Do right by
your employees and you'll do right by your brand. Of course, the opposite holds
true as well, as chain restaurant Applebee's is discovering much to its chagrin
this week.
I'm speaking
of the crapstorm spawned in the wake of a story that would almost be comical if
it weren't so tragic. You see, earlier
this week, an Applebee's customer took exception to the 18% autograt automatically tacked
on to tables of six or more. In and of itself, nobody would blame her. The
practice is deceptive, unfair and most definitely deserving of scorn, but where
the customer erred was in the way she chose to air her grievance, crossing out the tip amount by hand and replacing it with a zero. As if that weren't enough, the customer
(a self-proclained "pastor") decided to underscore her decision by writing
on the receipt "I Give GOD 10% - Why do you get 18".
It's
impossible to know for sure whom the customer was directing her vitriol towards
(the server? management? both?), but what is known is that the message was obnoxious,
insulting and could only be perceived by the wait staff as a personal slap in
the face.
Finding humor in the situation, the person who served the customer chose to share the receipt with a colleague, who promptly snapped a photo and posted it to the Reddit community. The unedited photo immediately went viral and subsequently unleashed the demons of PR hell on Applebee's.
With the photo now garnering huge interest, it didn't take long for Reddit sleuths to identify the obnoxious customer, posting her name
to the comments section and subjecting her to much online ridicule. The
customer, taking umbridge at this turn of events, then decided to voice her
displeasure to Applebee's management, demanding that anyone and everyone connected
with the store be fired.
Even with all of this happening, the potential PR damage to Applebee's was limited in scope and likely to fade from the front pages as a story, but alas it wasn't meant to be - Applebee's would soon see to that.
Even with all of this happening, the potential PR damage to Applebee's was limited in scope and likely to fade from the front pages as a story, but alas it wasn't meant to be - Applebee's would soon see to that.
Applebee's Quandry:
You have a difficult customer, who while initially having a legitimate grievance, turned all sympathy against herself by seemingly choosing to go to war with the front-line workers - the servers who make less than subsistence wages and have no control or say over Applebee's automatic gratuity policies.
You also
have a worker, who perhaps exercised a lapse in judgement - not born out of the
desire to seek personal revenge - but driven simply by frustration and the need
to cope by sharing what she saw as a humorous situation with a generally sympathetic and supportive audience (the Reddit community).
There are
a lot of wrongs here to be sure, what with Applebee's autograt policies to begin
with (that many in the restaurant going community had not even known of until today), the customer's snarky treatment of the wait staff and the unfortunate decision of the Applebee's worker who chose to take her story to Reddit without properly redacting information that could lead to identification of the customer.
What to do?
It's an embarrassing situation for all, especially for Applebee's. Everybody is watching to see how the company will respond.
Their
response? Fire the worker who posted the picture to Reddit.
Oops...
In choosing to make a martyr of the dismissed worker (whom the overwhelming majority of the internet community have thrown their support behind), Applebee's instantaneously gave rise to a nationwide movement to boycott their establishment.
Oops...
In choosing to make a martyr of the dismissed worker (whom the overwhelming majority of the internet community have thrown their support behind), Applebee's instantaneously gave rise to a nationwide movement to boycott their establishment.
But it
doesn't end there!
Seeing the tide
of sentiment rapidly rising against them, Applebee's took to Facebook to issue a cringe-worthy justification of their actions - only serving to make matters worse and cement the company's reputation as ogres in the minds of the
public and in the hearts of the workers who up until today, represented
the company with a smile on their face (in spite of low
wages and the requirement to serve abusive and ungrateful customers such as the
one at the center of this story).
Clumsy attempts to bury the story followed, first by deleting negative posts from their Facebook page, then by issuing a series of canned responses put forth as arguments and expressions of shared concern - none of which rang true or came across as genuine in the slightest.
Clumsy attempts to bury the story followed, first by deleting negative posts from their Facebook page, then by issuing a series of canned responses put forth as arguments and expressions of shared concern - none of which rang true or came across as genuine in the slightest.
Applebee's awkward attempts to take control of the script display complete ignorance of Social Media,
placing on display for all to see, a profound disconnect with its users and failure to
understand the perils and potential of the medium.
Regardless, the damage has been done. Of all the actors in this sordid tale, none come off as more petty, more unfeeling and more clueless than the people at Applebee's HQ. It's truly amateur hour - epic in scope and amazing to witness - a comprehensive text book example of how not to handle a PR crisis. It will serve as an important case-study for years to come!
And to the loyal
and hard-working servers of Applebee's, you've just been told that you're a disposable commodity whom the company you work for will not hesitate to toss overboard if the twits running the show decide the move will best serve the corporation's interests (no matter how short-sighted, narrow-minded
and ultimately misguided). IOW, you are replaceable and must know your place, lest you be subjected to a similar fate.
Nice going Applebee's
- way to build your brand!
Why now would anyone care to work for you, and why pray-tell would anyone care to eat at your establishments (where they are subject to mandatory gratuities and the risk of abuse)?
Why now would anyone care to work for you, and why pray-tell would anyone care to eat at your establishments (where they are subject to mandatory gratuities and the risk of abuse)?
At this hour, the situation
continues to play out on the internet and has since made the jump to mainstream media. Whether or not the story has legs is unknown, but had I been in position
to counsel Applebee's in the erly hours of this crisis, I would have forcefully recommended against any move
that could be seen as reactionary and vindictive - especially with regards to
its people.
The bottom line?
Applebee's should have taken the worker aside and administered a stern talking to (while at the same time openly and strongly reiterating its respect and support for both its workers and its customers, even when - as was clearly the case in this instance - they are in the wrong). The situation would have been dealt with fairly and the company's brand would not only have emerged unscathed - but might even have been enhanced!
Applebee's should have taken the worker aside and administered a stern talking to (while at the same time openly and strongly reiterating its respect and support for both its workers and its customers, even when - as was clearly the case in this instance - they are in the wrong). The situation would have been dealt with fairly and the company's brand would not only have emerged unscathed - but might even have been enhanced!
Instead, the
company chose to take a big giant dump on itself.
You make some excellent points and, of course, almost everyone agrees with you. But are you a PR professional? If so (even if not), it would be interesting to see what alternative response you would have taken.
ReplyDelete(A mandatory gratuity for large parties is standard in the industry, by the way, not at all unique to Applebee's.)
Well, my approach would have been to take the worker aside to discuss the issue in confidence. I most certainly would not have chosen to make a spectacle of the situation by publicly firing the employee and inviting the wrath of the internet upon my business. As for the mandatory gratuity standard for large parties, I confess to not having been aware of this universal policy, but knowing now, I still don't like it. Call me old-school, but I believe tips should be earned, not expected. I understand many restaurant owners underpay their employees based on the assumption tips will make up for the difference in their wage. With that in mind, I'm always generous at check time. But the idea of somebody else automatically tacking on a gratuity just runs counter to the entire meaning of the word - in my dictionary at least.
DeleteLove your blog, btw.
I totally agree with you. I think the automatic gratuity was likely established as a result of no one person feeling "responsible" for the tip, and therefore a number of diners in a party stiffing the server.
Delete