This past weekend a few friends and I decided to hit up an upscale taco restaurant (And yes, it may seem oxy moronic to have the phrases "upscale" and "taco" in the same sentence, but trust - it is) that we frequent every now and then.
Usually my experiences with this particular non-chain restaurant are very good, but something must have been in the water that night because our service was terrible. We stood in the entryway about 10 minutes waiting to be acknowledged, we were seated at a dirty table and we never even got our beers!
Because we were in a rush to catch a show, I didn't speak to the manager, as I usually would have, to let him or her know that the service was unsatisfactory.
So, in usual 2011 fashion, I fired off a tweet to their official twitter account. Now, as I said, this isn't a national chain - this restaurant has two locations and a very active twitter account. I wasn't looking for any sort of compensation, just informing them that a loyal customer was dissatisfied.
I got no response. nada. Nothing.
Non-response to your customers simply adds insult to injury when it comes to complaints. When you set up your official branch or credit union twitter and post it in branch, in the newsletter and on your website, you're telling your members that they have an additional venue in which to have a conversation with you.
On your end, this conversation could mean that you'll be receiving response, both good and bad. People just want their experiences and thoughts acknowledged.
If the restaurant had simply said "We're sorry about that - can you elaborate on your experiences so that we can fix them in the future?" they would have salvaged a loyal customer. Silence can speak volumes.
And no, I wont be back!
DeAndre