Uncommon Cents

There’s a local dessert place that lots of Geeks on island frequent. I won’t mention it by name, but if you follow me (or any of a bunch of Hawai’i residents) on Twitter, you’ll likely figure it out. They make great desserts that are a bit pricey, but are plagued by an erratic schedule (the owner seems to be ill quite a bit and she’s the only one who actually makes the desserts) and long wait times, but it’s captured the imagination of many.

A few weeks ago I went there on a weeknight to hang out with some of my friends and eat a little; set to open at eight, they were hosting a charity event as a private party and were running late, so I posted to Twitter that it was past eight and they weren’t open yet.

When a regular patron and supporter of the restaurant saw that Tweet, she confronted me about it later, saying it was bad public relations.

The issue I have:

it was true.

Folks, this is the age of the Internet, the great equalizer. I didn’t say, “This place sucks.” I stated a fact–it was past the time they were scheduled to be open, and they weren’t. If the truth is negative public relations, then so be it.

The way for a business to win fans in their public dealings is to not just put out quality products, but to be transparent and consistent and do business the way they say they will. I’m not saying that this was an isolated incident–it isn’t, I’ve waited outside past their scheduled opening time before–but it doesn’t win my favor when they open late. On the other hand, I’m not going to rant and rave about that–all I’m going to say is that as a patron, I feel I not only have the right to be honest about my experience, I have an obligation to other patrons to be honest about it.

And all a business has to do for me to be happy with my dealings is to put out quality products at fair prices and deal with their customers in a consistent, honest, transparent manner.

is that too much to ask?

Tags: Social aspects, Techonlogy

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