are the people who buy guidebooks, go somewhere and copy it (which often breaks the spine of the book), and then demand their money back.

Other than dealing with people like this, selling books - for someone who has always loved them - is not a bad gig!

Oh yeh, I do believe you get these kind of people as well (unfortunately). Totally unreasonable complaints.

Got once a customer who woke me up at 7 in the morning to collect her cats. As I needed to go out twice in the night I was still asleep. She didn't stop screaming my name in front of my gate till I came out at 7.45! I open at 8am.

Nienke

[p1p]

In my experience, (in the restaurant/hospitality industry,) there tend to be three major types of complainers. 1. The cheapskate/professional complainer who is just trying to get away without paying/get something cheaper. You can usually tell these people by their smug belligerency and argumentativeness. 2. The ignoramus who has simply ended up with a product different from his expectation. "This ain't 'ow my local cooks it!". Look at Bean with his Steak Tartare for a classic example of this. 3. The person with a genuine grievance. They often tend to be apologetic and almost act as if the problem is their own fault.

I tend to give short shrift to the first kind and have even witnessed one of these being thrown bodily out of my restaurant into the street by another customer, after his wallet was emptied!

The second I try to educate. If I can not, I simply suggest they go elsewhere.

The third kind are the silver and gold on which any good business should be built. Always listen to them and bend over backwards to try to more than compensate them. They will be sure to appreciate your efforts and will always be of help to you.

[cmsally]

Most of the complaints I get are from people who "didn't like" the book and want their money back

people who bring a book back after four or five days and claim that they have not read it and want their money back

:D

These have to be classics, and unfortunately I believe there are people around capable of this.

I think you should make these examples into signs/posters and pin them in your shop. It should stop anyone similar in their tracks and would give everyone else a good laugh.

[ThaiPauly]

UG.....those comments have really surprised me.

I had no idea that running a bookstore could be such a pain in the ass.

We normally dont get complaints about our food ...but when we are suddenly inundated with customers and we dont have enough staff to cope we get people moaning about the slow service.

We could employ 20 waitresses and 5 cooks and ONE nght a month they would all need to be working hard...the other 29 they would be standing around doing nothing, and there go the profits.

On these occasions my Wife has to try and explain that tonight is exceptionally busy and they will have to wait 30 minutes for their food and then normally brings them some peanuts to nibble on while they wait.....satisfies some but not the majority, some just get up and leave and say they wont be back, if they had come the previous evening there may have only been 4 tables and they would have been served in an instant....but what can you do???

Anyway this post is pretty much off topic..but gives me a chance to rant !!!

[tigerbeer]

UG, customers are always right

PM me when you're having a really bad day with customers and i'll make your day by buying a brand new book at B2S and selling it to you for half the price ... how's that?

TB

[Ulysses G.]

In my experience, (in the restaurant/hospitality industry,) there tend to be three major types of complainers. 1. The cheapskate/professional complainer who is just trying to get away without paying/get something cheaper. You can usually tell these people by their smug belligerency and argumentativeness. 2. The ignoramus who has simply ended up with a product different from his expectation. "This ain't 'ow my local cooks it!". Look at Bean with his Steak Tartare for a classic example of this. 3. The person with a genuine grievance. They often tend to be apologetic and almost act as if the problem is their own fault.

I tend to give short shrift to the first kind and have even witnessed one of these being thrown bodily out of my restaurant into the street by another customer, after his wallet was emptied!

The second I try to educate. If I can not, I simply suggest they go elsewhere.

The third kind are the silver and gold on which any good business should be built. Always listen to them and bend over backwards to try to more than compensate them. They will be sure to appreciate your efforts and will always be of help to you.

When you seperate it into these three categories, I agree completely and, by the way, you hit this one right on the head:

1. The cheapskate/professional complainer who is just trying to get away without paying/get something cheaper. You can usually tell these people by their smug belligerency and argumentativeness.

These are the same ones that will argue for hours about lowering a price (which I didn't go into before) - even though I have a bunch of signs that say "fixed prices" - and won't stop until I go ballistic.

These are also spot on and are not a problem and as you said, can be a great help:

2. The ignoramus who has simply ended up with a product different from his expectation. "This ain't 'ow my local cooks it!". Look at Bean with his Steak Tartare for a classic example of this.

3. The person with a genuine grievance. They often tend to be apologetic and almost act as if the problem is their own fault.

[Ulysses G.]

Most of the complaints I get are from people who "didn't like" the book and want their money back

people who bring a book back after four or five days and claim that they have not read it and want their money back

:D

These have to be classics, and unfortunately I believe there are people around capable of this.

I think you should make these examples into signs/posters and pin them in your shop. It should stop anyone similar in their tracks and would give everyone else a good laugh.

This really is a good idea!

[cmsally]

Believe me, it works; I've done it

[tijnebijn]

UG.....those comments have really surprised me.

I had no idea that running a bookstore could be such a pain in the ass.

We normally dont get complaints about our food ...but when we are suddenly inundated with customers and we dont have enough staff to cope we get people moaning about the slow service.

We could employ 20 waitresses and 5 cooks and ONE nght a month they would all need to be working hard...the other 29 they would be standing around doing nothing, and there go the profits.

On these occasions my Wife has to try and explain that tonight is exceptionally busy and they will have to wait 30 minutes for their food and then normally brings them some peanuts to nibble on while they wait.....satisfies some but not the majority, some just get up and leave and say they wont be back, if they had come the previous evening there may have only been 4 tables and they would have been served in an instant....but what can you do???

Anyway this post is pretty much off topic..but gives me a chance to rant !!!

I totally agree with you here , its just the way it is .

I personally would only walk away if the staff at one place is ice cold or rude .

The only thing I would think of what would make people happy for a wait is to give them a free

drink from the business , profits of the night are allready well, so would be a nice gesture .

Certainly these customers are very happy to come back to your business , and thats whats business

is all about aint it ? Sometimes one have to give in a little to succeed .

[Ulysses G.]

UG, customers are always right

PM me when you're having a really bad day with customers and i'll make your day by buying a brand new book at B2S and selling it to you for half the price ... how's that?

TB

Just buying one of my books would be better!