Many people tell me - well - social media… that’s OK if you’re B to C, but we’re B to B, (that’s business to consumer or business to business).

Forget it.

We’re living in a world of P to P - by that I mean, people to people.

Whether you work directly with the consumer or in a business environment - social media allows you to listen and engage with your customer base like never before.

It allows you to spot issues and deal with them swiftly. It allows you to highlight the good stuff too. Either way - it can amplify a message, whether it’s good or bad.

It did just that for a new restaurant in my town.

A new restaurant opened recently in our sleepy little town of Great Dunmow, Essex.

A few weeks ago, we were walking back to our car and past the restaurant known previously as “The Starr” (with two rr’s, but I’ve never known why, and it doesn’t matter now), the new owners have changed the name, remodeled, changed the decor, added new furniture and created a carnivores dream menu. It all looks very smart.

We eat out a lot and were excited to give Fultons Chop House a visit.

Sadly - just our luck, there were a number of issues on the night…

Fultons menu showcases great cuts of local meat, with a choice of their own special recipe rubs and marinades… plenty for non-meat eaters too.

They forgot to add the rub, additional sauces never showed up, despite my best efforts I failed to get the attention of the waiter to get extra wine, the warm browny wasn’t… etc.

Maybe just teething troubles?

But for all that - the food we had was promising.

I care about sales marketing and customer service, I care about my local businesses so I wanted to let the management know of our experience - I’d prefer that than just to vote with my feet and never return.

So I found their website.

Then I saw their twitter feed. (no pun intended)

So I tweeted…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The manager saw the tweet. She checked who was behind @uksalesmentor - found me, Steve Clarke. She checked the reservations for the night - just one in the name of Clarke… and she picked up the phone and called me immediately. Person to Person.

We had a good chat about our experience - naturally she was very apologetic and I’m pleased to say, appeared genuinely appreciative of the honest and hopefully constructive feedback.

All this happened in minutes, look at the time of the tweets - instant response - customer saved. Not only that, but their “referral sales team” has just jumped into action. Here’s me sharing their restaurant with the world, OK, about a not so great experience, but one that was rectified, so I’m not writing them off - I’m going back - you might try them too.

The ingredients and the venue are lovely… here’s hoping all’s well next time around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So take a look and tell me how tasty it looks at Fultons Chop House Dunmow.

Are you keeping tabs on who is talking about you, your products or services? Twitter is a great listening tool - it’s not just for broadcasting.